WARSAW — The Warsaw Community Schools Board of Trustees approved an employee pay resolution for the school corporation’s support staff during a meeting on Monday, March 23. The resolution was one of two COVID-19 resolutions that the board approved.

“Traditionally, school systems are governed by the State Board of Accounts, and that means that hourly employees have to work their set number of hours to be paid,” said Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert. “We understand there are a lot of hardships going on right now and we understand that a lot of this is outside normal control.”

The resolution allows the school corporation to pay hourly employees.

“A lot of their jobs have changed,” said Hoffert. “Sometimes it means they’re on an on-call basis or helping students with eLearning online. We have a care calling program that we started last week where our support staff are calling our students and making sure their basic needs are covered, along with their academic needs. We want to continue for the time being going forward and paying them their average hours. That’s the right thing to do as a school system and we value what they do so incredibly much.”

The second resolution addressed at the meeting involves allowing Dr. Hoffert and the school corporation’s central staff to handle essential or urgent business without the need for the school board convening.

“With the governor (Eric Holcomb) having press conferences daily or at least every other day, it seems like there’s always new directives coming out of those,” said Tim Shelly, the school corporation’s attorney. “This resolution would allow Dr. Hoffert or his designee to be able to address business that needs to happen during the regular process without having to convene or wait for a board meeting because quite frankly, who knows when that next board meeting might happen.”

Dr. Hoffert and WCS Board President Heather Reichenbach also thanked the school corporation’s teachers and staff, as well as the community, for their patience through the school’s closure.

“We do all kinds of different emergency preparations in our schools, but we’ve never been prepared for something like this,” said Hoffert. “Our teachers have done such a magnificent job flipping their in-person lessons around to being online. Our hourly staff is also making sure that every family is called every single week and making sure basic necessities are being met, including food and WiFi services.”

Hoffert also commended the corporation’s food services department for their work in distributing meals to students. The school corporation has 1,000 students a day who are receiving meals from Warsaw Community Schools.

“We want to also thank the community for their patience and understanding through all of this,” said Hoffert.

Parents can learn about the latest hour-by-hour updates regarding Warsaw Schools’ eLearning, meal program, WiFi hotspots and more at the school corporation’s website.

The school board also:

• Approved the resignations of three administrative staff, including Cathy Snyder, Lincoln Elementary School principal; Stephen Clark, Warsaw Community High School assistant principal; and Jeff Hamster, assistant athletic director.