Warsaw Community School Board Vice President Randy Polston holds the gift that he received from Warsaw Community Schools’ Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, June 8. Hoffert gave all the board members the gifts to thank them for the support they provided during the last school year during the COVID-19 pandemic. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Warsaw Community Schools’ Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert has offered insights to state and federal health officials on how the school district approached the COVID-19 pandemic and remained open.

During its combined work session and regular meeting on Tuesday, June 8, the Warsaw Community School Board heard an update on the issue from Hoffert.

He met with three representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one from the Indiana State Department of Health last week at Warsaw City Hall.

“We actually had a meeting down in the mayor’s office to talk about vaccination and vaccination rates here in the Warsaw area and so we were invited to come down and give some insights and just do a reflection,” he told InkFreeNews after the meeting.

He recalled the reaction from one of the officials, “We can’t believe that you guys stayed open all year.”

The corporation only closed for a few days around Thanksgiving at the high school level related to support staff, said Hoffert.

“Warsaw was definitely one of the largest school systems in the state to stay open. We’re a very large school system and so in so many ways we were able to defy the odds this past year,” said Hoffert.

“It gave us just an opportunity to go back and reflect, really, almost like a case study of what were the decisions, how did we track all the data, how did we make our decisions and how did we make sure that they were very data-driven decisions as we went through the entire year,” he continued.

Warsaw Community Schools and other districts inside Kosciusko County worked closely with the county health department throughout much of the pandemic to develop policies used inside schools.

During the school board meeting, Hoffert presented the board with gifts to thank them for the support they provided during the past school year.

He also gave one to Terry Sims, the president of the Warsaw Community Educators Association.

“Really, again, we would not have been able to have this year if it was not for Terry coming alongside and helping us lead all the way through,” he said.