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Three remaining elementary schools in Warsaw will have a cooler fall after air conditioning is installed this summer, the Warsaw school board ruled Monday.
The board approved Current Inc., of Fort Wayne, as the contractor for the project, which will cost approximately $1,187,805.
"We've been equipping our buildings with air conditioning to bring them into the 21st century," said school superintendent Dr. Lee Harman. "That's been a priority over the past couple of years."
Maintenance supervisor Greg Schroeder said the contract did not include replacing some older equipment at Claypool and Madison, which will be done later.
He said the next priority will be installing air conditioning in the corporation's two middle schools.
The board also agreed to purchase a piece of property in Leesburg to help ease congestion around Leesburg Elementary before and after school.
According to Leesburg principal Brent Widman, limited space can create safety problems at the school when parents drive up to pick up students at the same time buses are loading and other students are walking home. The property, formerly the site of the Grace Brethren Church which burned several years ago, is adjacent to the school property. It would allow the school to change traffic patterns, add parking space and would provide space for eventual expansion.
The corporation will offer $24,500 for the property, a price based on the average of two appraisals as required by the state.
In other business, the board:
• Approved a two-year contract with Ivy Tech State College for part of the Lakeview Middle School building. Ivy Tech will pay $53,760 annually.
• Approved temporary access to Grace College for approximately 20 feet on the extreme southwest corner of the Jefferson Elementary School property to allow construction equipment access to Grace's building site. The board also gave Grace College permission for a sewage line easement across the Jefferson playground to allow Grace to connect the new dormitory to Winona Lake's sewage line.
• Reviewed the proposed 1999-2000 school calendar, which will start school Aug. 24 next year and end June 6.
• Heard a report from Harman that total WCS enrollment is 6,293 students, approximately 30 less than this time last year.
• Heard a report from Madison Elementary School on their mini-economy unit. Several fourth-grade students from Madison demonstrated the project, in which students receive weekly "checks" from which they must pay rent, taxes, utilities and insurance. The students serve as bankers, tax collectors, etc., and learn how the banking system works, how to write job descriptions, how to write and endorse checks, how insurance works, etc.
The board meets at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the administration building.
