The Eastern Pulaski School Board placed Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman on contractual probation for the next year. The Board has agonized over what disciplinary action to take following Dr. Klitzman’s arrest for operating a vehicle with an alcohol content over the legal limit in July.
The Superintendent called the whole matter “humbling” and vowed to follow the Board’s action.
Homecoming activities begin today in Winamac.
“We’ll be playing Tri-County on Friday,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “We have all of the traditional festivities. We’ll have our homecoming on Thursday. After the parade, we’ll end up at the football field and we’ll have a community pep rally where our school and community get together with one focus. We’ll try and generate enough excitement and enthusiasm for our students and players to have a really good showing at our football game Friday night.”
The comedy musical Nunsense A-Men! will be performed Saturday and Sunday, September 10th and 11th, by students from the Winamac Community High School Drama Department.
The event will be a dinner theater both evenings. A chicken dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m., in the school cafeteria, followed by dessert at 6:30 p.m., in the Socialtorium. The show will begin at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Wednesday, September 7th, is the final day to purchase dinner/show tickets which are $10.00. The show only tickets are $6.00 may be purchased up to showtime at the door. All current Winamac students will receive a $1.00 discount on their tickets. To purchase your dinner/show tickets, call the Winamac Community High School office at (574) 946-6151.
Nunsense A-Men! is written by Dan Goggin and is presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
The production stars students Tyler Abbott, Jordan Morning, Ridge Parks, Caleb Schmicker and J.T. Garnett. It will be directed by Patrick Schuttrow.
Over 300 signatures have been collected to deannex Tippecanoe Township from the Culver Community School District. The effort was made in response to the closing of the Monterey Elementary School.
At the time of the announcement of the closing, many in the township expressed their extreme displeasure, claiming it was promised that Monterey Elementary would stay open permanently. School officials in Culver said it was necessary to close the school as a cost cutting measure.
Monterey Elementary went through an extensive remodeling project 10 years ago.
There are new rules and guidelines for collective bargaining and teacher evaluation coming from the Department of Education, following legislation passed in the most recent session of the General Assembly.
The Drama Department of Winamac Community High School will soon proudly present a dinner theatre to start the 2011-2012 school year off on the right foot. Director Patrick Schuttrow was approached by a group of seniors that came up with the idea and wanted to see it happen.
After some deliberation, the group decided to perform Nunsense A-men, a spin-off of the popular Nunsense series composed by Dan Goggin. In this version, the characters are played by men, giving male actors a chance to be part of the fun in this show that has delighted audiences for nearly three decades.
Students will be returning to classrooms next week. Before the students go back to the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation, Elementary students are invited to participate in the meet the teacher night on Tuesday, August 16th 5:00-6:00 p.m. ET. Meet the teacher night for Middle and High School students will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. School begins for all students in the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation on Wednesday, August 17th.
When officials at the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation named Bill Ball as the Athletic Director, it left a Social Studies position to fill. Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman says the Board approved two individuals to take over the classes Mr. Ball taught last school year.
The Superintendent at the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation was recently arrested on a charge of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated.
It has been reported that Dr. Robert Klitzman was pulled over on State Road 29 north of Michigantown after swerving left of center. An officer from the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department reported that Klitzman failed a sobriety test and registered a blood alcohol content of .10%. He was taken to the Clinton County Jail and the Prosecutor has filed a charge of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated charge against Dr. Klitzman.
On Tuesday, July 12th, The Indiana Department of Education released I-STEP results. The Oregon-Davis School Corporation ranked #1 in the State of Indiana out of 292 corporations for improvement overall. That includes all grades in English and Math. The Oregon-Davis School Corporation students displayed a 14.6% improvement from 2010 to 2011.
The maintenance staff at the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation has been busy with several projects this summer.
“In our Elementary Gym, we’re completing the project of switching out those very expensive-to-run lights that take five minutes to turn on,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman of the energy efficient upgrades. “We’re removing all of those and putting in very efficient tube lights. We have found in doing this that we’re using far less fixtures that we had the old way so we are doing that ourselves internally and just buying the materials. We feel like we’re going to be saving in the cost of installation as well as in the operation of the materials.”
Monterey Town Board President Jim Fleury said this week that he and a group of residents in the town are exploring the possibility of withdrawing from the Culver Community School System. Fleury said a number of parents of children in Tippecanoe Township have expressed interest in sending their Elementary school students to Eastern Pulaski Schools instead of Culver.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board is in search of a new Athletic Director.
“Our Athletic Director/Assistant Principal, J.D. Dubes, did resign and he has taken an Assistant Principal position with Logansport High School,” said Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman. “Mr. Dubes had been with us for three or four years and most recent years served a dual role as Assistant Principal and Athletic Director when Mr. Sheller left us. We are already in the search mode to replace Mr. Dubes with either an Athletic Director/Assistant Principal or an Athletic Director/Dean of Students position.”
The State has changed the way schools are funded whereas a school’s General Fund is funded by the State. The Eastern Pulaski School Board agreed last year that because of the change, the Corporation will not charge a tuition fee if the student was in the Corporation on the State Count Day. Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, says they hope to continue that practice.
“Nothing has changed at the state level so I asked the Board to extend that beyond this year until something changes,” he said. “The Board did agree to keep that at status quo so we will not be charging tuition for those students that are officially enrolled in our School Corporation on the official count date.”
Since the closing of the Monterey Elementary School, there have been rumors that some of the students will go to the Eastern Pulaski School system, instead of going into Culver Community.
Culver Community School Superintendent Brad Schuldt was asked if he anticipates losing students because of the closure.
“We expected this to be an issue, and in fact, when we did some financial planning, the numbers that we used did include a reduction of students over the next two years,” said Schuldt. “Of course the big question is going to be how many students will be moving. That is a number that is changing rather regularly. I know that some of the families have requested transcripts to be sent to a new school corporation. That’s pretty much how we can keep track of people who have actually made the move.”
Now that the Monterey Elementary School is closed where will the students attend school next year? Many of the over 130 elementary school students could be going to Winamac Elementary. With that possibility, the Eastern Pulaski School Board this week discussed the possible need of transporting those students from Tippecanoe Township to Winamac.
Administrators and teachers in the Eastern Pulaski School system have been working on ways to more effectively handle discipline problems. The mission is now being mandated from the state, and the directive is clear. In school or out of school suspensions are to be eliminated.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman says the Corporation has put effort into this directive.
“Every school in Indiana had to use scientifically-based research to come up with ways to be proactive and keep the discipline as best they can from being administered where it’s outside the classroom,” said Dr. Klitzman.
We’re coming to the close of the school year and many graduation activities are scheduled at our local schools. The Knox Community High School Senior Awards Day will be Friday, May 20th at 8:00 a.m. CT in the High School Gymnasium. All parents and students are welcome to attend. Graduation will be Friday, June 3rd at 7:00 p.m. in Weinberg Gym.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board recognized the Valedictorian and Salutatorian of the graduating Class of 2011. The Valedictorian is Morgan Welker and the Salutatorian is Emily Paulsen.
Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman shared a few pieces of legislation that came out of the General Assembly with the School Board members at their recent meeting.
“Teacher evaluation is going to be more geared toward student data and how the students have improved in their actual achievement,” said Dr. Klitzman. “That’s going to be folded into the evaluation for teachers. Collective bargaining has been greatly restricted. Over the years, collective bargaining with our teachers has grown more and more and that’s through an agreement on both sides. It’s not a one sided thing. Our legislature passed a bill that limits what you can bargain so even if a school and a Teacher’s Association wants to go and bargain other things, legally they can not. This is what’s put in the statute.”
