Special Report: Renewal at Western Wayne Schools

This article is a part of a series of special reports, where Western Wayne News is looking past social media chatter to explore the state of Western Wayne Schools, why its student body has decreased over the past decade, and how the district is faring generally.

In addition to looking at education data and school finances, we’re talking with educators, students, families, coaches and community members to understand more about the heart and spirit of the place that so many of our readers hold so near and dear.

Read other articles in the series:

WWS isn’t the only Wayne County district facing enrollment and funding challenges, and future series will explore those as well. We also know this is a story that’s still being written by the WWS community, and we expect to continue our reporting on it beyond this series. If you’d like to share your own perspective or experiences, please get in touch. 

This timeline traces some significant events in Western Wayne Schools over the last two decades. 

  • 2008–2010: Major property tax reforms shifted responsibility for school operating funding (general fund) from local property taxes to the state, funded largely through sales and income taxes. During the Great Recession, declining state revenues led to a roughly $300 million cut to K-12 funding in 2010, reducing school budgets and resetting the baseline for future funding levels.
  • 2011–2013: Expansion of Indiana’s private school voucher program and continued growth of charter schools begins shifting public funding to schools outside traditional public districts.
  • 2015: Changes to the school funding formula, including adjustments tied to enrollment and complexity, increase the impact of student movement between schools.
  • 2016-2017: As part of WWS’ School Improvement Plan, Western Wayne Elementary School moves away from a traditional grading scale to standards-based report cards.
  • 2017–2019: Continued voucher eligibility expansion and charter school growth, along with policy changes, allow more schools to participate.
  • 2019: George Philhower becomes WWS superintendent after several years as assistant superintendent. Robert Mahon retires as the district’s leader.
  • Summer/fall 2019: Western Wayne, Northeastern and Nettle Creek superintendents publicly discuss a potential administration reorganization to save money. While the three districts would have one merged administrative office and one school board governing the entire district, each school building would remain intact. The superintendents suggested eliminating redundant processes and programming to allow positions to be more focused and specialized.

    They said a unified district could provide students with large school opportunities while maintaining a small school environment.

    Indiana State Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond) reported that funds were available, thanks to a bill that he wrote, to cover related merger expenses such as legal fees and marketing/branding. The districts were to be eligible for $250 per student. The newly formed district size would be approximately 3,300 students.

    The three superintendents planned a public meeting at each district to discuss current and future challenges for schools. However, Nettle Creek’s meeting is canceled after its school board votes to discontinue being part of the discussion.
  • March 2020: Schools quickly transition online because of the pandemic, prompting changes in how instruction is delivered for months to come.
  • May 2020: Western Wayne voters approve operational referendum 64.5% to 35.5% In their appeal to voters, school officials said a failed referendum would result in immediate cuts leading to higher class sizes and fewer services for students. Property owners are paying 19 cents more per $100 of net assessed value for eight years. That is raising about $500,000 annually to balance the district’s budget for those eight years.
  • 2021: Pandemic-related enrollment disruptions affect funding tied to student counts and create lingering financial instability for many Indiana districts.
  • February 2021: Community child care center opens at Western Wayne Elementary in partnership with SugarCreek Packing and licensed service provider Richmond Family YMCA. SugarCreek officials said childcare services were desperately needed. Misty Hollis, Richmond Family YMCA’s executive director, said the school-business-nonprofit partnership “is such a unique model in the state.” Kids can stay in the same building and go to WWS’ preschool during the day. 
  • April 2021: Western Wayne Elementary Principal Jessica Neill resigns to become Northeastern’s assistant superintendent in July.
  • Spring 2021: Citing a desire to work closer to his school-aged children’s activities in Greenfield, Philhower resigns from WWS after 13 years and joins Eastern Hancock in July.
  • August 2021: Andy Stover begins as WWS superintendent. He had been assistant superintendent at Randolph Eastern School Corp.
  • August 2021: Western Wayne Elementary announces that report cards will return from standards-based to traditional A-F scales determined by grade percentages. That decision came “after much thought, discussion, tears, training and research,” according to the school’s social media announcement.
  • August 2021: Lincoln Golden Eagle Industries opens, offering an in-school entrepreneurial advanced manufacturing and logistics business that students manage and operate. Initial projects include screen printing apparel for sale. Students come to LGEI from classes in business, manufacturing, landscaping, graphic design and automotive.
  • July 2022: WWS asks parents and residents to respond to a survey toward developing a five-year strategic plan. Respondents were asked for at least two WWS strengths and areas for improvements, how communication with parents and community members could improve, what WWS could do to encourage parents who live in the district to stay or return to WWS and how children from other districts could be recruited. A 25-member strategic planning committee of parents, community members and educators was to develop the plan. Subcommittees focused on five areas: student learning and support, curriculum/extracurricular, instruction/evaluation, finance/facilities and parent/community relations. WWS hired Chad Lieberman as an implementation specialist to help keep the planning process moving forward.
  • 2023: Significant expansion of Indiana voucher eligibility to near-universal access, accelerating the flow of state funding to private schools.
  • First quarter 2023: LGEI wins first place and $6,000 prize in Conexus Indiana’s new statewide case competition that their teacher calls “a big win” for students and the school. Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce names LGEI’s Kevin Munchel Educator of the Year.
  • 2023–2024: Property tax changes and funding pressures limit local school districts’ financial flexibility.
  • March 2023: WWS’ strategic plan adopted.
  • March 2023: After many years of leading Wayne County’s participation in the Business Professionals of America student organization, Lincoln sends the county’s largest delegation (54 students) to BPA’s State Leadership Conference. Twenty of them qualify for nationals.
  • July 2023: WWS’ board approves a disciplinary matrix for LMHS, hoping to eliminate guesswork about consequences for violating school policies. Disciplinary infractions were organized into five categories according to their seriousness. “One thing that we are really focused on is getting back to accountability. We’ve never really had prescriptive punishment before,” Stover said.
  • August 2023: Wayne County’s five public school districts unite on student attendance billboard/social media campaign.
  • 2024: $630,000 renovation at Lincoln Middle School begins to improve academic spaces. Brighter paint and lighting draw attention to the many improvements to walls, flooring, ceilings and restrooms. 
  • January 2025: Funds allocated during the final of three phases of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds must have been spent. Schools received funding to recover from pandemic impacts. Eligible expenses include healthy learning environments, technology, addressing learning loss and mental health. Schools face what some describe as a “fiscal cliff.”
  • February 2025: Stover testifies before state government that proposed state funding cuts of approximately $300,000 to $1 million for Wayne County districts will harm public education, calling all local superintendents “in lockstep” with that view. Stover encouraged residents to contact State Sen. Jeff Raatz and State Rep. Brad Barrett to share concerns.
  • March 2025: WWS’ $12.2 million second phase of renovation including prioritized improvements and deferred maintenance begins. Planned projects included reroofing both Lincoln Middle/High School and Western Wayne Elementary School, giving a facelift to LMHS academic areas and updating athletic facilities. “Just upgrading what we didn’t fix over the past 20 years is a lot of money,” said board member Brent Fortman about the deferred maintenance. Because an earlier bond was repaid, the school corporation financed that project without adding to the property tax rate.
  • March 2025: At a nearly three-hour school board meeting that draws a large crowd, Chad Lieberman, who oversaw WWS grants and titles, resigns effective June 30, noting he had raised and reported concerns about employee and board member misconduct. Lieberman said he recorded and provided his findings to Stover but said some board members had prevented Stover from acting.

