By Josh Sigler
Wabash High School Athletic Director Floyd McWhirt announced at Monday’s Wabash City Schools’ board meeting that all WCS district students would be permitted to get into all WCS sporting events for free during the 2019-20 school year.
“We have secured almost all the funding,” McWhirt told the board. “We have a little bit to go, but I’m pretty sure we can get it done. We are now going to allow all of our students Pre-K through 12 into every athletic event for free.”
Superintendent Jason Callahan applauded McWhirt’s efforts.
“I’m very excited about what Mr. McWhirt’s been able to do,” he said. “He drove this. It fits our vision statement of building a legacy of opportunity for all students. It removes financial barriers for students. The end goal is to encourage attendance at our athletic events, and engagement from our students.”
The board also improved raises for non-certified employees in the district. That includes a 2 percent raise for all salaried employees and a $0.30 raise for all hourly employees.
“It’s always good,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Stone said. “That’s a couple years in a row now we’ve been able to at least give them a basic raise. We gave the administrators a 2 percent raise last time. This time, we’re giving the non-certified employees 2 percent for the most part. But, for some of the lowered paid employees it was a little more than that. We felt good about that. It’s good to be able to take care of people.”