Board Spotlight: Dunkin’ Donuts
Dunkin’ Donuts continues to make a meaningful impact on Warsaw Community Schools, supporting students, teachers and programs in countless ways. Tonight, the Board recognized Dunkin' for all that they do for WCS students and staff. We're excited to share that they will also be the Tiger Tuesday spotlight tomorrow.
Dunkin' provides donuts for all Students of the Month throughout the district and gives tokens for complimentary donuts. They also support unique educational projects, such as Leesburg Elementary’s coffee shop decimal lesson and partnered with High School Nation’s anti-bullying campaign by gifting every WCHS student a $5 Dunkin' gift card. Additionally, Dunkin' is working with our cheerleaders on a fundraiser to support their goal of performing at Disney Nationals.
Community Spotlight: Together We Feed Them All
The Board heard from JoElla Hauselman, Kearstin Criswell and Jeri Purdy about the “Together We Feed Them All” initiative, a district-wide effort to impact food insecurity for our families. Originally launched as a food drive at Edgewood Middle School, the program now spans all WCS schools.
This initiative will impact 350 families and aims to raise $30,000 for the 2024-2025 school year to ensure no WCS family goes hungry during extended breaks, starting with Christmas Break. Community members are encouraged to donate, volunteer or organize food drives to help reach this goal. Through LovEd, local churches have also rallied around the effort, offering hands-on support with food collection and distribution.
Every contribution helps ensure that children in our community can focus on learning and growing without worrying about their next meal.
Facilities Spotlight: Lakeview Middle School Future Planning
Dr. David Hoffert provided an update on WCS’s 10-year facility plan, with a focus on Lakeview Middle School. He shared four options for the school’s future: renovating the existing building, constructing a new middle school, consolidating with Edgewood Middle School at Lakeview, or consolidating at Edgewood. The Board continues to explore all options while awaiting outcomes from the legislative session, which will impact our Operations Fund capacity.
WCS is drawing insights from visits to “like schools” such as Plainfield Middle School, LaPorte Middle School and Goshen Intermediate School to get ideas for facility design and efficiencies. Despite declining birth rates, Warsaw Community Schools projects a relatively steady enrollment and remains focused on academic and program needs, efficient staffing and cost-effective planning as we plan for Lakeview's future.
Additional visits and input from stakeholders are planned as we consider the next steps.
Academic Spotlight: Textbook Adoption
Tracy Horrell shared that WCS is adopting Wonders as the new K-6 literacy curriculum. This decision was voted on and approved during last week’s Curriculum Council meeting after months of review and planning.
WCS followed a thorough process; teachers and parents were actively involved, weighing in on the options from a state-approved list of curriculums. Wonders stood out as the best choice to support literacy development and the Science of Reading in our elementary schools.
Thank you to everyone who presented and attended the session. Join us for the next combined board meeting on December 9.