Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Spotlight on Success feature of the recent Knox Community School Board meeting included the preschool program. Superintendent A.J. Gappa talks about the presentation.
“We host a preschool program that is part of J.E.S.S.E. Mrs. Suseland invited in four students, two from the morning class and two from the afternoon class, and they showed the Board a beaver lodge that they had built in class as a replica in their study of wild animals. They also showed the Board some of the drawings that they had done, talked about what they do in class, and just gave an overview of how the class operates.”
Knox Library Director Sheila Urwiler and Library Board members Dave Bullock and Amie Flora discussed the library’s proposed construction plans with the Knox Community School Board Monday night. Superintendent A.J. Gappa talks about their presentation.
“Since three sides of their property borders the Knox school property, they wanted to give an update on what they want to do and also ask for some cooperation with the board on movement of a sidewalk and tying some sanitation lines into the lines that come through our property which could be a money saver for everyone because if it’s cheaper to tie into these lines and it’s feasible, it makes perfect sense. As they expand their parking lot on the south side of the library, they may tie an entrance or exit into the horseshoe drive of the Elementary School, that is located off of Culver Road, to help with the traffic flow.”
Gappa said the project may be a win-win for both the Corporation and the Library.
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
During the last Knox Community School Board meeting, Superintendent A.J. Gappa and Bob Wise from the J.E.S.S.E. Co-op presented the board with the J.E.S.S.E. reorganization recommendation that moves the organization from a Co-op to a Localized Educational Agency, or LEA. Gappa tells us what that information entails.
“That information includes students being where they’re going to be with as little transport as possible. Next year, most of the teachers will become employees of the local corporations instead of J.E.S.S.E. employees. The Board did approve, on their part, the reorganization. It also has to go to the other eight boards of the corporation members and we will move forward with that reorganization,” stated Gappa.
Plymouth School Corporation will remain the fiscal agent while Knox will be the main site for the Starke County schools. North Judson-San Pierre and Oregon-Davis will be in a group with Knox and can share services, if needed. The North Judson-San Pierre School Board has also approved the proposed recommendations.
Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa reported to the School Board this week that he attended a presentation by the Fostering Accuracy Involvement and Responsibility (FAIR) non-profit organization.
Knox Band Director, Craige Phipps, requested permission from the School Board for a band trip in 2013. Superintendent A.J. Gappa talks about the proposed trip.
“The band would like to take a trip to Orlando, Florida, to visit all of the Disney World theme parks,” said Gappa. “They will do performances at different times, both marching and on-stage performances. It looks like an educational and fun trip combined. The Board did give permission for the music department to take that trip so they can start making arrangements and start saving up their money.”
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Knox Community School Board members discussed the J.E.S.S.E. reorganization at their meeting Monday night.
Superintendent A.J. Gappa explains the reasoning behind the reorganization of the special education cooperative.
“Some people thinks it’s to save money, but that’s not the case,” said Gappa. “It’s for the best interest of the students. We wanted students to travel less so we’ve tried to keep the students in their home schools as much as possible. If they do have to go to a different site, then we will make that travel as little as possible.”
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Knox Community School Board members received an update from the facility study committee at their meeting this week. Superintendent A.J. Gappa said a report was given on the current situation at the Palmer Wing of the Elementary School.
“Most recently, we had a problem with the entrance with Door #7 so we had to reroute the walkers and the drop-off students both morning and afternoon. The problem was we had a cement slab that was in the doorway as you come through the foyer give way. That slab sits above a tunnel that was there for the purpose of carrying water pipes, heating ducts and other items like that throughout the building and to have access to those. We had a structural engineer look at the situation and give an update to the board and basically we’re going to have to have some people come in and fix that problem before it gets any worse,” said Gappa.
The Knox Community School Corporation will be getting more diligent in collecting textbook rental fees.
“One of the things that was noted by the State Board of Accounts is we have to be more aggressive in their eyes and we need a better policy for collection of fees,” explained Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “We were ordered that we had to either go through Small Claims Court or use a collection agency. In our case, the best direction to go would be the use of a collection agency.”
A committee was formed by High School Principal Dr. Elizabeth Ratliff and a policy was drafted.
“We’re not really changing the things that we do. There will be letters that will go out for fees and we will work with every person that needs help. We will bend over backwards as far as we can, but we do have as a policy now that says if we reach a stalemate point at some time down the road, which could be a very long time, we would have to turn it over to a collection agency.”
The policy was for presentation at the recent Knox Community School Board meeting and the members will vote on the policy on February 20th.
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Knox Community School Board went paperless at their meeting last week.
“For a long time, our school board, even before I came into this position, has been talking about going paperless with their board meetings,” said Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “There has been some resistance, of course. Many adults are afraid of technology and it’s just the fear factor of moving forward. It came to the point where it was time to make a move.”
The Knox Community Elementary School is experiencing a change in its pickup and drop-off procedure for students.
“We had a structural problem in the doorway that has caused us to have to close that door for the time being and only use it for emergency exits if needed,” explained Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “Because of the problem at door #7, the pattern for drop-offs and walkers is going to change. Different door exits and entryways will have to be used for the parents who drop off kids and for the students that walk to school.”
