Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
LARWILL - Whitko School Board held their annual Board of Finance and reorganization meeting at the Whitko Career Academy on Monday.
The Board of Finance held elections of officers for 2026 and elected Lynn Studebaker as president, Micah Cokl as vice president and Deb Thomas as secretary.
Lynn Leininger, business manager for Whitko Community Schools, gave a rundown of the investment policy and earned interest for 2025. He stated that the interest has gone up over the last seven years; however, as of 2025, he mentioned that the interest rates are going down. According to the report Leininger gave, the interest for 2025 totaled $392,351.75 across the three banks that WCS uses for a variety of financial means.
“Star Financial holds a majority of our finances,” Leininger stated. “We have money in Crossroads Bank for lunch accounts for high school, and South Whitley Elementary, and Lake City Bank for Pierceton Elementary.”
“When you started, we had money spread across two or three different accounts. You were the one who picked out that we would move them, or the majority of it into one so we could have this high interest rate to get a return on our money?” asked Scott Werstler.
“Yes. In 2023, we were heavy into CD purchases with competitive bids,” stated Leininger. “Now that we’ve entered this agreement with Star, we’re making higher rates in just our regular checking account than the CD accounts.”
The board also held their annual reorganization meeting, which voted in Werstler as president in a four-to-one vote; Georgia Tenney as vice president; and Studebaker as secretary.
With the regular meetings, the board agreed that the dates and times of the regular board meeting would be held on the third Monday of the month at 5:30 p.m., with the exception of December, where it will be held on the second Monday.
A person in the audience raised a question on the February meeting. “With it being on President’s Day, will that need to be moved because of school not being in session?”
“It’s a snow make-up day. So, if we have another make-up day, we’ll be here,” Dr. Amy Korus, superintendent for WCS, said.
When the point of the school board president being the one who appoints members to committees and/or organizations as necessary was addressed, Studebaker asked if this is how it was done in the past, “because I thought we all decided on this together on those things?”
Werstler admitted to not knowing how they did it in the past, and Teresa Carrano, administrative assistant to the superintendent, stated that this was how it was written last year, and several years prior. This passed with a four-to-one vote.
Other meeting points that were approved:
• The school board of trustees annual salary is $2,000, plus $27 per meeting.
• A recommendation for Leininger to be appointed as treasurer and Shelley Monticue to be appointed as deputy treasurer for the 2026 calendar year.
• A recommendation for Leininger to be appointed as purchasing agent for the 2026 year.
• Korus and Carrano be appointed as HIPPA privacy officers for the 2026 year.
• The board will choose a board member as the school board liaison to the Indiana School Board Association.
• The school corporation adopt the Internal Revenue Service’s mileage rates for the use of cars, vans, pickups or panel trucks.
The next regular meeting of the Whitko School Board will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19.
