Michele White, skills teacher at Lakeview Middle School, talks about the school’s Response to Intervention learning program while Lakeview Middle School Assistant Principal Todd Braddock listens to her presentation. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Shepherd.

By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — School bus drivers and nurses were recognized for their years of service and hard work during a Warsaw Community School board meeting on Monday, May 17.

WCS Director of Transportation Mark Fick and Assistant Director of Transportation Kristy Newton presented engraved plaques and flowers to bus drivers who have extensively worked for the school corporation. Driving trainers and those with perfect attendance were also recognized.

Drivers with 20+ years of service to WCS include Deborah Yuker, Kim Grubbs, Terrie Good, Kevin Jones, Mary Jane Prater, John Ryan, Donna Castle, Roxanne Wildman, Linda Haughee, Colleen Fritcher, Leah Jones, Sheri Krichbaum and Bernadine Waikel.

Those with 30+ years of service to the school corporation are Sally Johnson, Jackie Clase, Mark LaFountain, Clelda Benning and Lisa Wallen.

Jackie Clase, Gina Kenner and Gene Farrar were recognized for their work as bus driver trainers.

“I could not do what I do without them and I appreciate you and everything that you do,” said Fick.

Kenner, Farrar, Johnson, Waikel, Mark Tracy and Richard Long received awards for perfect attendance.

Fick and Newton also presented each school board member with a plaque to thank them for their support of the transportation department.

“I appreciate every one of you supporting our department and what we do,” said Fick. “It’s amazing what you do as far as a board to make sure that we have the things we need. Every one of you deserves this and my whole department appreciates it.”

WCS Nurse Coordinator Tracey Akers was also present at the meeting to recognize all of the school corporation’s nurses, as well as nurses and doctors with the Kosciusko County Health Department.

In total, the school corporation has 11 nurses and four nurse assistants.

“School nurse is just one title, but we have many vital roles,” said Akers. “We are public health liaisons who share important health information. This current school year brought forth the important roles of school nurses as public health liaisons and the critical teamwork that was needed … we the school nurses want to publicly thank the health department for their constant guidance and up-to-date knowledge concerning the ever-changing guidelines of COVID-19. They never made us feel like we were bothering them or asking silly questions. They worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of all our students and staff.”

In other business, a recommendation to have a personal finance class as a graduation requirement for all high school students was approved by the school board. Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education Dr. David Robertson presented the proposal to the board during a May 11 work session.

During that meeting, Robertson said the class would primarily consist of a project-based curriculum and would teach students how to create monthly budgets while teaching them about credit scores, debt and housing costs. The class will become a requirement starting with the class of 2024, Warsaw Community High School’s current freshmen.

Robertson and WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert both said there’s been an overwhelming amount of positive feedback regarding the school corporation adding the class as a graduation requirement. Robertson noted that there will be a digital option for the course and that there will be a tight exemption process.

“We don’t want to have broad exemptions for this because it’s so important but we do want families to know that we’ll work with them if there’s a unique situation,” said Robertson about the course’s addition. “I think our community is really proud of this step.”

The school board will have a combined work and regular meeting at 4 p.m. June 8, at the WCS central office.