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The proposed 1998 budget of approximately $39.5 million for Warsaw Community Schools is one of the lowest in recent years, the school board was told Monday.
Rande Thorpe, the school corporation's business manager, presented the budget Monday in the first of two public meetings. The WCS general fund, which is 73 percent of the total budget, will increase almost 4 percent, while the transportation and capital projects funds will show the biggest jumps.
Thorpe said the transportation budget will go up because of the need to replace five buses next year. The budgeted amount for bus purchase is $260,000.
The capital projects fund, which will go up almost 9 percent in 1998, can attribute its increase to the cost of installing air conditioning in most of the elementary schools in the district.
Atwood, Jefferson, Leesburg, Lincoln and Silver Lake elementaries are scheduled to be air conditioned in 1998, for a total approximate cost of $963,000.
Claypool, Madison and Washington are scheduled for air conditioning in 1999, with Lakeview Middle School to be done in two phases beginning in 1999.
Thorpe said the bond refinancing, which occurred last year, resulted in funds that will allow WCS to build a multipurpose area - combination auditorium and gymnasium - for Madison Elementary. It also will enable the high school to reconfigure the Career Center to allow more room for agri-science programming.
Warsaw's final tax rate depends on the total assessed property valuation for the district, which Thorpe has not yet received. It also will depend on what rate is determined by the state.
In other business, the school board also decided against establishing academic eligibility standards for high school students in extracurricular activities.
According to school superintendent Dr. Lee Harman, requiring a C average would have eliminated only two of the more than 600 students already participating in extracurricular activities.
"I think that speaks well of our current standards," he said.
Harman said that with a school as large as Warsaw Community High School, "it is an awesome task to monitor GPA requirements and statistics."
There also is the possibility that such a requirement could cause students to take easier classes, he said, which is the "opposite of what we want them to do because we want them to take more challenging classes."
During the public portion of the meeting, a mother of a senior cheerleader questioned the school's policy of supporting the cheerleaders, saying, "If the cheerleaders are going to be in the athletic department, they should be supported as the rest of the athletics are."
The board will hold a second public meeting on the budget on Aug. 25 in the administration building. The hearing with the Indiana Board of Tax Commis-sioners will be held in November, with the final tax rate set for December.
