The Knox High School Instrumental Music Department had three soloists perform at the ISSMA State Solo & Ensemble Contest on Saturday, February 25 at North Central High School. Brenden Owens earned a Gold rating on an alto sax solo, Hannah Janson earned a Gold rating on a horn solo and Matt Miller earned a Silver rating on a trumpet solo. All three students were accompanied by Mrs. Char Geisler on piano. Congratulations to these students on their fine performances!
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.”
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.”
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 SCILL Center will be offering a 16-week comprehensive welding class for adults. SCILL Center Director Jerry Gurrado says the course has been in demand.
“One of the things that is needed in our area, between Sabre, Kruz, Dragon Industries, and Hicks, is welding. We need good welders,” said Gurrado.
Gurrado said that a member of his board and others in the community agreed that an adult welding program is needed in the community. The plans now are for the class to be taught at Knox Middle School.
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.
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.”
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.
Drew Shearin’s legacy has lived on through his loved ones and his music during these past few months. The Knox High School student died in a car accident in Starke County in October.
The Silver Creek High School Band Booster program in Sellersburg, Indiana is hosting a benefit concert for the Drew Shearin Memorial Scholarship fund. Coordinator, Hannah Gibson, said the fundraiser includes performances by students participating in the Indiana State School Music Association Solo and Ensemble event.
The music of a Knox High School student who was killed in an auto accident last Fall will be featured at the Indiana Music Educators Association annual Professional Development Conference in Fort Wayne this afternoon.
Drew Shearin, one of the Drum Majors for the Knox High School band, will be recognized for the second time by the IMEA. Last year, he was recognized for his instrumental composition called “Uncertainty” which was performed by the Lafayette Jefferson High School Orchestra. Today, he will be recognized as the winner in the Choral Division for a work entitled “The Sweetest Air is Most Often the Thickest”. His composition will be performed by the Butler University Chorale.
A series of meetings scheduled by the Starke County Jail Committee begins tomorrow night. The Committee is informing you of their discussions surrounding jail facility options. The Committee is pondering building a new jail facility, rehabbing the current jail or rehabbing an existing building to convert to a jail.
The members of the Knox Community School Board reorganized at their meeting Monday night. Harold Welter was retained as Board President, Mary Lynn Ritchie was retained as Vice President and Jerry Fletcher was retained as Secretary. William Satterlee III, from Hoeppner, Wagner and Evans in Valparaiso, will continue as the Board’s legal counsel.
During the Spotlight on Success portion of the meeting, the Board viewed a promotional video put together by Middle School students Colin Kulpa and Jason Christopher. Technology Coach, Chris Ross, helped the students with the final touches but Superintendent A.J. Gappa said the students did the majority of the work.
Five new members will go into the Knox High School Athletic Hall of Fame on February 4th. Inducted between the J.V. and Varsity boys basketball games will be Jack D’Amato, Class of 1965; Doris Miller, Class of 1976; Kim (Pawlik) Wojtyla, Class of 1982; Rob Krueger, Class of 1985; and Shawn McIntire, class of 1993.
Jack D’Amato was the 1965 Ben Bowen award winner, is retired, living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Doris Miller was All Conference in both Volleyball and Basketball her senior year. She currently works in the Distribution-Window Clerk Department at the Knox Post Office.
Kim Wojtyla will join her two brothers, and father (Kemo Pawlik) into the Hall of Fame. She works for a securities firm in Chicago. Kim remembers vividly hitting a hole-in-one shot during a golf match her senior year.
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.”
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.”
The J.E.S.S.E. Co-op is reorganizing. Rochester schools recently pulled out of the special education cooperative that administers more than 80 different special classes and resource programs which leaves 9 school corporations in our area participating in the program.
With the withdrawal of Rochester, Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa said the majority of the financial services will now come out of Plymouth Schools.
