Friday, February 26, 2010

Due to electrical problems, Wawasee High School is closed today, Friday, February 26, 2010. All other Wawasee schools are open today.

As long as power is restored during the day, the following will take place:

• the Career/Technical Open House from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Career/Technical Building on the high school campus
• the boys' basketball game at home against Tippy Valley at 6:15 p.m.

Changes in Immunization Requirements for Students

The following is information from our schools' nurses explaining changes in immunization requirements for students for the 2010-2011 school year:

During the 2009 legislative session, Indiana Code 20-34-4-2 was revised, requiring the Indiana State Department of Health to “adopt rules under IC4-22-2 to require school age children to receive additional immunizations against the following: Meningitis, Varicella (Chicken Pox), and Pertussis” (Whooping Cough). Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by the pertussis bacteria. Pertussis causes severe coughing fits. The pertussis booster (Tdap) is combined with tetanus toxoid.

Changes to the school immunization requirements for school year 2010-2011 are as follows:

a. All preschool and kindergarten students will be required to have 2 doses of varicella vaccine, given on or after the first birthday and separated by 3 months. For children entering preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade, a signed statement by a healthcare provider, including date of disease, is required to document history of chickenpox.

b. All kindergarten students will be required to have 4 doses of polio vaccine, one of the required doses given on or after the fourth birthday, and at least 6 months after the previous dose.

c. All 6th - 12th grade students will be required to have 2 doses of varicella vaccine, given on or after the first birthday, and separated by age-appropriate intervals as defined by the CDC, or a history of chicken pox disease.

d. All 6th -12th grade students will be required to have 1 dose of tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap) given on or after the 10th birthday.

e. All 6th -12th grade students will be required to have 1 dose of meningitis vaccine (MCV4)

These vaccines are available free at the Kosciusko County Immunization Clinic, located in the K21 Health Pavilion, 1515 Provident Drive, Suite 160, Warsaw. Hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 8:30 to 12:00pm and 1:15pm to 3:30 pm. Evening clinic hours are the 1st Monday of each month, 6:00pm-8:00pm. And at the Syracuse clinic at Lakeland Youth Center on the 2nd Thursday of each month, 2:00pm to 3:30pm. Varicella vaccine is not available at the Syracuse Clinic. No appointment is necessary. Take a copy of your child's immunization record with you.

The following websites have additional resources for families to obtain information about vaccines:

The Indiana Department of Health http://www.in.gov/isdh

The Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines

Your assistance in vaccinating your student to meet the new Indiana State requirements is very appreciated. Please contact the school nurse in your students building with any updated vaccination dates.

Wawasee Community School Health Service Staff:
Allene Dewart, LPN - Milford School, 574-658-9444
Jane Venderly, RN - Syracuse Elementary, 574-457-4484
Pam Rensberger, RN - North Webster Elementary, 574-834-7644
Robin Huffman, RN - Wawasee Middle School, 574-457-8830
Myra Alexander, RN - Wawasee High School, 574-457-3147

February 11, 2010 School Delay

Wawasee Community Schools will delay the start of school on Thursday, February 11, for 2 hours due to road ice.

February 15, 2010 Snow Make-Up Day

Wawasee Community Schools will be in session on Monday, February 15, 2010. The day is a make-up day for Wednesday, February 10, when classes were canceled due to snow.

February 10, 2010 School Closing

Wawasee Community Schools will be closed on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 due to blowing and drifting snow.

2/9/2010: Wawasee Dismissing Students Early

Due to weather conditions, Wawasee Community Schools are dismissing students at 1 p.m. (1:20 p.m. at Wawasee Middle School) today, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

All after school activities are canceled.

Wawasee varsity girls' basketball sectional game against Northwood at West Noble High School is now scheduled for Thursday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m.

Clarification for Monday, February 15, 2010

Monday, February 15, 2010, is a snow make-up day for the Wawasee Community School Corporation. If school is canceled any day during the week of and including February 9, 10, 11, and 12, classes will be in session on Monday, February 15.

Weather alerts have been issued for a possible snow storm this week. We wanted to clear up any questions about the use of Monday's make-up day. We will all keep an eye on the weather as we attempt to get in our required school days this winter.

Indiana's Cash for College Campaign

Indiana has initiated a Cash for College campaign made possible by the federal College Access Challenge Grant. According to information released by the Indiana Department of Education, "the campaign promotes practical, grade-specific steps for Hoosier students, all leading up to the state's March 10th deadline for filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)."

Information can be found at LearnMoreIndiana.org/CashforCollege. The website has information on College Goal Sunday on February 21, a free statewide event at 37 sites across Indiana to get help and file the FAFSA (http://www.collegegoalsunday.org/); on FAFSA Fridays on February 12 and 19 where you can get free information and chant online with financial aid experts; and on student goal setting for college for elementary, middle, and high school students.

