By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Students enrolled at Warsaw Community Schools began their first day of the 2022-2023 school year on Monday, Aug. 15.

WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert told the WCS Board of Trustees how the day was for students and staff during an Aug. 15 board meeting.

Hoffert said he, WCS Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Dani Barkey, and WCS Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education Dr. David Robertson, visited all WCS buildings throughout the day.

“We’ve had one of the best starts we’ve ever had,” said Hoffert. “The first day can be high-stress, but I have to tell you, going around to each one of our schools, just how welcoming our front office staffs were, our administrators were, our teachers were…it felt so good after a couple years of very high stress, to be back to some of those normal things. It was a great start to the school year.”

In other business, Chief Financial Officer April Fitterling presented two resolutions regarding general obligation (GO) bonds.

“This is part of our debt structure that we’ve been working on for a few years to maintain our tax rate,” said Fitterling. “We saw a huge jump in our assessed value, just over 14%, when our average has been around 3%. Instead of doing a two to three million GO bond, we’re going to do our max at $5.7 million.”

Fitterling requested a preliminary bond resolution, which would set the cap at $5.7 million, and a reimbursement resolution if the school district were to spend any funds immediately. There will be a hearing on the bonds during the board’s next work session at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, with the official approval happening during the next regular session at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26.

Fitterling said the bonds will be further detailed in September. The board approved the resolutions.