When school letter grades are issued by the Indiana Department of Education, school administrators have let it be known frequently they don’t feel the letter grading system is fair and consistent. So beginning with the last school year, the Wawasee Community School Corp. began putting together its own letter grades.

During Tuesday evening’s regular monthly meeting of the Wawasee school board in Syracuse, the board heard a report from Dr. Bob Cockburn, data administrator for the school district, about the letter grades. Cockburn said Northwest Evaluation Association testing results were one of the factors in figuring the grades. “I am a strong proponent of NWEA test results (grades one to eight) for math and reading,” he said. “I feel they are a better indicator of how our students are really doing.”

Other factors included Fountas and Pinnell benchmark results for grades kindergarten through second, student and staff attendance rates and the number of students receiving free or reduced price lunches. Based on those factors, for the 2013-14 academic year, Syracuse Elementary was issued an A (up from a B the previous year), North Webster Elementary a B (down from an A), Milford Elementary an A (up from a B), Milford Middle School a B (same as previous year), Wawasee Middle School a B (same as previous year) and Wawasee High School an A (same as previous year).

Cockburn noted the attendance rate at North Webster dropped enough to cause the lowering of the grade, but the school still showed a nearly 6 percent growth rate for NWEA reading test results. And though WMS remained a B school, it showed an increase in the number of students completing a high school course and also had improved NWEA results in both reading and math.

During her report to the board, Joy Goshert, director of instruction and curriculum for the school district, noted the state board of education voted last week to extend the ISTEP+ testing windows. Testing will begin the first week of March, not Feb. 25 as originally scheduled. She said Gov. Mike Pence has said he wants to shorten the ISTEP+ test.

Mike Wilson, school board member, expressed a bit of frustration with ISTEP+. “They (state) shouldn’t send it to us until it is ready,” he said, noting the school corporation is “spinning its wheels” too often.

In other business, the school board voted to approve advertising for bids for the corporation’s summer of 2015 capital funds projects. These are projects completed every year with budget funds.

This year’s projects will include a new bus fueling station at the transportation building replacing the one by the high school building, connecting middle school restroom/concessions trailers with electrical service, sewage and water lines and also concrete pads for the trailers, door work, wall repairs and touch-up painting at the high school auxiliary gym and finishes to the hallways north and south of the main gym at the high school, as well as finishes to the athletic offices. Other projects will include relocating and renovating the high school athletic training room and finishes to the TV studio at the high school, as well as replacing the soundproof windows.

A pre bid meeting will be held Feb. 24 and bids will be received beginning at 2 p.m. March 5.

Other agenda items included:

• Acknowledgment of Mike Schmidt, high school principal, being named Outstanding Education Professional by the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce.

• Donations of $800 to the Boomerang Backpack program from Michael Shock and $2,000 from the Shopko Foundation to the school corporation were approved.

• Mindy Brooks was appointed as a Milford Public Library board member through the end of 2016.

• Approval was given for a WMS band and choir trip out of state after the end of the school year.