Warsaw School Board approved its proposed 2014 budget Monday night at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting. The public hearing was at noon Sept. 7. The corporation’s total proposed 2014 budget is $71,022,013, which is 0.31 percent more than the adopted 2013 budget of $70,800,618. As part of the budget approval process, the board also approved a resolution to adopt a plan for the Capital Projects Fund, a resolution to adopt the 2014 bus replacement plan and a resolution to reduce the 2013 appropriations, 2014 budget or line 11 operating balance. It also approved a tax neutrality resolution for the pension debt fund. The budget will be finalized by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. During the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz reported on student enrollment. The September enrollment was 7,247 students. That’s up from the 2012 enrollment of 7,075 students. The 2013 enrollment figure includes the Claypool and Leesburg preschool classes (about 60 students) and the Good Beginnings Preschool for special needs students at Jefferson Elementary. Board members expressed some concern with sixth-grade class sizes at Madison and Lincoln elementaries. Madison has a sixth-grade average class size of 30 students, while Lincoln’s is about 29.5 students per class. The sixth grades at the other six elementaries range from an average 20.7 at Washington STEM Academy to 26.7 at Eisenhower. Board member Jay Baumgartner noticed that the senior class at Warsaw Community High School had a large jump in enrollment compared to the other secondary grades. Last year, the class of 2014 had 527 students, he said, while it has 600 now. Hintz said the high school has a lot of Career Technical Education students from other schools, and WCHS also has a lot of transfer students come from other school corporations. Enrollment numbers in the other secondary grades include 580 students in seventh grade; 565, eighth grade; 521 in ninth; 539 in 10th; and 513 in 11th. There are 3,929 students in all eight of Warsaw’s elementary schools. “All in all, enrollment is heading in the right direction,” Hintz stated. In other business, the school board: • Heard the Indiana CPA Society named Sandra Granda as an INCPAS Scholar. • Heard Lincoln Elementary School student Shane Miller won first prize in Division 4 of the School Transportation Association of Indiana School Bus Safety Poster Contest. Posters were judged at the region level, and one poster for each category was submitted for judging at the state conference the end of June. Miller, then a third-grader at Lincoln School, won a check for $50. His poster is being sent for judging at the National Association for Pupil Transportation conference in October. • Approved a $500 donation from The Indiana Lazers Inc. to the WCHS Girls Softball Team. • Approved a $4,687.50 donation from Kosciusko County Educational Development to help fund graduation coaches at the high school level. • Approved a donation from the Warsaw Wayne Territory Fire Department for their purchase and donation of hoods for the Warsaw Area Career Center Fire Rescue Course. • Heard a presentation from Warsaw Education Foundation Executive Director Barb Smolen about WEF. • Approved Leesburg’s Early Learning Center, which started this school year, and designated Jefferson Elementary as a pre-K to sixth-grade building. • Approved for the advertisement of snow removal bids for this week in the Times-Union.
