To help with a Cub Scout pack’s annual budget, Michael Webb asked the Warsaw School Board Monday to waive or reduce the rental fee of the Leesburg Elementary gymnasium.
Webb, of Warsaw, said the Scouts are charged a $12-per-hour fee for the gym, which they use for about 1-1/2 hours a week. The Scouts meet 35 weeks out of the year.
While they also use the cafeteria at the school, they are not charged for that. They also don’t use any of the school’s physical education equipment, just the gym.
Webb asked the board to waive the fee for the Scouts entirely or reduce it to help with the pack’s budget.
Board President Jennifer Tandy said Webb’s request will be reviewed and they would get back to him by the end of the week. No other action was taken.
Action was taken on the request to develop a cross country training and competition course at Warsaw Community High School.
The board approved $15,670 to create the course on the Logan Street property. It will be funded through the capital projects fund and athletic department funds.
Over the summer, WCHS Athletic Director Dave Anson and cross country coach Scott Erba approached Director of Maintenance Greg Schroeder about creating the course on the property. The idea was brought before the school board in August, with further discussion at the board’s work session Sept. 11.
School board member Delores Hearn asked if it would create any noise problems. Schroeder said it’s a very quiet sport and he didn’t foresee any noise issues.
Deb Wiggins, board member, said if noise becomes an issue, the board would hear about it and they can address it at that time. Until it’s well established, the WCHS cross country team probably won’t have too many meets a year.
“My only request is to send a letter to everyone on that strip about what is going to happen,” Wiggins emphasized.
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz gave an enrollment report, indicating it is up by 118 students for September 2012 compared to September 2011.
The official enrollment for all of Warsaw Community Schools is 7,075. Official count day was Friday.
That number is down by more than 40 students, however, compared to enrollment figures from the start of the school year. Total enrollment then at WCS was 7,116 students, Hintz reported at the Aug. 27 school board meeting.
Enrollment totals at the elementary schools as of Friday are 351 at Claypool; 468 at Eisenhower; 579 at Harrison; 541 at Jefferson; 464 at Leesburg; 459 at Lincoln; 509 at Madison; and 438 at Washington STEM Academy.
The elementary total is 3,809 students, with a district average class size of 22.7 students.
Edgewood Middle School’s enrollment is 557, higher than Lakeview Middle School’s enrollment of 521 students.
At WCHS and Warsaw Area Career Center, enrollment is 2,188.
Hintz said WCS is attracting students from outside the school corporation. For the 2012-13 school year, he said WCS has 155 out-of-district transfer students and 47 students who are enrolled in partial WACC classes from out of the district.
The 155 students is an increase of 100 students from the same time last year, Hintz indicated.
According to information provided, 51 students transferred to Warsaw from Tippecanoe Valley; 32 from Wawasee; 53 from Whitko; and 19 came from other school districts.
With no remonstration at any of the public meetings over the past few weeks, the board approved its 2013 budget Monday.
The total budget is $70,800,618. It includes seven funds, and is approximately 1.7 percent more than the 2011 budget.
The general fund is the largest of the funds and totals $46,621,761. The other funds and their totals are: debt service fund, $8,782,570; retirement/severance bond debt, $546,495; capital projects fund, $9,262,630; school transportation fund, $3,127,162; bus replacement fund, $960,000; and rainy day fund, $1.5 million.
While three out-of-state conference requests were approved by the board, Wiggins said it would be beneficial if requests were submitted to the board in a timely manner. Requests should follow the board’s schedule.
“These aren’t conferences we just learned about yesterday,” she said. She said while she was saying that with respect, it was disappointing that requests didn’t meet the deadline so the board could discuss them at their public work session the Tuesday before their regular meeting.
The requests included: Abbi Richcreek, WACC teacher, to attend the Annual ITEEA Conference in Columbus, Ohio; Ronna Kawsky, principal, WACC, National ACTE Conference, Atlanta, Ga.; and Della Swain, director of transportation, NAPT Conference, Memphis, Tenn.
Hintz later said he believed the requests were submitted in a timely fashion. Only one of the three requests, Swain’s, was not presented at last week’s public work session, but that was due to a family illness.
Wiggins reiterated that the conferences didn’t just spring up, they had been known about for some time.
Students at both Warsaw middle schools raised $1,600 for the Kosciusko County Cancer Care Fund, Edgewood Middle School Assistant Principal Tracy Horrell told the board. A large check for the amount was presented to the KCCCF during the meeting.
The middle schools competed to see which school could sell the most pink shirts and raise the most donations.
On Sept. 5 at Edgewood, football games between Edgewood and Lakeview were held. Pink popcorn was available for purchase. On Sept. 6, the schools competed against one another in volleyball, and more pink popcorn was sold.
Chief Academics Officer David Hoffert asked the board to approved a $21,000 grant from the Dekko Foundation for Claypool, Eisenhower, Jefferson, Leesburg, Lincoln, Madison and Washington elementaries. Each of these schools was awarded $3,000 for their 2012-13 Arts Partnership. The board approved the grant.
The board also approved Barbara Beck as a member of the Warsaw Community Public Library Board. She replaces John Yingling, who served the four four-year terms allowable and is no longer eligible for reappointment.
Beck is a librarian at WCHS and lives in Warsaw, according to Hintz.
The next school board work session is 4 p.m. Oct. 16, with the next regular meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 22.
