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Warsaw School Board approved Monday moving forward with finalizing a guaranteed energy savings contract for Lakeview Middle School with Performance Services Inc.
Stephen Boyer, Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) chief financial officer, said at the Aug. 12 school board meeting the board accepted PSI’s bid, which allowed the school corporation to engage with PSI in the development of the specifics of a guaranteed energy savings contract.
Tony Kuykendall, business development manager with PSI, made a presentation to the board about what PSI was proposing.
He said PSI had a team of experts provide an assessment of Lakeview. Engineers went through and took a look at the school.
Lakeview was built in 1962 with the newest addition being built in 1983.
He also showed the board a list of phase one improvements during a slide show presentation.
Work included adding a new chilled water plant with two air cooled screw chillers along with pumps and accessories; removing the east 2003 chilled water plant; providing chilled water distribution in the tunnels built in 1960 to feed the old chilled water system; providing fabric ductwork in the gym for improved air distribution; structural repairs to stabilize gym walls; reroofing work; brick repairs to stabilize the gym building envelope; update the heating water plant; replace existing heating water building pumps with new mains in the tunnels; update the domestic water plant and provide new water heaters; relocate the remote kitchen storage and develop a mechanical yard enclosure to support new central plant systems.
Kuykendall said the work was a significant investment but it was definitely needed for Lakeview. He said PSI ran their budget estimates for the work at not-to-exceed $9.6 million for the scope of work.
The next step for PSI is to finalize the scope of work with the school administration and put the specifications into plans and drawings. The work will then be put out for competitive bid.
He said he hoped to be in front of the school board again by the end of the year or early part of next year with a finalized scope and price for approval. Kuykendall also said once the scope of work is finalized, he will have a better idea of how long the work will take to complete.
Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said the work to be done at Lakeview will not determine what the future holds for Lakeview as far as keeping it as a school, building a new facility or merging the school with Edgewood Middle School.
“Anything that we do, we’re purposely doing this so it would not have to be replaced no matter what that future is,” Hoffert said, noting WCS will be able to save some efficiency dollars by getting the work done.
Boyer said the work done at Lakeview will mostly be covered by general obligation bonds.
2026 Budget
Later in the meeting, the board held a public hearing for its proposed 2026 budget.
The proposed budget totals $105,241,306. The rainy day fund is $1.5 million. The debt service fund is $17,639,190. The referendum debt fund is $2.879 million. The education fund is $56,157,416. The operations fund is $27,065,700.
The estimated tax rate is $0.8976 per $100 of assessed value.
The only question during the hearing came from Board member Brad Johnson. He said the school corporation had a goal set a couple years ago to keep the tax rate at $0.92 per $100 of assessed value or below and WCS has done a pretty good job at doing that. He asked, with the refining that was done with the 2026 budget, if the tax rate would stay at $0.8976 or if it would go up. Hoffert said the tax rate has not been certified yet, but the administration believes the tax rate will come in as estimated.
There were no other public comments during the hearing.
The budget will be adopted Oct. 27.
Transportation
Before the budget hearing, the board heard from Transportation Director Mark Fick on updates about school bus routes.
This year, there are 42 bus routes and 2,147 students transported to Lakeview, Edgewood and Warsaw Community High School. There are eight special needs buses that transport 20 students every day. The total bus ridership for the school corporation is about 4,500 students.
There are about 45 to 60 sex predators in Kosciusko County whose residence affects WCS bus routes, Fick said. By law, students can’t walk in front of a predator’s house. The list goes to the Transportation Department and bus routes are adjusted to keep kids safe.
Fick also brought up stop arm violations. So far this school year, there have been 49 stop arm violations. Of those violations, 30 have been submitted to law enforcement so far this school year.
In other business, the board:
• Heard about three WCS students who competed in the state Civics Bee. Allison Goebel, Andrea Martinez-Lara and Barrett Hodorek went to the Indiana Civics Bee July 30 at the Indiana Statehouse. Hodorek was named the winner of the Civics Bee and will go to the National Civics Bee in Washington, D.C., Nov. 10-11.
• Heard from Hoffert there were at least 20 school buses vandalized in August in Michigan City and catalytic converters stolen. Hoffert said Fick and Assistant Transportation Director Kristy Newton offered to bring up five buses to Michigan City and the school district was able to get elementary school students to school.
• Adopted the 2025-26 teacher evaluation plan.
• Approved the following grants: $60,000 teacher residency grant; $500 from Tom Farms & Partners for the WCHS FFA; $2,000 from Lake City Dental Solutions for WCHS football; $1,000 from the Law Office of Travis McConnell, $1,000 from Kyle Wurtzel and $500 from Pretty & Poppin’ Balloon Designs for the WCHS Cheer Fund; and $3,855 from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation for the “Boys in the Boat” project-based learning unity project at Edgewood Middle School.
