Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman said that the board met in sort of a brainstorming situation to gather criteria and qualifications in what they’re looking for in a new superintendent. The board will be looking at state guidelines and the corporation’s needs when discussing a new leader in the corporation.
After 26 years at the helm of the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation, Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman announced that he would be retiring when his contract ends on June 30. The Eastern Pulaski School Board met in special session on Monday, March 18 and approved Klitzman’s request for retirement.
The board’s split vote on renewing Klitzman’s contract for the 2013-2014 school year prompted his decision.
The board is now tasked in finding his replacement. That process will begin tonight during the board’s work session.
“She has decided that this year is absolutely the last of it,” explained Klitzman. “She tried to retire last year and we twisted her arm and she came back. Another reason that she’s so firm that this is her last year is her husband, Brad Moore, is retiring.”
“We had a very nice $500 donation from Re/Max Real Estate,” said Klitzman. “For those of you who don’t know or may not remember, the Helping Hands is a program that we use to help students that are in need of assistance either in their cafeteria balance or in their textbook usage.”
Tom Bonnell, owner of TNS Recycling, had constructed canvas tarps that were donated to the school which are being used with the baseball and track programs as well as the fine arts department.
“It’s a great time to have PE,” explained Klitzman. “With a three-hour block, you do so many more things. You don’t have to worry about the class bell ringing after 50 minutes and you don’t have to worry about getting sweaty and going into an algebra class, which kids don’t like necessarily. It’s in the summer, it’s in the morning and you get it over with.”
“We have and are proud to have to lowest cafeteria prices for our students in the entire area,” stated Klitzman. “A meal is $1.50. The federal reimbursement is more than that so we need to increase our prices, per federal mandate, to $1.60.”
The board did approve that increase.
Klitzman said his decision to retire was based upon previous board votes on his one-year contract renewals the past couple of years.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board approved an increase in the bus driver electric usage stipend.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman explained that every year the bus drivers are required to plug in their buses during the wintertime and it’s been a custom every year to give those drivers a little stipend to offset that cost.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board members welcomed seven special guests to their meeting on Monday morning. Kindergarten students read a short story to each of the school board members to begin the presentation part of the school board meeting.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman emphasized that the students have come a long way from the beginning of the school year in their reading abilities and wanted to share that progress with the board. President Michael Tetzloff commented that the teachers and the kids are doing a great job and it was a highlight of the meeting.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board voted 4-3 Monday morning to advertise the superintendent’s contract.
The board met prior to their regular meeting to discuss the contract at length and held only a brief discussion on the issue in the public meeting. The board, by majority vote, agreed to continue in the current contract with Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman.
Per state statute, the contract must be published. After the contract is published, a public meeting will be held where comments will be fielded and then a vote will be taken to ratify the contract.
Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman updated the school board on this bill during their recent meeting.
During the recent meeting of the Eastern Pulaski School Board, Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman brought several pieces of legislation to the attention of the board members that are education-related. The bill that he is most concerned deals with school vouchers.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman commented that the Junior Science and Humanities Class, or AP Biology, will be going to a symposium at Saint Mary’s of the Woods in Terre Haute.
“We need to do this to understand that our teachers are the most important ingredient in student learning and the iPad and everything else supplements that teacher,” stated Dr. Klitzman. “We’re gradually infusing more of the technology into our programming. Mr. Dickinson reported on how we’re doing with that at the middle school.”
The iPads will be put into more students’ hands as the year goes forward.
As the nation recovers from the unbelievable tragedy that rocked the town of Newtown, Conn., schools around our area have been taking extra precautions and conducting drills to ensure they know how to respond if the unthinkable were to occur.
At Culver Community Schools, students at the elementary school coincidentally conducted a lockdown drill the day before the Newtown tragedy occurred. After the tragedy, Superintendent Brad Schuldt said the middle school and high school conducted their lockdown drills, which is something the schools do annually.
A number of changes will soon be taking place at the state level, and Eastern Pulaski Schools are gearing up for some changes as well. Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman said that while the state is preparing to welcome a new governor, state superintendent, senator, and new House members as well, the Eastern Pulaski School Board is preparing to welcome a number of new school board members while saying goodbye to some familiar faces.
“We had three school board members, last Monday was their last school board meeting. They decided they did not want to run for another term, so they ended here in December,” Klitzman said. “So out with the board members that decided not to run and in with the newly-elected.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board this week held a public hearing regarding the corporation’s budget. Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman explained that as a fiscal year school, they do things a little bit differently.
“We are a fiscal year school, so what we are working on now is a budget that will come into play in July. Here we are in December, we’re doing this thing for July, but we have to work that far in advance,” said Klitzman.
Eastern Pulaski Schools will soon be welcoming a new member to the coaching staff. Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman explained that baseball coach Mark Hendricks will soon be leaving the corporation, and they’ve found his replacement in Tony Carroll.
Klitzman said Carroll brings a lot to the table with years of experience in baseball, though they are sad to see Hendricks go.
The Eastern Pulaski Schools Corporation is extremely proud of the grade they received from the state. Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman said the lowest grade the corporation received was a B, and while there is a little bit of room for improvement, he’s excited about their improvement.
“Eastern Pulaski Schools did extremely well academically, in that our high school got an A, our middle school got a B, our elementary school got an A, and our school corporation got an A. So we received three A’s and a B on our report card, so to speak. I don’t know about a lot of our listeners out there, but back in East Chicago when I was a kid, if I’d have brought home three A’s and a B, I’d have probably gotten a reward,” said Klitzman.