School Delay - Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wawasee Community Schools will begin Tuesday, January 19, with a 2-hour delay due to road ice.

Citizens' Checklist to Respond to Lower State Tuition Support Funding

On January 15, 2010, the Indiana State Board of Education sent the information below to superintendents, school board members, principals, and Indiana educators regarding the lowering of funding of state tuition support. For Wawasee Community School Corporation, this cut is in the amount of over one million dollars. The final amount is yet to be determined as Wawasee has not received final information from the state.

"On January 8, 2010, the State Board of Education formally adopted the attached Citizens’ Checklist to be utilized by local school communities as they move to make adjustments to respond to lower state tuition support funding as a result of the State’s declining revenues.

"The Citizens’ Checklist outlines a series of adjustments that all stakeholders in K-12 education should consider, discuss and implement in order to avoid or minimize any reduction in teaching staff that affects classroom instruction and learning.

"The checklist itemizes 22 adjustments and considerations in four broad categories that include monetary adjustments, program adjustments, adjustments that reduce the cost of staff without affecting instruction, and community reporting and accountability. Conversations at the local level should include participation of school board members, the district’s leadership team, teachers’ association, and the community.

"By distributing the Citizens’ Checklist throughout the local community, it is the intent of the State Board and Department of Education to stimulate meaningful and transparent dialogue that will be held in an open forum so that positive action can be taken and obstructions to solutions can be identified and addressed. Conducting open forums will allow local communities to find adjustments that do not affect student learning.

"The State Board and Department intend that the Citizens’ Checklist be a resource tool that all local school communities incorporate in the decision making process and that all local media use to track and inform the public of decisions, actions and impacts.

"It is understood that school boards, the district’s leadership team and teacher associations will retain the flexibility and autonomy to make monetary, programmatic, administrative and other decisions based on the district’s and school’s fiscal position but in the best interest of its students."

No School - Monday, Janauary 18, 2010

Wawasee Community School Corporation will not be in session on Monday, January 18, for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

School Delay on Friday, January 8

Wawasee Community Schools will delay 2 hours on Friday, January 8, due to snow covered roads.

January 7 Early Dismissal

Wawasee Community Schools will dismiss students on Thursday, Janauary 7, at 2:00 pm due to road conditions.

Hints for weareclosedtoday.com

In the November 24th blog entry "Notification Reminder for School Delays and Cancellations," directions were given for signing up for emails and texts from weareclosedtoday.com.

A couple of comments on the blog indicate that some are having problems with using the weareclosedtoday.com website, so we wanted to give some helpful hints for using the website.

If you are just checking the weareclosedtoday.com website to see if Wawasee Schools are delayed or canceled, you need to look on the left side of the website under Check Status and put in Syracuse's zip code 46567 or your zip code. You then need to choose a distance. If you are using your own zip code, please make sure you use a distance that would include the town of Syracuse. When you click on Display Results, you will get a list of school corporations who are using weareclosedtoday.com and are within the distance of the zip code you have chosen that have made the decision to delay or cancel for the day.

If you have signed up for an account and for text messages and emails and are not receiving those, please do the following:

Login into the website; click on Account Info (upper right hand side) and choose Notification Methods. Make sure you have given a valid email address. If you have also given cell phone information in order to receive texts (following the November 24th instructions), make sure you have checked the box behind Is Cell Phone? for the cell phone information given. Make sure you have chosen a mile radius under Display Mile Radius and that you have chosen No under Disable Notifications.

Double-check under Account Info and Select Organizations and School Districts to see that you have dragged Wawasee Community School Corporation into the right hand side under Notification School Districts.

Hopefully, this will help those of you having difficulty getting emails and/or texts.

January 5, 2010 School Delay

The Wawasee Community School Corporation will have a two-hour delay on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, due to drifting snow.

Notification Reminder for School Delays and Cancellations

This is a reminder that Wawasee Community School Corporation is using weareclosedtoday.com for reporting school closings and delays. This is a service designed by the Northern Indiana Educational Services Center that "provides a state of the art way to notify local news media and community members" when we need to close, delay, or dismiss early. In addition to local news media being notified, anyone may go to http://www.weareclosedtoday.com/, enter his or her zip code, choose a radius, and see all the delays or closings within that area.

Community members can also sign up to receive emails and/or text messages when WCSC closes, delays, or dismisses early. We have found that those emails and text messages are received within a very short time frame from when WCSC contacts the service. Click on Community Members and then Register Free to sign up.

