Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
During public comments of the special Warsaw School Board meeting Tuesday, patrons voiced their concerns relating to the interim superintendent and Warsaw school's future.
The school board voted 6-1 to negotiate with Ralph Bailey to serve as Warsaw's interim superintendent until a new superintendent can be found. Dr. Dave McGuire resigned, effective July 27, but will serve as a consultant until Jan. 13 or until he finds another job, whichever is first.
Lori Coil asked the school board that as they look for a new superintendent, they ask parents for their input.
Sherry Plummer said she had several general concerns. One of those includes where the board's attention will be once the superintendent matter is finished. "I want to see where we're going, especially with the kids," she said. She expressed concern with the ISTEP scores, especially the scores of students who are on the free or reduced lunch program.
Another issue Plummer expressed is her concern of retaliation for speaking out. School board member Dan Robinson replied, "To my knowledge, not one board member, to my knowledge, has made any threats of retaliation for anyone speaking up."
Deb Wiggins, board member, thanked Plummer for her concern on test scores and suggested to also provide the concern in written form or via e-mail. When Plummer asked if it was OK to provide that e-mail from her school corporation account, Robinson said if it was school related, that was OK, but personal matters should be from her personal account on her own time.
A resident of Silver Lake, Angela Fulton, commended the board for what they recently gone through recently. She then asked about the situation at Leesburg Elementary School. The school board recently decided to take bids on renovating LES for more room at the school and Fulton asked if that means LES definitely will be renovated or if they were just taking bids. She said with space at the middle schools not totally being used, why spend $60,000 renovating LES when that space could be used?
Director of Finance Kevin Scott said the bids will be received by the school board and then they will make their determination on what they want to do.
Fulton said she was concerned about the school corporation spending money to renovate a school when the corporation still has buildings not totally being used.
Chuck Sauders, board member, said many expressed concerns about money Tuesday night. If the Warsaw School Board would have followed his recommendation 3-1/2 years ago, students would be moving into a new school building in Prairie Township already. Under that recommendation, Silver Lake and Atwood elementary schools would be closed. A new school would be built in Prairie Township and Silver Lake students would be sent to a renovated Claypool Elementary. Sauders said cornfields in the area are disappearing, being replaced by housing developments. Warsaw is going to have a problem where all the new students are going to attend school. Once a new superintendent is hired, the superintendent will have to look at that issue.
