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Renovation and construction work at Warsaw Community Schools is on time and within budget, the school board was told Monday.
Architect Dean Illingworth said the renovation work at Lakeview Middle School is almost completed. That renovation, in the area previously occupied by Ivy Tech, was to allow the Alternative Learning Center to move from the Winona Avenue building to Lakeview.
Jerry Gibson, construction manager, said designs for the administration building addition are now being completed. That addition will house the technology department.
The project, which he estimates will cost approximately $1.749 million, will receive bids from contractors by Aug. 14, and Gibson will submit his recommendations to the board at the Aug. 18 meeting. He said construction should begin around Sept. 8, with completion scheduled for Aug. 30, 2004.
The Warsaw Community High School projects, including a football stadium, track, auditorium and cafeteria renovation, also is on schedule for the design, Gibson said. The pre-bid conference with contractors is scheduled for Nov. 20, with bids to be received Dec. 4. He will make his recommendation on the construction company at the Dec. 15 board meeting, and expects to begin construction in early spring.
Gibson said the WCHS project should be completed around January 2006. Both Gibson and Rande Thorpe, WCS business manager, emphasized that all the construction planned for this project will not cost more than what was originally budgeted.
"It will not go over what you told your public at the 1028 hearing," Gibson said, "and that was $30 million."
The board also heard a report from assistant superintendent Sandra Hess on a High Schools That Work conference she and other administrators attended, along with 15 WCHS teachers. Their conference attendance was paid for by a grant, Hess said.
The conference stressed setting high expectations for students and being consistent in teaching standards, she said.
"We want to teach to most students what we used to teach to only the best students," she said. " ... Failure cannot be an option."
The board also:
• Reappointed Larry Chamberlain to the board of directors for Warsaw Community Public Library.
• Gave Thorpe permission to advertise for the public hearing on the 2004 budget at the August board meeting.
"A lot of the numbers this year ... are rather sketchy," he said, explaining that WCS still does not have approval for the 2003 budget from the Indiana Department of State and Local Finance.
The final budget adoption, instead of a special meeting as in years past, will take place at the regularly scheduled September board meeting.
• Gave Jefferson Elementary Principal Dennis Duncan permission to apply for a Title I grant from the federal government. The grant total is expected to be approximately $520,000, Duncan said, and is targeted to elementary students who most need help. In Warsaw schools, those are English-as-a-second-language students, and Jefferson and Lincoln schools have the largest populations of those students, Duncan said.
The grant will be used to fund programs at those two schools that will provide more individualized instruction, full-day kindergarten and after-school and summer school programs.
• Approved two-year contracts for all administration personnel except superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire, whose contract will be discussed in August.
Board members are Craig Allebach, Larry Chamberlain, Gene England, Cathy Folk, Jim Folk, Mark Minatel and Ron Yeiter. The board meets at the administration building at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month.