Once you have created an account, you can click on Account Info and then Notification Methods from the navigation menu. Once this screen has been displayed, you will be allowed to enter up to three different email addresses to which you would like to receive notifications. Your SMS/text messaging email address, if you wish to receive a text message on your cell phone, is your cell phone number (without hyphens or spaces) and your cell phone provider's SMS/text messaging email address. The most common providers' addresses follow:

• US Cellular: Your cell phone number @email.uscc.net
• AT&T Wireless: Your cell phone number @txt.att.net
• Alltel: Your cell phone number@message.alltel.com
• Verizon Wireless: Your cell phone number@vtext.com
• Centennial Wireless: Your cell phone number@myblue.com

After you have selected your notification methods, you can click on Account Info and then Select Organizations from the navigation menu. Then click on School Districts. Once this screen has been displayed, you will be allowed to drag an organization from the left hand box to the right hand box. Any organization listed in this right hand box will be the only ones for which you will receive future notifications.

We will continue to post delays and cancellations here and on our website.

2-Hour Delay - Tuesday, November 24

Wawasee Community Schools is on a two-hour delay today, Tuesday, November 24. We have dense fog throughout the corporation.

Wawasee H1N1 Update

The Kosciusko County Health Department held an H1N1 information session on Friday, October 16, for county school nurses and superintendents.

Symptoms of the 2009 strain of H1N1A were reviewed:

• sore throat
• cough
• 103˚ - 104˚, even with Tylenol or similar product
• possible vomiting and diarrhea
• length of 7 to 10 days, with cough lasting longer

Fluids and monitoring are the most important treatments. Please do not return to work or school once a fever is no longer present with out the help of medication for 24-48 hours.

The 2009 H1N1A virus symptoms have been generally mild and treatable without doctor intervention. In certain cases, antiviral medications can lessen infection symptoms.

You get the flu from taking in fluids containing the virus which has been expelled in large droplets from the mouth or nasal area of someone with the virus. The virus generally lives until the fluid dries.

Covering your mouth when coughing, using tissues for runny noses, washing hands, using alcohol-based gels, and isolating infected individuals will slow the spread of the flu virus.

The 2009 H1N1A virus is not closely related to other recent flu strains, so the vaccine prepared for this year will not affect the 2009 H1N1A virus. This year’s ‘seasonal’ flu shot will protect against other flu strains expected this winter. Those individuals in priority groups for receiving the 2009 H1N1A vaccine should also get their regular ‘seasonal’ inoculation.

Two types of vaccinations have been prepared for the 2009 H1N1A virus. One is a mist administered through the nose. The other is a shot. The mist is generally more effective and is suitable for those 2-49 years of age. The shot is for 0-2 years of age, those 50 and older, those with asthma, and women who are pregnant.

Supplies of the H1N1A vaccine have been limited. The county expects shipments over the next month or two to inoculate priority groups. Those include:

• pregnant women
• caregivers
• health care workers
• children of 6 months to young adults of 24 years
• those 25-64 with chronic health concerns

Teachers are not considered in the high risk category unless they fall under another priority group designation. Those 65 and older are generally not at risk for contracting the 2009 H1N1A virus.

The Kosciusko County Health Department will work with various entities to inoculate the priority grips. These entities are:

• health care workers
• first responders/key government individuals
• private medical offices
• health department walk-ins
• pharmacies
• school-based clinics
  

If the 2009 H1N1A outbreak should seriously worsen, other measures like voluntary quarantine, school closings, and other means to reduce social contacts will be considered. Schools are making plans for educational activities to continue at home and on-line in the event of closing due to flu related absences.

More 2009 H1N1A, along with general flu, information is available at http://www.flu.gov/ or The Center of Disease Control.

The Wawasee Community School Corporation is tracking, and will continue to monitor, student and staff absentee rates. We’ll report significant changes to our community and to the Kosciusko County Health Department.

A Wawasee High School-based 2009 H1N1A inoculation session will be set for a Saturday in late October or early November, with the date depending upon vaccine availability. Volunteers will be needed that day.

Thanks to the Wawasee school nurses and the Kosciusko County Health Department for their planning and communication regarding the 2009 H1N1A flu virus, our students and our community.

Wawasee Swim Program and Swimming Pools

I'm writing to answer questions and address concerns about the youth swim program and the corporation swimming pools.

The Wawasee pools are located at the high school (41 years old, six lane, no diving board, no visitor seating) and middle school (20 years old, eight lane, diving well with two boards, visitor seating). Renovation took place during the summer to replace the high school pool heater and controls at approximately $50,000. Middle school pool renovations were more extensive. They began in August and lasted into October. The heater was replaced, as was the air heating/cooling/dehumidifying unit for the pool area. Re grouting of the tiles covering the pool occurred, along with some plumbing repairs. New duct work was installed, with accompanying ceiling work. The middle school cost was about $300,000.

