(Right) Tim Ellis of Reese Recreation Products Inc. stands with the $10,000 worth of playground equipment donated to Claypool Elementary during last night’s WCS regular board meeting.
(Photo provided by Tim Ellis)

During Monday night’s Warsaw Community School Corporation regular board meeting three donors came forward to pledge their dollars and support to two educational programs being offered by the schools.

Patricia Coy, executive director of United Way of Kosciusko County, attended the meeting to approve the donation of $32,000 to the Claypool Early Learning Center. This is the second year that United Way has supplied funds for the program.

In a statement to the board Coy said, “Several years ago the board at United Way decided to take a hard look at what we were going to work on in education and one of the things we decided to work on was kindergarten readiness and first- and second-grade reading comprehension.

“With that in mind we wanted to work with the professionals, the expertise in our community, which is why we started talking to the school systems because you guys know what you are doing. We just wanted to help make sure that that happens and we thought a way to do this is to support the Claypool Early Learning Center. When they met with us this year they showed phenomenal results. With that in mind when they said they were going to open a second classroom we took the initiative and actually funded them above what they asked for. On behalf of the board we’d like to say thank you for your initative and what you are doing and also that you are willing to partner with us to make education better for the children.”

Tim Ellis of Reese Recreation Products Inc. also made a donation to the Claypool Early Education Center and Claypool Elementary. Ellis donated two playground items valued at $10,000 to the school. Ellis stated that his daughter is a third-grade student at the school and that he recently joined the transportation department as a driver for the school district.

“My daughter is a third grade at Claypool and we love Claypool,” said Ellis with a smile upon approval of his donation.

In addition to the funding supplied to Claypool, Medtronic of Warsaw was also among those that made a donation to the school corporation. Medtronic donated $1,500 dollars toward Washington S.T.E.M. Academy.

In other business, the board approved a request by Steve Ferber, principal at Gateway Education Center, to continue pursuit of $40,000 to $50,000 worth of Alternative Education grants from the state. Ferber stated the school plans to reapply for grants receieved for the A+ Program at Lakeview, Step One at WCHS, Middle School Alternative Learning Program (MS ALP) at Gateway, AIMS at Gateway, the ASE program at Gateway and the Rebound program hosted at Gateway.

In addition to these grants, Ferber was also approved to re-apply for grants in the Adult Education Program. Ferber said the program reaches beyond just WCS and into Wawasee, Akron and Rochester. According to Ferber, the Adult Education Program offers English as a Second Language, welding, GED and CNA courses. Those who attend the program are able to receive degrees and trade skills for the work force. Ferber anticipates the programs are eligible to receive $415,000 in grant money. According to Ferber, the addition of WSC to the program raised the grant money available significantly.