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Warsaw School Board awarded contracts Monday to two companies which will install air conditioning in five elementary schools.
Current Inc., of Fort Wayne, will work on Jefferson, Leesburg and Lincoln schools; Collier's Commercial Services, Warsaw, will work on air conditioning for Atwood and Silver Lake elementaries, and clean air ducts at Jefferson and Leesburg.
Construction on the air conditioning for the five schools is expected to begin after school ends this year and should be done before the next school year begins.
The total contract for the five schools is slightly more than $1.1 million. Funds for the project were budgeted this year through the WCS capital projects fund.
Air conditioning at other elementary schools will be addressed next year.
The school board also approved advertising for bids for two new building projects: adding agri-science classrooms, additional parking and portable bleachers at the high school, and constructing a multi-purpose building at Madison Elementary.
Mary Ellen Rudisell, of Scearce Rudisell Architects, said the agri-science classrooms are designed so that further expansion in the form of a second story is possible in the future.
The multi-purpose building at Madison will include a gym, a kitchen and an upper level for classrooms or storage.
Superintendent Dr. Lee Harman said the multi-purpose building has been a long-standing need.
"I began my teaching career in 1966 at Madison, and there was a space problem then," he said. "This is something that's been needed for many, many years."
The tentative timetable for the projects calls for construction to begin on the agri-science classrooms June 29 and be completed July 1, 1999.
For the Madison multi-purpose building, construction is expected to begin June 8 and end May 1, 1999.
Rande Thorpe, WCS business manager, emphasized that funding for both projects is possible because the school board saved money by refinancing debt two years ago, and the new construction will not require additional expenses or taxes.
Harman said there are other building projects the school corporation would like to do, "but we're doing this pay-as-you-go, and we just can't do it right now."
The school board also reviewed the secondary reading list for Lakeview and Edgewood middle schools and Warsaw Community High School. The list will be up for approval at the April meeting. The board encourages parents to pick up a copy of the reading list for review before the board approves it.
Chris Boyd, a teacher at Lakeview Middle School, updated the school board on programs and activities at Lakeview. She said a group of students in May will help on a "dinosaur dig" in Akron, where a mastodon skeleton was found.
In other business, the board:
• Reviewed the proposed 1998-99 school calendar and will take action on it at the April meeting.
• Tabled approval of the demographic study until April.
• Appointed George Klinger and Tammy Dalton to the Woodie Schram family educational trust committee.
• Heard a report from Harman that enrollment is at 6,323 students this year, up from 6,274 at this time last year.
The board meets at 7 p.m. in the administration building on the second Monday of each month.
