Dr. Tom Edington speaks during the school board meeting.

By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — As he did during the October meeting, Dr. Stephen Troyer, assistant superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corporation, spent much of his student learning report talking about the continued COVID-19 impact on schools during the Tuesday evening, Nov. 10, regular monthly meeting of the Wawasee School Board in Syracuse.

Troyer said 521 students have been sent home from school due to positive testing for COVID with the majority of those being in close contact with someone has tested positive. That number is broken down as follows: 176 from Wawasee High School, 128 from Wawasee Middle School, 90 from Milford School, 70 from North Webster Elementary and 57 from Syracuse Elementary.

For the month of October, 15 students tested positive and six staff members tested positive for a total of 21.

He said staff members are in contact daily with the county health department and the health department has said repeatedly schools are one of the safest places to be due to safety measures put in place. Troyer noted the problems with the virus spreading seem to be more from social gatherings outside of school.

Due to the burdens COVID has placed on staff members, Troyer asked for and was given approval by the board to switch Nov. 23-24 to eLearning days instead of in person learning. He said with the three days off already for Thanksgiving and the weekend days, that would give a nine-day break with no close contacts and allow staff time to catch up.

Troyer also put out a plea for the community to practice restraint at social gatherings, for parents to closely monitor the health of their children and not let them go back to school if they have been tested and are still awaiting the results and for everyone to please be patient with the school corporation. “We are trying our very best to keep schools open,” he emphasized, especially for elementary students because of childcare and other issues.

Rebecca Linnemeier, school board president, asked if it would be possible to have virtual only learning for all schools the week after Thanksgiving due to students likely being at family gatherings. Troyer said it is a possibility that can be considered.

Earlier in the meeting, the board heard from two concerned parents during the patron comments. Chris Smith is the father of a seventh grade student at WMS and said he feels having students go back to in person learning is not good timing considering COVID cases are at record levels and deaths and hospitalizations are also higher. He also noted regular communication to parents about COVID information is not as consistent during this school year as it was last school year.

He said when he has tried to contact someone for answers “there is a lot of finger pointing back and forth” between the central office and others. Smith was advised to connect with Troyer and Troyer then provided Smith with his contact information.

Patrick Tranter, the father of a third-grade student at Syracuse Elementary, then posed four questions to the board: why can’t the board answer questions when the public speaks at meetings, why did the school corporation have a $1 million budget shortfall in 2019, why has $6 million been allocated to the new administration building for the next three years and why are administrators getting a pay raise when teachers are only getting a stipend.

Linnemeier responded by saying “we don’t engage in conversations during board meetings, we just don’t do that.” She noted “this is a meeting held in public, but is not a public meeting.” James Flecker, director of finance, noted he has tried to contact Tranter and will do so again.

In other business, the board heard a proposal for winter sports spectator participation in light of COVID. Geoff Walmer, WHS principal, talked about only basketball and noted they would allow up to 500 spectators in addition to those staff members needed for basketball games. Those would include four tickets for family members of each player and cheerleader, two tickets for family members of each band member and 70 would be allowed in the cheer block properly spaced apart. Visiting teams will be allowed up to 125 spectators and any remaining tickets will be sold at the door.

Walmer said only a few weeks ago it was thought half of the approximately 2,600 seat gym could be opened up but the increase in COVID cases changed that. “It is fluid and may change even more,” he said, adding it could get to the point no one outside of those directly involved would be allowed to come in. The board approved the proposal.

Other agenda items included:

• The board officially approved the 2020-21 master teacher agreement which includes no base salary increase, but a $1,500 stipend for every teacher. A public hearing was held Thursday, Nov. 5, about the agreement.

• More than $1,300 was raised during “Pink Out” football games to help Tracy Walesa in her ongoing fight against breast cancer.

• Jennifer Phillips, director of special education, was named a Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation 2020 Business Impact and Rising Leaders award winner.

• Phil Huffman received a $500 grant from McDonald’s to purchase digital cameras for radio and TV students in the Pathways Cooperative.

• Eleanor Hooker was reappointed to the North Webster Community Public Library board.

• Dr. Edington is now serving on the Indiana Dual Credit Advisory Council.

• Using bus strobe lights in the dark is being tested in November. Some other school districts have already been using the strobe lights in the dark instead of just during inclement weather situations.