Other infrastructure work occurred in both buildings. Each received new lighting in the hallways and classrooms, along with power ventilation units on their roofs to remove CO2 and moisture laden air from the buildings. The middle school received a new roof. The high school A classrooms have new unit ventilators to distribute heat and air. New heating/air piping, and new domestic water piping, was installed in the high school. Both buildings received new generators for use in emergencies. New boilers replaced the 41 year old ones at the high school. You, as taxpayers, spent about 2 million dollars at each location, with savings to return for years to come in the form of lower utility bills and fewer repairs to old equipment.

Heating pool water and supplying appropriate pool chemicals for both pools totals about $100,000 per year. We are presently studying pool covers to decrease our pool utility costs.

The swim club uses the pool without rental fees while building custodians are on duty.

Someone asked about specifics of each youth swim program. I am uncertain of that information, but e-mails/blog postings would lead one to conclude that the basics of each program are similar.

The school district built the pools first and foremost for drown proofing / learn to swim activities for children and adults in our lake area. Instruction is held for school age children during the school year in both pools, along with summer swim lessons. Some of those children are ones who live here only during the summer months, but their parents/grandparents help pay for the pools and our schools. Lifeguards are trained in our pools to staff the many camps in our area during the summer months. Community and recreational use of our pools is good. Those who would question use and cost of our pools based upon competitive swimming may consider the bigger picture of their purpose and use.

If someone has swim club or swim team related questions or concerns, the person to receive those contacts is WHS athletic director Mary Hurley.

Wawasee is a fortunate school community to have swimming pools available for our children.

Central Time Coalition

The following letter/information was sent to Indiana Superintendents and School Board Members from Sue Dillon, chairperson of the Central Time Coalition (timezonematters@gmail.com):

"School has started for 1.35 million children in Indiana. The Central Time Coalition (CTC) is concerned about safety hazards to school children due to Indiana's abnormal amount of morning darkness and is calling for Indiana to be returned to its correct time zone, Central Time. Indiana is the only state in the USA that is totally in its wrong geographic time zone. For the first 78 years (1883-1961) all of Indiana was in the Central Time Zone - then Eastern Time began creeping in. The results are that school children have been run over, raped and robbed because they have no choice but to leave home in total darkness to wait for their school bus or walk along dark streets. While in August most Indiana children go to school in sunlight, come mid-October they will already be seated in their classrooms before the sun rises.

"The Indiana State School Bus Drivers Association supports the return to Central Time because it would shift a much needed hour of sunlight to the morning rush hour during the fall, winter and spring. Ron Chey, president of ISSBDA says, 'Safety for children is our primary concern and it is often difficult to see the children along dark streets and roads. One more hour of sunlight would greatly improve visibility as well as morning driving conditions for everyone.' Darkness in the morning is much more dangerous for students because they have to wait in the dark for their bus to arrive while in the evening, they can immediately walk home. Even though the sun would rise earlier on Central Time, most children would have been delivered before sunset.

"Many claim that being in Eastern Time benefits Indiana commerce and transportation. That may have been true in 1961, but not today. When asked, 'Does it make a difference to commerce and transportation whether Indiana is on Eastern or Central Time?' a former Indiana Director of Commerce and a president of a major trucking firm both said, "No, but it does make a difference and is important for Indiana to observe Daylight Saving Time.' CTC agrees that we all benefit from a healthy economy so we support observance of DST, but it should be Central Time with Central Daylight Saving Time.

"The difference between Eastern Time and Central Time for our Hoosier kids is the difference between night and day. The Coalition asks for your careful consideration of our unsafe time zone situation in Indiana and that you support the return of Indiana to Central Time."

Some Additional Information from the Central Time Zone Coalition

• Every square inch of Indiana falls within the true boundaries of the Central Time Zone.
• Nearly 1/5 of Hoosiers live in the 12 Indiana counties that are still on Central Time.
• A shift from Eastern to Central Time would mean that sunrise and sunset would occur one (1) hour earlier on Indiana clocks.
• 1-hour earlier sunrise would greatly assist visibility for drivers in seeing students.
• Darkness reduces visibility for all drivers.
• Black ice is primarily a morning darkness problem. Sunlight helps melt black ice thus one hour earlier sunrise would help reduce black ice danger for commuters.
• Sunlight assists snow and ice melting chemicals in their effectiveness thus one hour earlier sunrise would make road conditions safer for commuters.
• Morning fog often burns off in the first hour after sunrise.
• Each hour of school delay due to unsafe travel conditions is an hour of classroom instruction that is lost.
• One (1) additional hour of sunlight in the morning could reduce 2-hour delays due to fog/snow/ice to 1-hour delays.