The Mail-Journal, Volume 6, Milford, Kosciusko County, 9 March 1969 — Page 9

Lakeland Corporation Formed In 1962

The Lakeland Community School Corporation came into being on July 1,1962, being formed under the provisions of the school reorganization act of 1959 as amended by the acts of 1961. In the beginning the corporation was composed of Plain township in its entirety, Turkey Creek township in its entirety, Van Buren township in its entirety and the east and south portions of Jefferson township. This corporation included one school at Leesburg, an elementary and junior - senior high school at Milford, one school at North Webster and an elementary and junior - senior high school at Syracuse. Release Plain • Jefferson At a meeting held June 24, 1965, the board of school trustees met and passed a resolution releasing Plain township from the Lakeland Community School Corporation. At the same time the Warsaw school board passed a resolution annexing the township. The action became effective January 1, 1966, and the Leesburg school became part of the Warsaw corporation. In October of 1965 the board passed another resolution, this time releasing a small portion of the east part of Jefferson township. This portion of Jefferson was accepted by the Wa-Nee School Corporation. School Board The business of the Lakeland Community School Corporation is handled by a five-member school board which was forced to re-organize following the release of Plain township. For the purpose of election of board members the corporation was divided into districts with Tippecanoo township being district one, Turkey Creek township being district two and Van Buren and the portion of Jefferson township in the Lakeland corporation being district three. The board members are elected by the registered voters of the complete corporation at the time of the general election. They serve four year terms. No one district may have less than one or more than two members representing it on the board. The board’s function is to represent the citizenry of the Lakeland Community School Corporation in the development and administration of their public school system. It’s members select the superintendent of schools and support him in the performance and discharge of his duties. They work with the superintendent in hiring teachers and other corporation employees, in approving textbooks and courses of study, determine salaries and salary schedules of all employees and teachers, evaluate his report concerning the progress of the school, formulate and establish the budget. The board is to require and consider reports relative to the financial status of the system, business transacted and business pending. Its members evaluate and pass upon recommendations of the superintendent for additional capital outlays — buildings, sites, improvements — and determine the means of financing such outlays. Present Corporation The corporation at the present is composed of a combination elementary - junior high school at North Webster, elementary and junior high school buildings at Milford, elementary and junior high school buildings at Syra-

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SCHOOL BOARD — Members of the Lakeland school board are shown above with key personnel of the school corporation as they heard a curriculum report last fail. From left are Charles W. Kroh; Dr. Robert A. Caig;

Dedicated Men Serve Lakeland School Board

Jerry L. Helvey of near North Webster is currently serving as president of the Lakeland Community School Corporation’s board of trustees. He was appointed to said board following the resignation of William Pearl and took his first oath of office on August 31, 1965. Helvey, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Helvey of Warsaw, was recently elected to a full term on the board. He lives at Sechrist Lake, r 1 Leesburg, with his wife, Della, and their two daughters, Lynn and Jane. A 1955 graduate of DePauw university in Greencastle, Helvey holds a major in economics. He owns and operates Helvey and 'Associates, Inc., at North Webster. The credit bureau has four collection agencies in northern Indiana. Helvey is a past president of the United Fund of Kosciusko county and vice president of the state’s Associated Credit Bureau of American and serves on the board of the Indiana branch of the American Collector’s Association. The board president represents the people of district one — Tippecanoe township. Charles H. Purdum, Jr. Charles H. Purdum, Jr., is vice president of the board and represents Van Buren and the east half of Jefferson townships. He too was appointed to the board when Glenn Brown resigned. Purdum took his oath of office on July 20, 1965.

cuse and the new Wawasee high school. New administrative offices are located in a building at the south edge of the Wawasee high school site.

Purdum is president of Strum and Dillard Gravel Company, Inc., located between Milford and Syracuse on the highly-trav-eled Milford - Syracuse road. He is a past president of the Indiana Mineral Aggregate Association, having served in that office in 1965. He is the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Purdum, Sr., and is married to the former Margaret Vanderveer. Both are Milford high school graduates. He continued his education at the Virginia Military Institute graduating in 1942. A member of the army reserves, he served in World War H. The Purdums have three daughters, Ann, Janet and Amy. C. W. Kroh Charles W. (Jim) Kroh is the fifth member of the Lakeland school board. He too represents Turkey XJreek township and is the member with the most years of service on the board, having served on the Metropolitan board and on the Lakeland board since it was formed. He served as an advisory board member from 1950 to 1958 when the board built the elementary rooms at Syracuse and put on an addition two years later which gave the school a kindergarten room, gym, cafeteria, band room and offices plus a new furnace room with large boilers which heated the newer as well as the old high school rooms. It was in 1960 that .he was elected to the Metropolitan School Board and in 1962 he was appointed to the interim board of the Lakeland Community School Corporation. He was elected to the board in 1963 and again in 1966. Mr. Kroh is the son of the late

John A. Nabb, curriculum coordinator; Don H. Arnold, superintendent; Henry L. Smith, Wawasee high school principal; Jerry L. Helvey, board president; Charles H. Purdum, Jr., vice president; and Floyd H. Baker, secretary.

George F. and Mary Kroh and was bom in Missouri. He attended high school in Syracuse for two years and graduated from Mt. Hermon preparatory school in Massachusetts. He attended Massachusetts university in Amherst and Purdue university. Mr. Kroh was a partner in the Thornburg Drug Company from 1924 until a corporation was formed in 1952. He is presently a stockholder and secretary of the corporation. He is a registered pharmacist. A member of the Masonic Lodge and the American Legion, he has held various offices in each organization and served as treasurer in each for a period through the 1930 s and into the 19405. Mr. Kroh and his wife, Lucy, reside in Syracuse and are the parents of six children, Charles F., Mary Jo, Susan, John, Tom and Jane. All are graduates of Syracuse high school. The Krohs also have a grandson who graduated from Syracuse and are proud of the fact they have nine other grandchildren in the community schools who will one day be attending Wawasee. Floyd H. Baker Floyd H. Baker, a former teacher and vice principal of the North Webster school, is secretary of the Lakeland board. He took his oath of office just prior to the board’s July 11 meeting back in 1967. He represents Tippecanoe township. Mr. and Mrs. Baker operate the Log Cabins summer resort on Barbee lake and he is widely known for his teaching and coaching experience. He was high school coach of Lou Groza, professional football player at Martin’s Ferry, Ohio, and was

SECTION TWO

instrumental in getting Groza to the Lakeland area when football had its' beginning here a few years back. Baker is a graduate of Huntington high school and holds a bachelor of science degree in education from Wittenberg university and has a post - graduate degree in education and administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a fellow in Kappa Phi Kappa honorary education fraternity and a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon social fraternity. Mr. Baker is a past member of the Indiana High School Athletic Association’s board of controls (1962-63) and is a past member of the National Federation of State High Schools in both Indiana and Ohio. Mrs. Baker too is a native of Huntington. The Bakers reside on r 1 Pierceton and are the parents of a son, Barry Norman. Dr. Robert A. Craig Dr. Robert A. Craig has been a Syracuse physician for over 20 years and won his seat on the school board in the election of 1966 as did Mr. Baker. He represents Turkey Creek township on the board. The doctor served two years on the Turkey Creek Metropolitan school board and served with the medical corps in the southwest Pacific during World War 11. His mother, Mrs. Ester Craig, resides in Gary. His father is deceased. A graduate of Horace Mann high school in Gary, Dr. Craig graduated from Indiana university in 1939 and from Indiana university medical school in 1942. He belongs to the Elkhart (Continued On Page 3)