Additional Agenda Items For School Board
Other agenda items considered by the Wawasee school board during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, June 9, in Syracuse included:
• Dr. Tom Edington, superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corp., noted the high school building trades projects for the next two school years will be a joint effort between Wawasee and Fairfield, with help from West Noble students. For the 2015-16 school year, Wawasee students will begin the year by building a shell for a garage at a home on the north shore of Syracuse Lake, then will join Fairfield for a house project.
• Nicholas Murphy, Ethan Hays, Joe Kelsheimer, Clay Kelsheimer, Cory Dunivan and Garrett Smith of the eight-grade robotics team of Wawasee Middle School were recognized for finishing fifth at the state competition.
• Wawasee High School’s Academic Super Bowl teams for science and social studies were recognized for finishing third at the state competition. The social studies team included Jerrica Bontrager, Jake Cowan, Brandon Fox and Josh Webber. The science team included Colfax Cannaday, Owen Donahoe, Fox and Clayton Hicks.
• Textbook rental fees for 2015-16 were approved and include $100.40 for kindergarten ($87.65 last year), $100.40 for first grade ($93.60 last year), $105.50 for second grade ($104.95 last year), $104.50 for third grade ($103.25 last year), $107.95 for fourth grade ($107.40 last year), $103.90 for fifth grade ($103.50 last year). It was noted kindergarten is now full time and no longer a half day and more materials are required. And the first grade has new language arts materials. But some of the increase could be offset if a grant is approved by the state.
• School lunch prices will increase by 10 cents for the 2015-16 school year and will now be $1.70 for grades K-5, $1.90 for grades 6-12 and $2.75 for adults. Schools are required to raise lunch prices yearly to eventually meet the National School Lunch Program reimbursement rate.
• The school board approved the receipt of an $8,000 Art Dekko Initiative grant. It will be divided as follows: $3,500 for the art, music and culinary programs of Milford School; $3,000 for the music program at Syracuse Elementary; and $1,500 for the art program at Syracuse Elementary.
• The board approved entering an agreement with GS-Technology to work with the architects in building the new Syracuse Elementary.
• And the board approved Wawasee FFA members going on an overnight trip to Pennsylvania for a dairy judging contest this summer.