Warsaw Superintendent Reflects On Weekend Bus Accident
By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — A Nov. 12 bus accident in Warsaw, which injured 20 high school students from Illinois, was on the Warsaw Community Schools’ Board of Trustees’ mind during a Nov. 14 meeting.
WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said the school district responded to the accident and aided those at the scene. WCS Transportation Director Mark Fick and Assistant Director of Transportation Kristi Newton brought a WCS bus to take the uninjured passengers to Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital.
“We didn’t know whether that bus was a Warsaw bus or if it was someone else’s bus,” said Hoffert about going to the accident. “We rushed out there and Mark and Kristi were absolutely amazing. When we got there, the comment was ‘It doesn’t matter whose bus it is. We’re going to treat this like these are our families, these are our students.’ The entire community came around and did that.”
Hoffert thanked Fick, Newton, Director of Maintenance Jim LeMasters, and emergency personnel for responding to the accident.
“We were able to use our training and help comfort, help keep a situation that could have been really chaotic into something well-run,” said Hoffert. “While it will stick in a lot of people’s memory, especially those 23 kids that were on the bus, we’re just so thankful that it’s not worse than what it was.”
The school board also focused on local safety with WCS buses by continuing discussions on school bus stop arm violations. Since the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, WCS has had 131 stop arm violations, 55 of which have been identified and sent to the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office.
Fick said the East Center Street stop area, near Papa John’s, remains a problem but that violations occur throughout the county.
“Parker Street’s a big one now, where they’re not even stopping, they’re going straight through the arms,” said Fick.
Fick played several videos of vehicles passing a stopped school bus on Center Street. An electronic sign telling drivers on East Center Street that traffic in all lanes stops when school buses stop has helped alleviate the issue.
“Our biggest push has been educating the public,” said Fick. “It’s throughout the county. People, they don’t pay attention. They flat-out do not pay attention.”
Fick said he’s had three repeat offenders since the beginning of the school year and emphasized the importance of continuing public awareness on stopping for stopped school buses.
In other business, the board also approved a recently awarded $150,000 grant provided by the Zimmer Biomet Foundation.
The funds will be utilized to continue the expansion of WCS’s K-12 STEM initiatives, which are aligned with WCS’s mission and strategic planning pillars. Throughout the 2022-23 school year, WCS will offer professional development for all K-12 staff, provide updated materials and equipment, and implement the eighth annual robotics competition for the robotics team at each elementary school.
“WCS is blessed with our local partnerships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education,” said Hoffert. “Through the ongoing assistance of Zimmer Biomet and the Zimmer Biomet Foundation, WCS has become a state and national leader in STEM education. This investment is key in preparing our students for local and national jobs in orthopedics and many other STEM-related fields. We are grateful for this long-standing relationship between WCS and Zimmer Biomet.”
Matt Deeds, Harrison Elementary School principal, also shared his and Lincoln Elementary School’s initiatives on leadership development. Staff for the two elementary schools are embarking on a book study on leadership development. There are also plans to visit a number of Indiana schools that have specific areas of focus on school and student leadership development.
The board’s next meeting, which is a combined work session and regular meeting, is at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19.