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Depositions have been taken from three Warsaw school officials and will be sent to the special judge in charge of an ongoing lawsuit.
Special Judge Douglas B. Morton, in Kosciusko Circuit Court, gave the Concerned Citizens for Quality Education until today to take depositions and turn in any findings. In Morton's order of dismissal issued May 13, he said he would delay judgment until today to allow the parties - CCQE and Warsaw Community School Corp. - to proceed with discovery, or finding out information relevant to the case.
Morton is the special judge assigned to the case filed in October by CCQE asking for an injunction to stop WCS from closing Atwood, Claypool and Silver Lake elementaries. The school corporation filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which Morton granted May 13.
Depositions were taken May 28 from WCS Superintendent Dr. David McGuire, board member Jim Folk and business manager Rande Thorpe.
McGuire was asked about moving the 437 students from the closed schools to the remaining Warsaw elementary schools, and whether or not those schools would become overcrowded. John Price, attorney for CCQE, asked if McGuire had read a 2001 study by Odle, McGuire and Shook that said classroom utilization then in grades one through six was at 96 percent.
McGuire said he had read the study, but did not agree with the OMS figures on the number of classrooms in each building.
For example, the OMS study, which cost the school corporation approximately $2,000, listed the number of classrooms at Eisenhower Elementary as 26. But McGuire said that included only rooms in use, not rooms that could have been used as classrooms, such as storage rooms. He put the number of Eisenhower classrooms at 32, plus art, music and the library.
He said WCS plans to use three portable classrooms next year - one at Lincoln for the latchkey program and one each at Jefferson and Washington for music classrooms.
McGuire also repeated in his deposition that if overcrowding occurs in the seven remaining elementary schools, the sixth-graders, which number approximately 500 students, could be moved to the two middle schools.
"I knew it would not be popular, but it would still be something that we could easily do," he said.
When asked if closing the three elementary schools would be a short- or long-term fix, McGuire said, "For the next few years this is a short-term fix."
He also said, however, that the board has no long-term plans for addressing future overcrowding problems, that there has been no additional study of options if companies move more employees with children into the area, that no study has been done to determine the impact of closing the schools on the communities where the schools are located and that the closings will not result in any additional expenses for shutting down the school buildings or for busing elementary students farther than before.
Folk, a retired school teacher who has been on the school board since 2000, said he accepts the recommendations of the administration when deciding most board votes.
He was asked by Price: " ... Is it likely that the school board, corporation, is going to be able to close three schools, move equipment and supplies, reconfigure and remodel six schools, outfit portable classrooms, provide for transportation and moving employees to other schools without incurring any costs that would have to be offset against that projected savings of $300,000?" Folk replied, "If Rande and Mr. McGuire say it's so, I agree."
He said he would support moving the sixth-graders to middle schools if the administration recommended it, but that he didn't believe crowding would be a problem in the elementary schools.
Asked if he thought there is a split in the community based on the school controversy, Folk said, "Not that I'm aware of."
He also said he did not attend the mediation that took place April 15 between CCQE and the school corporation (at which both parties agreed to a referendum for voters in May to decide the school closing issue), but said the board decided not to pursue the referendum.
"What happened?" Price asked. "Did the board discuss that issue or not discuss it?"
"We discussed it and we decided we wouldn't abrogate our position as board members and we would do our job," Folk said.
"And the end result of that was not to have a referendum, is that correct?" Price asked.
"Yes," Folk said.
The discussion Folk referred to was not done at a public meeting. The attempted mediation was April 15; at the board's April 20 public meeting, board president Craig Allebach and McGuire declined to discuss the proposed referendum.
Folk also said in his entire tenure on the board, he has never received any phone calls from the public about school matters.
Thorpe's deposition dealt mainly with the budget. He agreed that the WCS expenditures for calendar year 2001 were more than $56 million, for 2002 were more than $62 million and for 2003 were more than $82 million, a 32 percent increase. Over the same period of time, the school enrollment increased by approximately 200 students, Price said, and inflation increased by 9.72 percent.
The depositions will be sent to Morton for final consideration. However, in his order of dismissal for the CCQE lawsuit asking for an injunction against closing the schools, Morton said, "The court anticipates finalizing its Entry of Judgment for the defendants (WCS) on June 4 without the necessity of further legal proceedings."
