Editor, Times-Union: I'd like to say a few things about what has been going on in the Warsaw school system.
After years of doing everything the school board can think of, they'll soon have all the schools in their system in Warsaw except for Leesburg and Jefferson. They weren't satisfied with getting rid of all the high schools, but now they want all the schools. I know someone will say there are other systems that took high schools and I agree, but most of the towns were left with a school.
What will it be in two years or maybe three years, and they'll be saying Leesburg needs to close, and if Winona Lake is lucky maybe they can keep Jefferson.
Now is the time to stop them from doing away with what community pride is left in the towns of Claypool, Atwood and Silver Lake by letting them keep their schools. As far as I'm concerned, the system was wrong to even do away with the high schools, but that's another story.
Patty Robinson Claypool graduate Warsaw
Close-Knit Schools
Editor, Times-Union: I applaud everyone who is speaking up in regards to the closing of the three elementaries. I know it is one thing to complain and another to help these elected officials see other alternatives. I am sad to see Atwood Elementary close because that was my school. We were a small close-knit school and everyone was able to get the proper one-on-one attention they needed. One teacher per class size. I know that Warsaw is proud of its athletic program, but to say that program is exempt from cuts is clearly unacceptable. I think that students will respect a program more if things are not guaranteed and handed to them on a silver platter. If they have to fight and work a little bit harder to have a nice basketball or football program or if the students take it upon themselves to clean and maintain the swimming pool or ideas like that, costs could be cut across the board. I hope that all of the parents that have the capability to come up with and present workable alternatives to this "mess" to go for it and submit it to the school board. Sometimes it takes a bunch of good minds to create a solution. I believe that if the school board officials are "willingly" being close-minded in order to ride the storm, then they need to resign and be replaced immediately by capable people that will hear the interests of the community and are not afraid to say, yes, we are making cuts to the athletic program and other areas that people see with rose-colored glasses. I hope to read in the future that the community does indeed prevail and that we will be in line to meet future demands, enrollment and costs of educating our children.
Jennifer Hyden Winona Lake via e-mail
Athletes
Editor, Times-Union: What does the closing of Atwood, Silver Lake and Claypool elementary schools mean to our elementary atheletes? Each elementary school in the Warsaw Community School system has approximately 120 student athletic positions (soccer, volleyball, girls basketball, boys basketball, girls track, boys track and cheerleading). The closings will eliminate approximately 360 elementary athletic positions throughout the school corporation. However, it will not necessarily be Atwood, Silver Lake or Claypool student athletes who will be eliminated.
It might be your daughter, who has the gumption to try out for soccer, or your son, who is small for his age but tries out for basketball anyway. It could be my granddaughter, who has cerebral palsy but wants to play anything that involves a ball. These children make the team at the small schools.
What if Judi Warren, 1976 Indiana Miss Basketball, or Kevin Ault, 1996 Indiana Mr. Basketball, were children in our school corporation today? Would they be successful if they did not attend Claypool Elementary School, but were redistricted to a large school? Probably, but two other children would miss the opportunity to participate and grow through athletics. What happens to them? Multiply those two children by 180 and you have 360 children each year that will not be allowed to share in the joy of athletics.
Fast-forward a few years to these 360 children in high school. Will they still be in school? What kind of grades will they achieve? The relationship of athletics to dropout rates and grades is well documented.
If you think the school closings don't affect you, you're wrong. They affect each of us in different ways. Remember the pebble in the water?
