In last night’s Warsaw Community School Regular Board Meeting, Joella Smith, principal of Edgewood Middle School and summer program coordinator, and Kyle Carter, summer program facilitator, presented data regarding the academic improvement of students enrolled in WCS summer school programs. According to Smith, not only is the program one of the biggest in the state with a total of 2,043 students enrolled this past summer alone, but, according to the data, is on its way toward being one of the best summer programs as well.

While many expect summer to be a time away from academics, according to Smith, at WCS schools, that is not the case.

“Warsaw (Community School Corporation) doesn’t go to sleep in the summer, it doesn’t take vacation. They (the students) keep learning,” stated Smith.

The program spans 17 days and offered courses to a variety of educational needs and grade levels. In the elementary schools, students had access to Kindergarten Countdown, a course helping students adjust to the academic environment who had no preschool experience; Reading Readiness, a boosting course for students who completed kindergarten who required additional work with reading skills; and IREAD remediation, which offers first to third grade students the opportunity to work towards a passing score on the IREAD.

In addition to the elementary school programs, elementary and middle school students are offered access to the Literacy Writing and math programs, which are offered to grades 4 through 7 and assist students with literacy requirements in both academic fields.

In addition, WCS also hosted a summer enrichment camp to students through a partnership with Martin’s Supermarket and Science Central in Fort Wayne. The camp held cooking, biology and engineering programs for students as well as a lego robotics camp.

WCS also held high school summer school programs including credit classes; Driver’s Training; middle school and high school summer band; credit recovery programs; summer orchestra.

Carter presented the board with data that compared students pretest scores with post-test scores. According to the data (view here) provided by Carter, students saw improvement in virtually every program and enrollment numbers saw an increase throughout the conclusion of the first week.

In other business, in accordance with House Bill 1381, which was established this past spring, WCS was required to report a set date to the IDOE stating which date would be the transfer request deadline for the school.

According to Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott, the school corporation is not setting a building/grade level capacity as they intend to accept all student transfer request throughout the year. In addition, the deadline for placing a transfer request will be set for the last day of school, May 29, as the school corporation plans to accept students throughout the duration of the school year. According to Scott, in prior years the school required a transfer request by the beginning of the school year. However, due to a the state creation of a second enrollment count in February, the school corporation will benefit in terms of funding should it continue to grow throughout the year.

“Funding will be adjusted if we continue to grow,” stated Scott. “Regardless of the time of year, it will benefit us to gain students.”

Scott stated the decision to allow open transfer enrollment throughout the school year came as a result of a suggestion made by the Indiana State Attendance Officer.

Other business:

• As of Monday, the current enrollment count for WCS was 7,282. Last year at this time, WCS reported a total of 7,116 students. The count does not include students enrolled in Claypool and Leesburg preschool programs, which total 60 students.
• Kevin Scott presented the board with a financial recap and personnel report outlining all new hires and rehires with the school corporation. Click HERE to view the August WCS personnel report. Click HERE to view the August WCS financial reports.
• According to WCS Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz, the corporation anticipates the 2013 ISTEP+ scores by the end of the month. Hintz also stated the board’s facility committee is continuing to review and discuss potential improvements to Lincoln and Washington Elementary schools, Edgewood Middle School, WCHS and the WACC.
• WCS will hold the Notice to Taxpayer’s public hearing at 12 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6.