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LEESBURG - Leesburg Elementary School has four restrooms with four stalls each for all 528 students.
Lunch shifts are only 20 minutes each to accommodate all the grade levels, and the upstairs had to be remodeled for room for art and music though they aren't handicapped accessible.
At the special Warsaw Community School Corp. Board of School Trustees meeting Thursday, Leesburg Principal Marv Marino gave the school board and the public a tour of the school's overcrowding problem and how they are addressing them.
At the end of the 2003-04 school year, the school board closed Silver Lake, Atwood and Claypool. The students from those schools have since been transported to other Warsaw schools, such as Leesburg.
Before the tour, Superintendent Dr. Robert Haworth said of Marino, "He's done a great job with some of the locations." He said he doesn't want the LES facilities to be a reflection of the academics at Leesburg or its teachers.
The tour started in the cafeteria, where the school board was meeting. Each grade level gets 20-minute lunch shifts because only one grade level can fit into the cafeteria at a time. "It's one area where we really suffer," Marino said.
Coolers for the food sit out in the hallway. Marino said LES was supposed to get another cooler, but there was no place to put it so another school received it. The boys lockerroom is used for food storage, while the girls lockerroom will be used for either a special education or English as a Second Language classroom. Both the lockerrooms have open toilets in the rooms. If the girls lockerroom is not used for a classroom, it will be used for physical education storage room and the P.E. storage room will be used for a classroom because it doesn't have a toilet.
A storage room behind the stage in the gymnasium was cleaned, painted and recarpeted for Title I class use. Being so close to the gym, Marino said there will be noise from the gym.
More classes for ESL, Title I and special education will be held in the school's basement, which has stairs and is not handicapped accessible. "There are distinctive smells down here," said Marino, "but the kids learn to live with it." The basement does have two exits.
Marino said there are only two girls and two boys bathrooms. The bathroom lines are often backed up, reducing instructional time for the students. Haworth said if three toilets are flushed simultaneously, the school loses water pressure. The school often only has cold water during lunch.
The library also is used for small groups during the school day, said Marino, reducing the library program itself.
Despite the overcrowding, Marino praised his staff. "I'm really proud of the school," he said, commenting how LES has met Adequate Yearly Progress and improved overall academically during the past few years. "I don't take the credit for it, it belongs to the teachers. This has been an amazing staff."
In other business, the school board approved personnel recommendations including:
Resignations: David Huemmer, fifth-grade teacher, Harrison; Beth Knavel, part-time third-grade teacher, Jefferson; Greg Estok, industrial technology teacher, Lakeview Middle School; Lois Vallie Padilla, math, Edgewood Middle School; Ron and Becky Boyer, vocational business teachers, Warsaw Community High School; Marcy Pratt, school nurse, Lincoln; Charles Patrick, assistant varsity women's gymnastics coach, WCHS.
Contract Increases: Cathy Abbitt, increase to full-time as third-grade teacher, Jefferson.
Hires: Jason Culver, temporary contract, physical education teacher, Leesburg; Maggie Thompson, art teacher, Lincoln and Jefferson schools; Michael Bradley, math, Edgewood; Scott Herbert, industrial technology teacher, LMS; Anne Rackley, temporary contract, English, WCHS; Charles Wiebe, temporary contract, math, WCHS; Barbara McCollom, math, WCHS; Allison Wagaman, integrated chemistry and physics, WCHS; William Kovach, director of vocational programs at the Warsaw Area Career Center; Karla Shepherd, fifth-grade, Harrison; Kaley Workman, temporary contract, second grade, Harrison; Holly Trump, half-time math and half-time computer teacher, Edgewood; Amanda Scroggs, English, WCHS.
Transfers: Sarah Garcia, school nurse, Madison to Lincoln; Angie Heinsman, business teacher, LMS to WCHS; Deb Locke, math and computers, Edgewood to LMS.
Warsaw School Board members are President Ron Yeiter, Vice President Dan Robinson, Secretary Gene England, Chuck Sauders, Deb Wiggins, Cathy Folk and Tammy Dalton.
