Lunch Prices Increase At WCS

School lunches at Warsaw Community Schools will cost a dime more next year, the board voted Monday.

The price of elementary lunches will go from $1.75 to $1.85 each, and for middle school and high school lunches, from $2 to $2.10. Breakfast prices will increase from $1 to $1.10.

Food service director Marci Franks said the lunch fee still does not equal the average cost per lunch of $2.17.

She also said the food services department is looking at some expenses in the future, since much of their equipment is outdated.

"A lot of our equipment dates to pre-World War II," she said.

It costs $11,028 per day to run the food services department, she said, with labor and food costs increasing 16 percent over the last three years. Milk prices have increased 17 percent in the past few weeks, she said.

Board member Ron Yeiter asked Franks how many employees the food service has, and whether or not they all receive benefits.

Franks said there are 82 employees, and 10 percent receive benefits. The rest are part-time, and she is the only salaried employee in the department.

The current increase is the first school lunch price increase since 1996.

The food service department is self-supporting, said business manager Rande Thorpe, and, unlike at many other school corporations, receives no monies from the general fund.

The board also heard a report from several Jefferson Elementary kindergartners, in which the students gave their EdCom Expo presentation.

After individually greeting all the board members and shaking their hands, the kindergartners explained how they were writing and telling stories, and that all stories include four things: person, place, problem and solution.

They read examples of stories they had written, and asked for suggestions of people and places from the people present, after which they conferred in a huddle, then added their own problems and solutions and made up stories on the spot.

Warsaw Community High School junior Christopher Martz demonstrated the new WCHS Web site for the board. The school already had a site, but Martz made some additions and improvements.

The site now includes links for teacher information and pictures, a homework section organized by teacher and by period, a section for class descriptions and a link for student account information.

The board also:

• Heard from McGuire that there are 6,446 students in all Warsaw schools, up 71 from the same time last year.

• Approved bids totaling $77,732 for Lakeview Middle School ceilings. The work will include removing asbestos, replacing the ceiling and lighting and updating the fire sprinklers.

Maintenance director Greg Schroeder said he expects work to begin in June and be completed by August. He also said only half the work will be done this year, and expects the other half to be done next summer - "if we can afford to put it in the capital projects fund plan," Thorpe added, "and I can't assure you of that. We're still working toward that."

• Approved the two-year Career Center agreement with Whitko and Tippecanoe Valley school corporations.

• Heard from patron Mark Brown that one of his children saw the beheading of an American citizen on the Internet while in a WCHS classroom and wanted to know how the school and the board were going to deal with the incident.

WCHS Principal Dr. Jennifer Brumfield said the incident occurred Friday, and since then guidance counselors were notified and have been talking to students.

"We at the high school are also very dismayed this occurred," she said.

Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire said an inappropriate Web site was brought up and reviewed by some students Friday in a class that was being taught by a substitute teacher.

• Heard from patron and Concerned Citizens for Quality Education Becky Thomas, who asked them to write to students in the closed schools to explain to them why the board was closing their school. Mary Green, a Claypool parent and also a member of CCQE, suggested they write letters to the editor of the Times-Union.

When there was no response from the board, Thomas asked, "Will you do this in some way, shape or form?"

"We'll take it under advisement," McGuire said.

Warsaw School Board members are Craig Allebach, Larry Chamberlain, Gene England, Cathy Folk, Jim Folk, Mark Minatel and Ron Yeiter.