January 6, 2009 School Board Meeting

The Wawasee Community School Board met on Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 pm to reorganize for the coming year. Election of officers was held. George Gilbert will serve as president, Mike Wilson as vice-president, and Becky Linnemeier as secretary for 2009. The Board of Finance officers are Mary Lou Dixon as president and Mike Wilson as secretary. Dallas Winchester will be the board representative to the Vocational Advisor's Council.
Regular meetings will generally take place on the second Tuesday of a month. During January and April, meetings will be on the third Tuesday. From April through September, meeting times will be 7:00pm, while 5:30pm will be the meeting time during the October through March months.
We are looking forward to a great 2009 year at Wawasee Community Schools.
In other business, Rex Miller was re-appointed to the Milford Library Board.
A work session was held following the business meeting. Board attorney David Cates worked with the board on policy development issues, including a new student random drug testing policy to be instituted for the 2009-10 school year. Health insurance consultant Stan Burt discussed the benefits and challenges involved in operating a staff health clinic. The board will study this issue further to see if lower health insurance costs and better staff health will offset the investment in a clinic. Rob Staley of The Crossing presented to the board about an alternative school for those high school and young adult community members who aren't part of our present school setting, due to a variety of reasons. Students in that situation are served by The Crossing, a faith-based organization, at Goshen, West Noble, Elkhart, South Bend, and DeKalb Eastern schools. Because most of the students who attend The Crossing are not now in school, but of school age, we would receive additional revenue from the state to cover the cost of the program. We will continue to study possibilities for The Crossing at Wawasee.