The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 25 in the Milford School gymnasium, Superintendent Dr. Stephen Troyer told the Wawasee School Board Tuesday.
During August’s meeting, Troyer said he had sent out a newsletter to all Wawasee families to give them a heads-up on the issue. During that meeting, he also said the Wawasee School Corporation has discussed at length for “many years” to combine the two schools.
Tuesday, Troyer said the school corporation is currently in the data-collection phase of making a decision. It is collecting the necessary information and facts, as well as listening to input, he said.
The school corporation plans to present the information and input to the community at the Oct. 25 meeting. There will be time for community input at the meeting and Troyer will gather all the information and give an official recommendation to the Board at its November or December meeting.
During Troyer’s superintendent report Tuesday, he also talked about a school safety tipline.
Over the summer, he said he had some conversations with people about school safety plans the school corporation was implementing. During some of those conversations, Troyer said he was asked about a tipline patrons could use to report items of concern.
Troyer said the corporation works with Securly to monitor all student internet activities on corporation-issued devices. With the partnership, Securly offers the Securly tipline, which gives families, students, staff and community members an open line of anonymous communication “to speak up when something feels wrong.”
The tipline is a 24-hour tipline that allows different ways to report incidents, which includes text, Smartphone app, web form, email or call. When someone submits a tip, a thorough risk assessment is done. When a tip is determined to be urgent, it follows an escalation process to notify school- and district-level administrators.
Troyer said in the event of a crime or an emergency where law enforcement or paramedics needs to be dispatched right away, the school corporation asks people to call 911 and not report through the tipline.
The app can be downloaded from the app store, it can be used through the corporation’s website and the corporation is pushing the app to all corporation-issued Chrome devices.
The phone number for the tipline is 833-300-STOP. The email address is tipline@securly.com and the website form is https://securly.com/tip.
Troyer said the tipline is live.
During its meeting, the Board also held two hearings.
One hearing was for the 2023 proposed budget.
The proposed budget is $44,842,960. The rainy day fund is $750,000. The debt service fund is $12,305,651. The education fund is $21,641,503. The operation fund is $10,145,806.
There was no public comment. The adoption date will be at the Board’s Oct. 11 meeting.
The Board also held a prebargaining hearing.
Troyer said in 2019 Indiana code was changed to require a public hearing and take public testimony in regards to teacher compensation before formal collective bargaining can begin. Formal bargaining will happen between Thursday and Nov. 15. Troyer said he hopes to bring a tentative agreement to the Board before the Nov. 15 deadline.
There were no public comments.
In other business, the Board approved:
• The appointment of Janice Rose to a four-year term to the Syracuse-Turkey Creek Library Board.
• An easement at North Webster Elementary School for NIPSCO to complete an electrical project.
