Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Summer for Warsaw Community Schools' board of trustees means budget time, and Monday that process began for 2003.
Rande Thorpe, business manager for the school corporation, Monday requested and was granted permission to advertise the proposed 2003 budget. He is recommending a budget of $47,384,384, which is an increase of $1,115,977 over last year's budget of $46,268,307.
Thorpe also said the corporation had a shortfall of $473,000 from the state in 2002, and he expects the same for 2003.
"Warsaw Community Schools doesn't have any outlandish or expensive programs," he said, "but we're still not receiving enough money to cover what we do."
The new state budget, he said, didn't make much of a difference to WCS. Nothing that the Legislature passed will change the uneven equity in revenue between school corporations or make up for the shortfall, he said.
"It didn't get any worse, but it didn't get any better either," he said.
WCS is still facing a deficit, but "our deficit is smaller than it's ever been," Thorpe said.
He also said that reductions in staff and programs are "not just possible but likely" unless new revenue is received.
The board will discuss the proposed budget, which will be detailed in legal advertisements on July 24 and Aug. 7, in a public hearing Aug. 19. Budget approval and adoption will be done in a special meeting Aug. 29.
Also affecting budgets of individual elementary schools are the changes in Title I funding mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Dennis Duncan, principal of Jefferson Elementary and Title I administrator, told the board that from now on, Title I funds will go proportionately to the schools with the greatest number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.
Title I is a federal program that began in the 1960s and was designed to bridge the gap between children who live in poverty and middle-class children, Duncan said.
WCS receives a grant of $475,000, and in the past the Title I funds have been used "to meet the needs of as many kids in as many schools as possible," he said. Now that grant can be used only at Jefferson, Lincoln and Madison elementaries.
The funds will be used to teach and reinforce reading skills to children in kindergarten through second grade. Because those schools also have many children to whom English is a second language (Duncan said 24 percent of Jefferson students are not proficient in English), he hopes to make the language arts classes smaller and to use Reading Recovery and early intervention to improve reading skills.
In other business, the board:
• Was reminded that the board election filing period begins July 24 and ends Aug. 23 at noon. The districts up for election and their current representatives are: District 1, Brad Brail; District 2, Cathy Folk; District 5, Larry Chamberlain; and District 7, Roy Szymanski.
Information about district boundaries and filing requirements is available at the central office.
There also will be an Indiana School Boards Association-sponsored meeting at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 23 in the large lecture room of Warsaw Community High School to inform candidates and the public of what is involved in being on a school board.
• Approved a two-year joint services agreement for the Warsaw Area Career Center. The agreement allows three school corporations - WCS, Tippecanoe Valley Schools and Whitko Community Schools - to participate in jointly sponsored programs.
The board also approved Ken Surber, director of the Career Center, to apply for the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Grant of $163,952.
• Announced it will hold a special meeting at noon Friday to appoint a principal at Lincoln Elementary. The position of acting principal was held last year by Dan Graney and candidates were to be interviewed this afternoon.
School board members are: Craig Allebach, Brad Brail, Larry Chamberlain, Cathy Folk, James Folk, Charles Sauders and Roy Szymanski. Brail was absent from Monday's meeting. The board meets at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month.