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Knox Community School Board heard a presentation from Michelle Matysak’s High School English class during the Spotlight on Success portion of the meeting. Superintendent A.J. Gappa said that Jacob Kietzman and Kara Aaron made the presentation:
“They presented Sonnets that they had they had created on their MacBook. Remember, we’re in the one-to-one computer program and they were able to create, not just in words, but show on their MacBook, with video presentation, the Sonnets they created. They had a background of instrumental music to go along with it. The Board was pretty impressed and it was a great presentation. It’s just another example of some of the items that teachers and students are able to do in classes that they wouldn’t be able to do if we hadn’t gone to this computer program.”
Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa told the School Board that the Knox Community School Corporation will be hosting RISE evaluation training with the help of the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center, or NIESC.
“We intend to host the first two sessions of the training for the RISE evaluation system in February,” said Gappa. “Next year, according to state law, in order for administrators, or principals, to evaluate teachers, they have to go through this training system if they are going to use the RISE program. It appears that we will be heading in that direction. We want to be prepared in case we do adopt the RISE program. We want our principals to be able to do the evaluations of the teachers.”
Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa has been meeting with representatives from the Starke County Economic Development Foundation, Jerry Hollenbaugh, North Central Area Vocational Director, and Jerry Gurrado, Director of the SCILL Center in Knox. Superintendent Gappa told the Knox Community School Board that the group has been meeting to coordinate welding classes to be conducted at the Knox Middle School.
“With just a little bit of work, our former wood shop in the Middle School could be converted to a welding class area,” said Superintendent Gappa. “What I was asking the Board was permission to continue those talks and the Board seemed pretty excited about the idea themselves. This could be a win-win, not only for the school, but for community and the businesses in the area because people learn how to weld, they would become employable and they could improve their skills in the places they do work. This is just our opportunity to work with the business community and the Economic Development Foundation.”
Knox Community School Superintendent, A.J. Gappa, gave the School Board an update on the Elementary School Facility study:
“I told them that we had taken most of the teachers, the certified staff, from the Elementary on a tour of the building. If we decide to proceed with any facility improvements, the staff will be aware of what’s going on and can answer questions on their own because they’ve seen everything,” stated Gappa.
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Knox Community School Board recognized the recent retirees at their recent meeting.
“We had two different employees who had been at the Knox Schools for a number of years retire,” said Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “John Tepes, a Maintenance person from the Middle School, had retired and it was effective last week. He had been with the Corporation for 16 years. Dick Wagner, a teacher at Knox, who has been with the Corporation for over 40 years actually retired in November. He, for personal reasons, decided that it was in his best interest to retire in November. We honored these two retirees with clocks from the Knox Community School Corporation and the Board presented the clocks to those people at the meeting.”
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
Mrs. Clemons’, a 6th grade math teacher at the Knox Community Middle School, brought in students from her honors classes to be recognized by the Knox Community School Board during the Spotlight on Success portion of the meeting.
“They had participated in a grant program called Apangea Math where they compete against each other and against schools to do math problems and solve them,” said Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “They get points for the more work they do. They compare their math performances and many of the lessons with other schools. One of Mrs. Clemons’ math classes won the region. They were first place in the region and her other math class was second place in the region and so they were honored by our Board. They were also honored by the state. They ended up sixth and seventh overall in the state as classrooms and we thought that was a pretty good honor.”
Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa gave a facility study update to the School Board Monday night. The Board is gathering opinions from the public and teachers in the Elementary School on the Palmer Wing of the Elementary School.
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Qualified School Construction Bond project continues at Knox High School. Recently the water pipes were replaced and the pool was redone. At the time the bids were accepted on those projects, some alternative bids were put out too.
One of the bids was to replace student lockers and Superintendent A.J. Gappa talks about the second bid. Continue reading →
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. GappaThe Knox Community School Board recently heard from five children during its Spotlight on Education portion of the meeting. Superintendent A.J. Gappa explains more.
“At our recent meeting, our spotlight on success was Charles Ratliff, who’s our writing teacher at the elementary school. I think we’re one of the few area schools, or maybe in this part of the state, that offers as a special in the elementary a writing class, so every student in our elementary gets to visit Mr. Ratliff on a regular basis and get instruction specifically in writing,” said Gappa.
Gappa explained more about a special writing project the students completed.
“Last spring, as a project for the writing classes, Mr. Ratliff submitted 500 poems that our students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade had written to the national schools project which is based out of Boise, Idaho, and what they do is only publish student works from throughout the nation and we had 200 students in our elementary school that had been selected to be published in their annual edition of their poetry work,” Gappa said.
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The Knox Community School Board heard from Elementary School Assistant Principal, Michelle Tarnow, who presented the Little F.I.S.H. program as the Spotlight on Success portion of the project. The Little F.I.S.H. program is available through IU Health Starke Hospital.
“F.I.S.H. is the acronym for Feeling Important Staying Healthy and the Little F.I.S.H. program offers students in the fourth grade level ideas and different recipes and different foods that they can eat and that are more healthy than others,” said Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “They each get a t-shirt and it has created some excitement with other grade levels. Our fourth grade is large enough this year that we split up the students so that not as many kids are being shown the program at one time so they come twice a month for the program.”
