WARSAW — Warsaw Schools Chief Academic Advisor David Robertson announced to the board during the Warsaw Community School Board of Trustees work session on Tuesday, Feb. 14, that the pre-algebra task force initiative has made significant progress.

As students will be required to take a semester of math during each year of high school starting in the upcoming year, Robertson indicated the district wants students to be prepared for the accelerated math they will be taking.

Students already often struggle with the affects of not having a strong foundation of algebra while they are in high school. Robertson indicated ripples of the affects of kids failing to grasp certain foundational concepts can unfortunately been seen when high school students take advanced math classes.

The pre-algebra task force was designed to ultimately make sure students are prepared early on for advanced math classes in the high school. The task force was looking to find which students would be prepared to take pre-algebra classes at a middle school in the district while they are in sixth grade.

This program would take selected sixth graders to a middle school in the district during first period so they could take an accelerated pre-algebra class. The kids would then be bussed back to their elementary school and continue their regular schedule.

Robertson mentioned that in May, the Elementary schools will be meeting with parents of students going into sixth grade to find out if this would be a good fit for certain students. Parents and students will have the choice to decline this opportunity. Robertson hopes to have enough students to fill an entire class at a middle school. He mentioned it would be a possibility that sixth grade students would be mixed with seventh and eighth grades.

During the session, it was announced that Warsaw Schools is getting ready to launch Tiger Apparel. High School student Jeremy David has been working with Alyssa Richardson to create new Tiger apparel. Together, they researched what apparel students from the high school are interested in purchasing.  There will be 10 various clothing items for individuals to chose from.

As they do not want to keep a lot of the inventory on hand, the clothing will be available for purchase online. The website is expected to launch soon.

Jeannine Corson addressed the district’s shortage of staff. She explained they are in the process of getting prospective teachers as soon as they graduate. Corson explained several recruiters will be at upcoming job fairs to find new employees.

Other News:

• Jeannine Corson asked the board to approve several out of state conferences for Warsaw School staff. The travel was approved
• Brad Haag announced staff is planning to implement E-Learning days throughout the year.