WARSAW — The Warsaw Community Schools building project took one more step forward Monday evening, Oct. 19, as the board of school trustees announced Performance Services as the choice for its design-build firm.

Other choices included Hagerman Inc. and The Korte Company.

The extensive project includes major renovations and additions to Washington Elementary School and Edgewood Middle School and building an entirely new Lincoln elementary School. The technical review committee for the project chose Performance Services at a meeting held Friday, Oct. 16.

Performance Services Senior Architect Jerry Rolfson was present and thanked the board and all those involved in the process.

Dani Barkey and Terry Roe gave a report on the Advanced Placement program at Warsaw Community High School. Roe showed a graph showing a slight drop in recent years in AP participation due to the school’s dual credit option.

Board member Dan Metzger asked for clarification as to the difference between AP and dual credit, to which Roe responded that under AP, teachers are trained to teach the class and participating students take a standardized test, aiming for a score of 3 or higher on a 1-5 scale. Most colleges recognize and will give credit for this score range.

Over the past year, Warsaw AP calculus BC students excelled, with 11 participating, none scoring below a 3 and eight scoring a perfect 5. Seven of nine students in the AP art class scored a 3 or higher.

Under dual credit, the school contracts with a college and students receive credit through that college for the class. Students and teachers also pay a reduced tuition fee for the class, just as if the student were attending that college.

Mindi Reinholt gave a report on some changes in the high-ability, program, including how high-ability students are identified. In the past, she said, students were asked to take what she referred to as, “one more test.” Now, she added, high-ability students are identified through scores on tests that everybody already takes.

The board also heard from Lakeview Middle School students. Lakeview held Jar Wars to raise funds for the recent Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack event, held at Grace College. The goal was for students to collect $1,000 by dropping change into jars in their homeroom classes.

The winning homeroom was Mrs. Kloepfer’s room, collecting more than $200, enough to feed three children every day for a year. In all, Lakeview raised $2,110.06, enough to feed 79 children for a year.

“We think if we don’t eat for 10 hours, we’re starving,” one student commented. “We don’t know what starving is like.”

After the presentation, school board members shook each student’s hand.

Other News

• The board adopted the 2016 budget, the 2016-18 capital projects plan, the 2016 school bus replacement plan and a resolution to reduce 2015 appropriation.