WCS Assistant Director of Transportation Kristy Newton and WCS Transportation Director Mark Fick address the school board with an update on school routes, bus stop arm violations and weather conditions. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Shepherd.

By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Warsaw Community Schools’ Board of School Trustees voiced their opposition to Indiana House Bill 1005, a bill that establishes Education Savings Accounts for use at private schools, through a resolution approved by all board members at a Feb. 9 work session.

Through HB 1005, which was written on Jan. 14 by Representative Robert Behning (R-Indianapolis), state funds would go toward annual grants that would pay for eligible students to attend private or unregulated schools. Eligible students included in this proposed bill are students with disabilities who require special education; students with a parent who is on active duty service in the armed forces of the United States or national guard; or a student placed in foster care or otherwise under care and supervision of the department of child services.

As initially presented, the bill would increase state expenditures by more than $108 million in 2022 and by at least $94 million in 2023.

“HB 1005 is very detrimental to our current operational standards,” said WCS Board President Heather Reichenbach. “The money that is being put toward HB 1005, the majority of the money is what the governor promised to fund education, has become diverted to private, unregulated schools, to the extent that education vouchers are being shared with parents, to use as they want, which hurts our school as a system.”

WCS Board Vice-President Randy Polston said he watched a panel session via Zoom on Feb. 9 in which educators submitted questions regarding HB 1005. Three representatives and one senator were on the panel.

“I think it’s concerning,” said Polston. “You’re taking money away from public education in order to set these vouchers up, to set these savings accounts up. It just comes down to the point of them upholding more and more money out of public education, out of our hands.”

Reichenbach said the current bill as introduced would have $202 million go toward private and unregulated educational options, leaving only $27 million for public education.

The school board’s resolution states that the cost of the Education Savings Accounts is covered exclusively by the state’s school tuition support fund, further providing fewer public dollars to fund public schools and increase teacher salaries.

“The Board believes that public schools provide a strong educational environment for Indiana’s children and education savings accounts, if enacted, would put this environment at risk by directing resources away from our schools to schools that are not subject to the same rigorous scrutiny for their use of taxpayer resources,” reads part of the school board’s resolution. “The Board has determined that the Indiana General Assembly should not enact education savings accounts, or expand vouchers, at the detriment to public school students and should continue to promote and fully invest in Indiana’s public schools.”

The school board also wrote a letter to the editor regarding HB 1005 and urges the community to contact state representatives and senators about the bill.

“This bill feels particularly dangerous to our ability to function,” said Reichenbach. “That’s the worry here is that if we don’t have our voice heard, if we don’t encourage the community to share their voice and their concern, that this bill will be detrimental.”

Board Member Elle Turley said the amount of services WCS provides to the community is more robust than any type of education that vouchers would go toward to.

“Our students deserve better than that,” said Turley. “Our students also deserve teachers that are compensated properly. That’s another problem not being addressed. It’s important to really think about all the different sides of it. None of them add to a solution that’s best for our students. For our community, there’s no need to make these types of changes.”

In other business, the board also heard an update from WCS Transportation Director Mark Fick about bus routes, stop-arm violations and decisions made by staff on weather conditions.

Fick explained how the transportation department adjusts its bus route schedule when drivers call in sick. He said the schedule typically adjusts daily due to changes, resulting in bus routes getting combined at times.

“Our day starts at 5 in the morning and we’re there until the last bus gets in,” said Fick. “With the road conditions how they are and how we’re doing things, we’ve got long days, but it’s part of what we do. Where other schools have struggled, we’ve excelled. We’ve had other school districts call us and ask how we’re doing it. A driver can call in up to a certain point and I can still cover their route by combining certain people.”

With school bus stop arm violations, 36 were reported in 2020.

“All of the schools in the county use the same form to report it (stop-arm violations) to (Kosciusko County Prosecutor) Dan Hampton,” said Dr. David Robertson, WCS assistant superintendent of elementary education. “It’s a really tight process.”

For determining whether WCS will have a two-hour delay schedule or close for the day due to weather conditions, Fick and WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert rely on spotters who travel around the district to check how roads are.

“We can make a lot of our calls the night before so we can take the chaos out of the parents’ hands in the mornings,” said Fick. “What we’ve set up internally through the school system is by far better than any of the other school systems.”

“Mark and his staff are excellent spotters,” said Dr. Hoffert. “They’re out at 4:30 in the morning checking. Our district is 20 to 30 miles. Them knowing the conditions is crucial.”

The board’s next regular meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, at Lincoln Elementary School.

Attached to this story is the school board’s signed resolution opposing House Bill 1005.

HB1005Schoolboard resolution.2021_Signed