From left are North Webster Elementary kindergarten teacher Laurie Fredericks and two of her students Olivia Wake and Wyatt Phillips giving a video presentation.
SYRACUSE — During its regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening, April 17, in Syracuse the Wawasee school board approved new health sciences classes for the Pathways Cooperative based at Wawasee High School.
Jon Everingham, director of Pathways, said it was time to update the health sciences curriculum. He said only three students had enrolled in those classes during the last two years and the classes needed to be updated to reflect current industry standards.
A half day program will now be offered for the whole school year and divided into two semesters. The first semester will be a primary health care class in a partnership with the Premier Nursing Academy and the second semester will be a Health Science I class.
Students who complete the course can be licensed as a certified nursing assistant. The classes will be offered to students from Wawasee, Fairfield, West Noble and Goshen high schools.
In other business, the board approved summer renovations at Milford School to include both the elementary and middle schools. The building will get a “significant facelift,” said James Flecker, school corporation attorney.
Renovations will include painting walls, new carpeting, replacing old ceiling tiles, replacing student desks and chairs, renovations to the middle school gym and new BenQ interactive boards where needed in classrooms.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, North Webster Elementary kindergarten students Wyatt Phillips and Olivia Wake, along with their teacher Laurie Fredericks, gave a brief video presentation on a tower garden project they completed. Lettuce was grown on a tower system and provided to families in need. A total of $100 was raised in sales and donations and donated as a gas gift card to a family traveling to cancer treatments.
Near the end of the meeting there was some discussion about the property tax rate this year for residents in the school district. Board member Mike Wilson noted he had been contacted by a couple of patrons who wondered why their tax rate had risen so much.
In response, Jim Evans, director of finances for the school corporation, said the goal is to have a flat property tax rate “but we can’t always control that.” He said the Department of Local Government Finance sets the rate based on legislative activity and other factors. This year, Evans said, the tax levy needed to be increased to make payments to the debt service fund.
Dr. Tom Edington, superintendent, noted the tax rate has been lower four out of the last five years. “We don’t usually hear about it when the rate is lower,” he said.
Other agenda items included:
• Milford Middle School students participated in a walk March 24 to honor former teacher Cayle Woodard who is battling cancer.
• Kim Nguyen, WHS principal, was accepted into the Indiana Principal Leadership Institute.
• North Webster Elementary hosted a successful family night March 15 with guest speaker Jim “Basketball” Jones.
• Eight people have signed up for the adult welding classes offered at the Pathways shop in Syracuse.
• The WHS Agriculture Department received a grant of $1,955 from Arrow Head Country RC&D to purchase waders.
• Wawasee Middle School teacher Shelly Kunkle provided input for an article in Edutopia, a well known online educational resource.
• Shopko provided a $2,500 grant to the high school for remodeling in the kitchen of the special needs room.
• Milford School received a grant of $3,500 for an outdoor classroom and the WHS Art Department received $6,710 for a kiln from the Dekko Foundation.
• The Pathways marine mechanics program received a donation of a Runabout boat and trailer.
• Out of state or overnight trips were approved including robotics teams to attend the world championships in Louisville.
• The board approved renewal of technology contracts involving bandwidth service and malware software to protect computers.
• And the board approved the 2018-19 building trades project, a new home to be built for Jeff and Jennifer Phillips on the south side of North Webster.