    Stover also noted frustration, saying many stakeholders are working for the good of the school district, but others hold things back with disagreements. Stover mentioned issues with his relationship with the board, saying he’d been pulled back time and time again on decisions and hadn’t been given free rein to be a superintendent.

    “What we do have is a division in this district,” Stover said. “I don’t know what it is.”
  • April 2025: Stover submits resignation effective June 30. He becomes superintendent at Wes-Del near Muncie.
  • July 2025: Superintendent Kelly Plank is hired. Plank previously served as the director of curriculum and instruction at Northeastern Wayne Schools, and worked as a principal for Richmond Community Schools and Northeastern.
  • July 2025: As Plank is hired, board president Kris Bex notes growing unity in the district, saying, “We’re continuing to be on the same page and in the same boat, rowing in the same direction.”
  • September 2025: Plank announces WWS will improve communication with families through email, app, voice or text alert options for family communication through ParentSquare service and software.
  • October 2025: Lincoln Middle/High School principal Renee Lakes abruptly resigns, effective Oct. 9. Melissa Zimmerman, the district’s new assistant principal, becomes interim principal for the school year.

    On Oct. 23, an Indiana State Board of Accounts special compliance report was published. SBOA’s investigation found that Lakes had altered five employees’ time cards to remove hours worked, withholding a total amount of $5,082 in pay. During a December 2024 interview with school officials, Lakes said when part-time employees recorded more than 29 hours, she took it as a mistake and fixed it, the report said.
  • January 2026: Superintendent Kelly Plank says some of the district’s largest grants are disappearing. Government budget cuts mean the grants aren’t renewable. Plank said she has tried pursuing more grant opportunities, but everything has “dried up.” A service that helps WWS with grant compliance and reimbursement actively seeks grants for its clients, but it hasn’t found anything to replace them.

    Also that month, Education Week documents U.S. Department of Education grants worth more than $2 billion that were discontinued or terminated when President Donald Trump’s administration bypassed Congress. The publication also identifies cuts and cancellations to another nearly 100 grant programs from other federal agencies that affected K-12 initiatives. That list didn’t include funding cuts affecting education that resulted from federal legislation, such as elimination of the SNAP-Ed Connection program for nutritional education. Some grants have been reinstated after federal judges said cuts violate federal law.

    At that same board meeting, Plank said she has asked principals to determine their schools’ specialties to help with marketing and staff talents to potentially expand career pathways.
  • Spring 2026: Renovations begin at Western Wayne Elementary School.
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A version of this article appeared in the May 6 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.

Millicent Martin Emery is a reporter and editor for the Western Wayne News.