Return To School Went Smoothly Throughout Kankakee Valley

This was the first week of school for area students.

Superintendent A.J. Gappa talks about how the first week went for Knox Community School students.

“After talking to the principals at each building, I guess the one word we could use is smooth,” said Gappa. “There were no major glitches. Bus loading and unloading seemed to go well. I talked to the people at the transportation garage and all of the routes seemed to be in place and moving well. I don’t have any preliminary numbers, but hopefully our student population is at least as much as last year.”

North Judson-San Pierre School Superintendent said the start of the week was great at her corporation.

“We’ve had the best opening in a long time. We were able to have two staff development days. We had a motivational speaker on Monday and then teachers had staff development in their buildings. The first day of school was on Wednesday and everything went very, very well. So far, so good,” said Johnson.

Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman commented that things went smoothly for his corporation the first week of school.

“Our teachers and staff actually came in on Monday where we established our goals and had all of that natural excitement and enthusiasm,” commented Dr. Klitzman. “On Tuesday, we had some professional development, but the big, big thing of course was Wednesday when our students were here. Our teachers and staff did a great job of being everywhere to assist and help. I really emphasized with our staff to keep the main thing the main thing and our main thing is student learning.”

West Central School Superintendent said the week started with teacher in-service days.

“We had our two-and-a-half days of teacher in-service and orientation which is a little bit longer than in the past. That was due to a lot of changes in the state and the new evaluation system. As far as our first few days here with students, I think we are pleased with that as well.”

Complete enrollment figures won’t be released until later but North Judson-San Pierre and Eastern Pulaski Schools reported a slight increase or no change in preliminary enrollment figures. Preliminary enrollment figures at West Central are slightly below projection, but Superintendent Mellon will know more when the official ADM (Average Daily Membership) count is taken September 14.