Wabash’s Jared Brooks shows off his ribbon and the bracket for the 106-pound weight class he won at the New Haven Semi-state
wrestling tourney to advance to the state finals. Photo provided

By Eric Christiansen
echristiansen@nmpaper.com

NEW HAVEN -- Two Wabash County wrestlers extended their seasons one more week.

Wabash's Jared Brooks, 106 pounds, and Manchester's Delton Moore, 170 pounds, both qualified for the state finals with their performances this past Saturday, Feb. 9 at the New Haven Semi-State.

Brooks won his weight class four pins on the day.
 

Northfield’s Kyra Kennedy (25) awaits a pass from teammate Kelcie Thomson on Saturday night in the Tipton Regional finals against Blue River. The Lady Norse defeated Blue River to advance to the LaPorte Semistate on Saturday afternoon. Photo by Joseph Slacian

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

TIPTON – Senior leadership showed up when Northfield’s girls basketball team needed it most Saturday night.

Senior Ariel Dale scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, helping propel the Lady Norse to their first regional championship since 1978 with a 55-41 win over Blue River Valley in the championship game of the Tipton Class A Regional.
 

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

Manchester’s boys basketball team defeated Northfield Wednesday night at Manchester, 58-44.

The Squires controlled most of the contest, jumping out to a 15-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Northfield pulled to within one of two separate occasions in the fourth quarter, but could never pull ahead.

Weston Hamby led Manchester with 21 points, four rebounds, two blocks and three assists, and Brayden Casper added 18 points and nine rebounds.

For Northfield, Jared Peas led the way with 13 points and five rebounds. Clayton Tomlinson added 10 points, seven assists, five rebounds and six steals. Logan Peas scored seven points and added seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

And, Graydon Holmes added seven points and four rebounds.
 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

The Wabash City Schools board approved creating an education foundation for the district.

While creating foundation was unanimously approved Feb. 6, it still is not a reality.

Superintendent Jason Callahan and board attorney Jordan Tandy are exploring various options for the foundation, and will present a recommendation when the study is complete.

“As we do things like the Hall of Distinction, we have alumni that come back and want to give to Wabash in some kind of capacity or in some kind of way,” Callahan told the board, explaining why the foundation is needed. “Right now we really don’t have a receptacle to receive that money in, especially a 501c3 that is a tax benefit to the giver. We feel like we need to establish that.”

Tandy discussed two ways the district could go in creating a foundation.

One, available under state statute, is to create a Public School Endowment Corp., he said.

“It is a separate, special entity under the law,” he explained. “It gives the school flexibility to support programs and different things for the benefit of the school. That would be its own, separate 501c3 that we could create.”

The other would be creating an affiliation with the Community Foundation of Wabash County.

Community Foundation executive director Patty Grant is expected to speak with the board at a future meeting, he said.
“There’s pros and cons with either (option),” Tandy said.

This is the second time the board has explored creating such a foundation.

“We started one in 2000, but we never really fully created it,” Callahan said. “There was a lot of official stuff that happened. But I don’t know really why – I couldn’t find it in the minutes – it never happened.”

In other business, the board:

-- Waived facility rental fees for the Kiwanis Spelling Bee on Feb. 8 and the Special Olympics track meet on May 12.

-- Hired Katina Schram as a full-time bus driver effective Jan. 31.

-- Accepted the resignation of Courtney Wrisk, as bus monitor for the special needs route effective Feb. 2.

-- Approved Kate Carter as the O.J. Neighbours Elementary School café bookkeeper effective Jan. 8.

-- Accepted the resignation of Jessika Taylor as a paraprofessional at Neighbours effective Feb. 2.

-- Approved Alysia Olson’s request for maternity leave beginning April 9.

-- Approved Janet Sparks for after school tutoring beginning Jan. 15 through the end of the third nine weeks.

-- Approved a stipend for Angel Hostetler to continue her teacher of record responsibilities during the third nine weeks.

-- Approved a recommendation to alter Abbey Arwood’s Be Well stipend for the second semester, allowing her to tend to a personal issue that has arisen.

-- Accepted Heather Burton’s resignation and the hiring of Elizabeth Burns as Neighbour’s librarian, effective Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, respectively. It also approved retaining Burton at her current hourly rate to work with Burns on an as needed basis. The retainer will not exceed 20 hours and would occur prior to June 30.

-- Hired Jon Denney as a paraprofessional at Neighbors beginning Feb. 1.

-- Accepted the Family Medical Leave Act request from Amy Degitz beginning Feb. 19, and using her sick days during that time.

-- Accepted the resignation as Rick Forrester as part-time teacher aide for Wabash Middle School effective Feb. 23.

-- Approved Heather Jessee as Winter Guard director for the 2017-18 school year.

-- Hired Khristian Atchison as math teacher effective Feb. 22.

-- Approved the recommendation to pay math teachers Joey Till, Justin Denney and Tyler Olson their hourly rate to teach a class during their prep to help fill a vacant math position at Wabash High School.

-- Hired the following as coaches for the 2017-18 spring sport season: Bill Barrows, assistant varsity baseball; Nick Hentgen, reserve baseball; Mike Vinopal, assistant boys track; Mike Denney, varsity girls track; Katelin Vogel, assistant girls track; Sarah Cole, assistant girls tennis; John Yoakum, varsity girls softball; Brad Wagner, assistant girls softball; Katie Cromer, middle school track head coach; Beth Barden, middle school track assistant coach; Tyler Niccum, middle school baseball head coach; John Davis, middle school softball head coach; Stacie Parrett, middle school football assistant coach; Lyndsi Schenkel, middle school soccer head coach.

-- Approved the recommendation to create a business position for Wabash City Schools.