Wawasee Community Schools Athletic Director Steve Wiktorowski says he has been working with Kosciusko County Sheriff Rocky Goshert and Syracuse Police Chief Tony Ciriello to put some teeth into athletic suspensions.

Wiktorowski addressed the Wawasee Community School Corp. Board of School Trustees Tuesday night to tell how tougher guidelines may prevent future suspensions. One option suggested was that a student athlete suspended from a team be required to serve 6 or more hours of Saturday service at the Kosciusko County Jail. That time would involve close supervision and parents permission. The student athlete would then write a paper on his or her experiences.

Another option Wiktorowski suggested was for the student athlete to serve 9 hours of community service in addition to attending a drug and alcohol prevention class at the Wawasee Academy.

Also, the athletic director noted a policy change in scheduling games and practices during spring break. He says practices may be scheduled during the break but they must be optional and student athletes will not be penalized for not attending.

WCSC students were recognized during the meeting, including members of the Wawasee High School Academic Super Bowl Team and the Wawasee Middle School Social Studies Academic Super Bowl Team. Syracuse Elementary School fourth-grader Adrianna Clark was also recognized for her winning essay, which earned her tickets to the Indy 500 parade.

Several certified personnel recommendations and support services personnel recommendations were read over and approved by the board, including the employment of Jenifer Eisenhour as a third shift janitor at Wawasee High School, Vicky Cameron as a regular route bus driver and both Holly Sautter and Cyndi Thornburg as summer school teachers for WHS summer school.

Athletic Director Steve Wiktorowski also recommended contract renewals for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years for three WHS coaches: Phil Mishler, Tom Wogoman and Kem Zolman.

Bob Cockburn presented WCSC’s stats of the month, highlighting the Northwest Evaluation Association average percentiles in math, language use and reading. Reading among WCSC students has visibly improved on the charts while math shows fluctuation.

Joy Goshert, director of curriculum and instruction, stated the low math averages were probably a result of the new math material that was introduced this past school year. She also noted the numbers did not reflect the preliminary results of the ISTEP test where the corporation was actually up 1 percent in math.

Superintendent Tom Edington will be posting positions soon for success coaches at WMS and Milford School; these positions will be paid for by a grant.

For complete coverage, see today’s issue of The Mail-Journal.