Warsaw School Board approved to move forward Tuesday with building projects using general obligation bonds.
During the meeting, the school board held a second public hearing on the general obligation bonds with the first being in July.
In July, Chief Financial Officer April Fitterling said the maximum amount the school corporation is asking for is $5 million, but will have an exact amount when the assessed value rate is released in order to make sure there is no impact on tax rates.
Fitterling said possible projects include improvements for facilities and possibly athletics, with work potentially starting in summer 2025.
There were no public comments Tuesday.
Earlier in the meeting, the school board was updated on Warsaw Community Schools’ dual language immersion program.
WCS launched their 50/50 Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Program model (balancing instruction for half of the day in English and half in Spanish) at Eisenhower Elementary in 2016, expanding to Leesburg Elementary in 2018 and Lakeview Middle School in 2023.
Currently serving over 800 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, the program will expand to ninth grade at Warsaw Community High School next year. WCS aims to enroll more than 1,400 DLI students annually once fully established in 2029, according to a news release from WCS.
After reaching second grade, students’ Spanish proficiency is assessed annually using the STAMP assessment.
Crystal Kreider, instructional coach, said Tuesday most of the students in the DLI program start out as English speakers. WCS has certain standards students have to meet and students have been surpassing them.
WCS has developed a partnership with Indiana University Kokomo (IUK). This collaboration started over a year ago and has involved several site visits and meetings to plan future initiatives.
Kreider said the intention is to work with IUK to provide future 10th- to 12th-grade DLI students with college-level courses if they are on track and, so far, it looks like students are on track.
These courses will immediately follow the honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes taken in seventh to ninth grade. The courses will be developed over the next two years in preparation for the 2026-27 school year.
Eisenhower Elementary also recently received the International Spanish Academy (ISA) designation from the embassy of Spain. This recognition will provide access to resources, professional development and networking opportunities both locally and abroad.
Leesburg Elementary and Lakeview Middle School will apply for ISA designation in fall 2025 now that both buildings are offering DLI at each grade level. WCHS will apply in 2029, she said.
With this recognition, WCS will also have a higher priority when hiring visiting teachers from Spain, Kreider said.
WCS also partnered with Ball State University. Chin Sook, a BSU professor, collaborated with WCHS Spanish teacher Ana Manwaring to take a group of students to campus. They learned about the difference between a major and a minor, the advantages of being bilingual, various career options, college logistics and costs, job opportunities on campus and numerous scholarship options.
The school board also was given statistics on this year’s Tools For School at Lakeview July 31.
Ami Pitt, Project Independence and Hand-Up case manager with Combined Community Services, said it was the first year Tools For School was held at Lakeview, so they could take advantage of the cosmetology area.
This year, over 1,400 students were helped during the event.
Over 100 students were registered for WCS, with about 74 registered for Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.
Last year, 189 haircuts were given at the event, with 150 haircuts being given this year.
This year, 1,619 shoes were donated for students. After the event, about one-third of the shoes remained and were donated to Living in Transition Effectively (LITE). One hundred and fifty meals were provided during Tools for School.
Pitt said her favorite numbers were 500 Bibles were given out, 77 children went through the Good News Caboose and 19 of those students invited Jesus into their lives.