Knox Community School Board Updated on Situation at Door #7

Posted on Author WKVI
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.

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Knox Community School Board goes to Paperless Meetings

Posted on Author WKVI
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.”

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Damage Forces Change in Student Pickup/Drop-off Locations at Knox Elementary

Posted on Author WKVI

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.”

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High School English Students Present Assignment to Knox Community School Board

Posted on Author WKVI
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 Schools to Hold RISE Evaluation Training

Posted on Author WKVI

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.”

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Knox Schools, Vocational Directors Discuss Welding Classes

Posted on Author WKVI

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 Board Receives Facility Study Update

Posted on Author WKVI

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.

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Knox Community School Board Reorganizes, Commends Students on Promotional Video

Posted on Author WKVI
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa

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.

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Knox School Board Recognizes Retirees

Posted on Author WKVI
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.”

Knox Math Class Honored by School Board

Posted on Author WKVI
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.”

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Knox Community School Board Approves Bid for Intercom and Sound System

Posted on Author WKVI
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 →

Knox Students Do Well In Poetry Competition

Posted on Author WKVI

Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa
The 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.

Knox Community School Board Spotlights Little F.I.S.H. Program

Posted on Author WKVI
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.”

Knox Community School Board Receives Facility Study Update

Posted on Author WKVI
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa

Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa gave the School Board a facility study update this week.

“Our Board has been investigating work that needs to be done at the Elementary School. I’ve been meeting with the staff members at the Elementary School by grade level and offering them the same mini tour and showing them the inner workings of the building, similar to what the Board had seen during a mini retreat that they had and also what the public was shown last spring.”

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Knox Community School Board Gets Update on Elementary Facility Study

Posted on Author WKVI
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa

Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa gave the School Board members a report from the recent Parent/Teacher conferences at the Elementary School.

“We gave an Elementary facility study update to the Board just to keep them updated on what’s going on, especially at the Palmer Wing,” said Superintendent Gappa. “During our recent Parent/Teacher Conference days in mid-October, the administrators from the Elementary School, along with some other staff members, opened up the Palmer Wing to any parents who came through at Parent/Teacher Conferences and wanted to see the state of the building. As we move forward and try to decide what we want to do with that buildling, we think the process is to sell the need and let parents actually see what shape the building is in and the part we’re talking about is almost 60 years old.”

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Students Honored for Spotlight on Success Achievement Surprised by Guest at Knox School Board Meeting

Posted on Author WKVI
Tim Watts

The Knox Community School Board had a special Spotlight on Success agenda item this week. The students in Mrs. Kleinfehn’s high school class have been corresponding with Tim Watts, a 2004 graduate of Knox High School, and a member of the National Guard. He has a special email account so the students can email him and those letters are monitored by Mrs. Kleinfehn.

The students appeared before the School Board Monday night for the Spotlight on Success presentation and Superintendent A.J. Gappa said they got a surprise.

“It just so happens, Tim was home on leave this week so he was able to show up in person at the board meeting and the kids didn’t know he was coming,” said Gappa. “The Board thought that it was really special for a graduate of Knox High School to come back and take the time, especially when he’s got limited time left before he goes overseas, to talk to these kids and show some samples of emails they’ve already sent.”

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Dick Wagner Retires from Knox Community School Corporation after Teaching 40 Years

Posted on Author WKVI
Dick Wagner and this year's business class

The Knox Community School Board members accepted the retirement of a high school teacher at their meeting this week.

“Dick Wagner had submitted a letter of retirement. He had some personal issues that developed so he felt that it was in his best interest at this time to retire. Mr. Wagner was a business teacher at Knox. Over the years, he’s done other extra-curricular activities. I believe he, at some point, did the Yearbook at the High School, he’s also been a tennis coach, and he was involved with the Knox Federation of Teachers where he has been the past President, a position he held for the last number of years until this past May. He got in forty-and-a-half years. We want to thank him for all he’s done for the Corporation and the time he’s put in,” commented Superintendent, A.J. Gappa.

Photo provided.

Parents Give Input on Aging Palmer Wing at the Knox Elementary School

Posted on Author WKVI

The Knox Community Elementary School recently held parent/teacher conferences and during that time, parents were asked to go through the Palmer Wing.

“The administrators from the Elementary School invited members and parents in to look at Palmer Wing at the Elementary School just to show some of the needs that might be necessary,” said Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “Our maintenance people do a great job of maintaining things, but that building is nearing 60 years old so some things are going to need to be taken care of. Six or seven parents each night did take advantage and looked at the Palmer Wing and pretty much the comments were unanimous. There is going to have to be something done sometime in the near future.”

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