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Warsaw Community High School's Parent-Teachers Organization talked about the proposed trimester system during a Monday meeting.
Dr. Jennifer Brumfield, principal, said, "I made a decision for us to move to trimester, and Dr. McGuire supports it."
Brumfield was referring to the discussion at the February school board meeting about abandoning block scheduling at the high school and either returning to a seven-period day or instituting a five-period trimester system.
She said she thought the trimester program "would be a great compromise" between block scheduling and a seven-period day. "We thought six to seven classes a day would be overwhelming."
Superintendent Dr. David McGuire said the change to a trimester system will allow WCHS to reduce staff by eight teachers, saving $320,000 to $400,000 per year.
Around 1990, he said, it was projected that, with the state's new budget formula, Warsaw Community Schools would "at some point run out of money" by the end of the 1990s.
"Through cost-saving measures, we built up our cash reserves," he said. This year, with a minimal 3 percent increase from the state, WCS would still be $750,000 short, but the state approved "no new money" for education.
Because the bulk of the school corporation's general fund pays for personnel, he said, he looked at programs that could be changed without raising class size. One of those programs is block scheduling, and the other is elementary school counselors.
By cutting both, he said, "we will get closer to evening out that three-quarters of a million dollars, but that won't take care of the state shortfall." If the state raises its contribution less than 2 percent, he said, "we're going to hurt, and we might have to look at some other programs."
Brumfield said this spring teachers, parents and students are going to other schools, such as Westfield and Concord high schools, that have trimester programs.
One of the problems with a trimester system is that freshmen and sophomores will have to take a study hall period in each trimester, she said.
While the administration would have preferred not to have study halls, she said, they are "looking at what to do to make study halls a positive experience for students," such as using the time for peer tutoring, organized study skills instruction, computer use and media center research.
Classes would be 70 minutes long, with lunch in the third hour. Study hall would be staffed by support staff, not teachers, Brumfield said. "We need those teachers in the classroom."
Parents and students asked if they could write to their state representatives and senators about the situation with state financing of education, and some asked if school administrators had talked to state legislators.
"I have talked to legislators, and they essentially have told me, 'You have to suck it up and get on with it,'" McGuire said. The alternative is to raise taxes. "If they raise state income taxes one-tenth of 1 percent, that would generate an income of $110 million that could be used for education, but they won't because they were elected on the basis of not raising taxes."
He also reassured parents that ISTEP scores would not drop because of the quality of the teachers in Warsaw schools.
When asked if, even with the cuts, the general fund would still be in the red, McGuire said yes, but if the situation gets no worse, he hopes to get the cash balance up enough to get the corporation through the next three to four years.
"We need to be able to tighten our belts enough to ride it out," he said.
And when asked if eliminating elementary school counselors is a "done deal," he said, "I believe so. For me it is."
