WARSAW — As students head back to the classroom the Kosciusko County Traffic Safety Partnership is reminding motorists to stop for school buses or face the consequences.

Kosciusko County Traffic Safety Partnership has begun increased patrols to prevent stop-arm violations, speeding and other forms of reckless driving around school buses and in school zones. 

The overtime patrols are funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through grants administered by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI), according to a news release from the Kosciusko County Traffic Safety Partnership.

Despite thousands of motorists being cited under the SAVE program, unsafe driving around school buses continues to be a concern, according to state officials.

In April, thousands of bus drivers who participated in a one-day observational survey counted 2,091 stop-arm violations in Indiana. 

Most school districts in Kosciusko County begin classes this week.

The post As school returns, so do patrols focused on stop arm violations appeared first on News Now Warsaw.

WARSAW -- During the 2022-23 school year, there were 289 school bus stop-arm violations in the entire county for Warsaw Community Schools, Director of Transportation Mark Fick told the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission on Wednesday.

The school year is 180 days.

For summer school so far, there’s been six stop-arm violations.

In Indiana, it's against the law for drivers to pass a bus that's stopped and has its red lights flashing and stop-arm extended.

Of the 289 violations, 127 were sent to the prosecuting attorney’s office. A total of 146 were unable to be sent to the prosecutor because they couldn’t get a license plate, ID the vehicle, etc. Police pulled over 16.

The majority of the stop-arm violations - 80 - were at the Papa John’s bus stop on Center Street. The other stops in double digits were Green Acres, 29; Winona Avenue, 17; Ind. 15S, 12; Parker Street, 11; and Presby Preschool, 10.

“This is all part of (WCS Superintendent) Dr. (David) Hoffert’s guidance as far as being on the education side so the public knows where we stand as far as WCS, and we just want to keep the public aware of how we’re doing things and what’s going on as far as stop-arm violations,” Fick said.

Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs asked if the numbers did not represent any stop-arm violations from Whitko, Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley or Triton and if they were just strictly for Warsaw schools. Fick said that was correct.

Fick then brought up student vaping on school buses. He said they had a total of 41 students actually vaping on the bus, from preschool to high school.

“That could be where another students sees a student vaping, they report it or we catch it on video,” he said. “They’re really slick about it now.”

Joel Beam, Warsaw Police Department captain, said, “I want to mention that the preschool in this is not a typo.” He said a preschool student actually had a vape pen.

Fick explained, “We actually had a preschooler who grabbed mom’s/dad’s vape and actually had THC in it.” He said action was taken, but it was surprising nonetheless.

Fick said many of the vape products that were found were reported by other students don’t want them around. They’ll pass by the bus driver and let the driver know what other student has a vape.

Fick said they had some high school students charging elementary school students $1 for a single inhalation.

Grubbs told him, “Obviously, you have to not only document it but prove it happened before any of those kids are brought in and disciplined.”

Fick agreed, saying, “There’s no assumption, there’s no anything, we have proof then we send it to the principals.”

Lewis Fuller, WPD DARE officer at Lakeview Middle School and Traffic Safety Commission member, said a big lesson for him and officer Ray Navarro is vaping as that’s a big issue they are seeing in schools.

“Those are big lessons. We harp on that, but I will say it’s not just a Warsaw Community Schools thing. It is a youth thing, and so it’s happening everywhere and we’re just trying to get in front of them, educate them, teaching them about it. I think that’s the best course of action, and hopefully we can get ahead of it, but it is a problem. It’s a big problem,” Fuller said.

Grubbs asked him if he sees cigarettes anymore in schools. Fuller said they really don’t.

“I think the three years I’ve been in schools we had one student light a cigarette. Did it intentionally in the bathroom, didn’t want to get suspended,” Fuller responded. “Once he did, you could smell it throughout the entire school. The vape stuff is just different.”

He said companies are doing “more and more” to hide it, making the vapes more transparent and easier to conceal.

“The tobacco companies for years marketed to kids, saying they didn’t, but they did. And now they’re doing that with vapes,” Fuller said.

Some vapes look like things like highlighters, packs of gum or pens.

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WARSAW -- Stop-arm violations are still a concern to Warsaw Community Schools.

Tracy Horrell, assistant superintendent of secondary education, told the Warsaw School Board Monday the biggest continuing traffic concern is stop-arm violations.

In the past year, the school corporation has had 155 stop-arm violations sent to the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office.

Horrell also talked about the sign on Center Street near Papa John’s warning drivers all vehicles must stop when a bus stops. Horrell said Transportation Director Mark Fick said stop-arm violations at that bus stop have been reduced.

Traffic at the secondary schools is going well, he said. At Madison and Jefferson elementary schools, cars for parent drop-off and pick-up of students are sometimes parked along the road.

Later in the meeting, Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert showed the preliminary video of his State of the School address.

In the video, Hoffert states WCS has 1,200 employees, which makes the school corporation the third largest employer in the county. Bus drivers travel over 13,000 miles every day to pick up and drop off students. WCS has one of the lowest tax rates in the state.

WCS has a graduation rate of over 96%, which means it has one the highest graduation rates in Indiana, he said.

Within the school corporation, the two big items are STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and Dual Language Immersion. There are four STEM-certified schools and two DLI schools.

Hoffert said WCS’ other focuses are math and reading skills, especially at the elementary school, making sure they help struggling readers at “that lower academic level.”

Over the past couple years, Hoffert said WCS has helped the teaching staff get over 100 advanced degrees. The school corporation also helped get nonteaching staff with transition-to-teaching degrees.

In other the business, the board:

• Heard from Dave Bailey, principal of Gateway Educational Center, about how his first week-and-a-half as principal has gone. Bailey was approved to the principal’s position at the Feb. 7 work session.

• Heard from Matt Deeds, principal of Harrison Elementary School, who introduced fifth-grader Dhanishka Sudarsan, winner of the 2023 Kosciusko County Spelling Bee.

• Approved an updated 2023-24 school calendar.

On Feb. 7, Chief Technology and Analytics Officer Kyle Carter told the board  elementary school parent-teacher conferences fall within fall break. As a result of that, it impacts some families’ ability to attend the conferences or families will try to schedule for a different time for the conferences. As a result of that, there will be adjustments on the fall break to make it a full week

Monday, Carter said for 2023-24, the first day of school for elementary students will be Aug. 11, with the last day being May 24.

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By David Slone
Times-Union

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