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Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Union Township school superintendent retiring after 20 years
If Union Township School Corp. Superintendent John Hunter's office seems spartan for someone who has been superintendent for 20 years, it's because he's been cleaning his office in preparation for his retirement just days from now. June 8, graduation day for Wheeler High School seniors, is also Hunter's graduation to retirement. 'It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate in 20 years,' he said. 'I took more boxes home than my wife would have liked.' That 20 years began at a time when the district was growing. Hunter took over from E. Ric Frataccia, who had been superintendent for 10 years. 'It was pretty academically sound,' Hunter said. The district had just added a pool, auditorium, fieldhouse and 10 classrooms to the middle school and high school. The facilities have changed even more since then. 'None of the classrooms at that point in time had telephones in them,' Hunter said, an obvious concern when school safety was becoming an issue following the start of the nation's epidemic of school shootings. Teachers at Union Center Elementary School had buttons in their classrooms to call the office over the intercom, but many weren't working. The district put in a robust information technology infrastructure, including voice over internet protocol phones. Hunter remembers those days. He had to dial 7 to get an outside line, and there were just four phone lines available. 'I had to dial 10 digits to get anyone from Simatovich (Elementary School),' he said. 'Through the years, we did a lot for school safety,' Hunter said. Entrances now require key fobs to open doors. 'Back in that day, every door in the building was open.' That's not all the facility changes that have happened over the last 20 years. As might be expected, there have been upgrades to HVAC systems, roofs and the like. At Union Center, 'we basically replaced that entire school,' Hunter said. A new transportation building was built so buses don't have to be stored at the schools. The football stadium was upgraded, including a turf field, tennis courts and tracks. Turf baseball, softball and multipurpose fields were installed. The athletics complex has a new driveway and parking lots. A grassy area can be used for either soccer or football, depending on how the stripes are laid down. Along the way, the school district has seen a string of successes, including state championships for boys basketball in 2010 and girls softball in 2011. The girls soccer team has been state runner-up twice. There have been academic successes, too, including for the high school science team and English team. Individual competitors have advanced to state competitions, too. Among the biggest challenges Hunter faced at Union Township was the period from 2008 to 2010, when the economy soured. In December 2008, Gov. Mitch Daniels forced the district to cut $400,000 from its budget. 'We couldn't just not pay people,' Hunter said, so administrators took pay cuts, staff took furlough days, some noncertified employees were laid off, retirement buyouts were offered and fees were increased. The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on schools. 'That was a big challenge for everybody,' Hunter said. The county's school superintendents met with the health department March 13, 2020. Hunter remembers it well. They met in the school library not far from his office. Together, they devised a time to close schools thinking it would be over in two weeks. Instead, they were closed the rest of the school year. 'It was a very stressful time for a lot of them,' Hunter said, as students and educators adjusted to virtual classes after a lifetime of in-person instruction. Deaths over the years, including students, hit hard, too. 'It's tough on schools, tough on our community. They're our family,' he said. Hunter's education career was shaped by a new teacher he had as a sixth grader. She put their desks in small groups instead of rows. She had student helpers, 'which changed my perspective on learning.' Through middle and high school, he had more teachers like that. At Indiana State University, during his first semester, education students were put in a classroom to get a taste of teaching. 'I thought it was ingenious at the time,' he said, to help college students decide early on whether a career as an educator seemed right. When Hunter began teaching, Gov. Robert Orr's Primetime initiative had just begun to lower class sizes in kindergarten and first grade. But Hunter taught third grade in Elkhart. 'I had 33 third-graders my first year,' he said. When Indiana decided to stop issuing lifetime teaching licenses for educators with master's degrees, Hunter hurried to qualify under the old rules and got an administrator license as well. After 14 years as principal, first in Goshen and then at Brummit Elementary in Chesterton, Hunter got his superintendent license, persuaded to do so by one of his ISU professors. His 20 years at Union Township make him one of the state's longest-serving school superintendents. Tom Hunter, at Greensburg, has been there 25 years. When Greensburg had an opening for an assistant superintendent, John Hunter joked about applying just to confuse people. The two Hunters are unrelated. John Hunter said he doesn't have specific plans for his retirement. He would be open to serving as an interim superintendent somewhere, and he would consider a business development position. 'I'm definitely going to hit that little white ball a little more often than I do now,' he said.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Campbell High principal, athletic director reassigned after basketball coaches rehired
A Cobb County principal and athletic director will report to new schools next school year. The decision comes after two basketball coaches lost their jobs, but were later reinstated after a district investigation. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Campbell High School Principal Vanessa Watkins and Athletic Director James Thigpen have been reassigned, the district confirmed. Current Wheeler High School Principal Paul Gillihan will move to Campbell. Earlier this year, boys basketball coach James Gwyn and girls basketball coach Randy McClure were denied new teaching contracts for the upcoming school year. TRENDING STORIES: As restaurant closures hit West Midtown, one Atlanta restauranteur offers a lifeline Lawyer for GA college student in ICE custody optimistic about bond status 'A hero': MARTA train operator ran to help shooting victims, still got passengers to the airport More than 4,000 people signed a petition calling for the coaches, who the school's gymnasium is named after, to be reinstated. The district launched an investigation and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale recommended that Gwyn and McClure get their jobs back. Channel 2 Action News asked the Cobb County Schools District if the new assignments were a result of the investigation. A spokesperson responded with the following statement. 'Principal and staff reassignments occur every year as part of the District's normal operations to align school leadership with the needs of our students and communities.' [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Chicago Tribune
29-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Data center opponents urge rallying residents for May 13 meeting in Porter County
Opponents of the proposed data center development in Union Township mobilized Monday. A forum at Wheeler High School brought about 50 interested people together to answer questions and sign up to canvass neighborhoods in advance of a May 13 meeting at the Porter County Expo Center. 'Really, we're here to organize and get people involved,' said Matt Carpenter, of Union Township. 'You can be creative in the way you get out and contact people,' he said. 'Don't wait for somebody else to do what you need to do,' urged Wendy Reigel, of Chesterton, who helped lead the fight against the data center proposed last year for The Brassie, a former golf course. 'Tell your neighbor what you're telling us,' Reigel urged. When canvassing, attitude is important. Carpenter offered pointers. Canvass in pairs for protection, he said. 'Hit your own neighborhoods if you can.' 'Do try to find some common ground to be relatable,' he urged. Wear Wheeler Bearcats attire and say things like, 'I'm the guy who walks these dogs. That's my wife whose truck you see all the time.' Be respectful of property. Don't park in their driveway, and don't walk on their grass, Carpenter said. Try to keep conversations to five minutes, and don't bring up politics, Carpenter said. 'This isn't about red or blue or independent.' If they disagree, just nod and smile, then move on to the next house, he suggested. 'What seems to be the most negativity we can bring in a positive manner,' one resident asked. 'Tell them to google Virginia, Loudoun County, Virginia, data center alley,' Reigel said. That area, in northern Virginia, has a high concentration of data centers with more in development. In Union Township, AXPK, LLC, has petitioned to build on two parcels totaling 800 acres. Sale of the parcels to AXPK is contingent on rezoning. AXPK wants a planned unit development, a zoning category tailor-made for the project, a common practice for many developments. The proposed projects are called Jeremiah A and Jeremiah B. The first is proposed for a 351.85-acre parcel at the northeast corner of County Roads 450 N and 750 W. John Loxas of Hammond owns that land. The second, owned by Johnson Sunnybrook Farm, LLC, and Ceres Cedar Creek Farm, LLC, of Hobart, is at the southeast corner of 450 N and 650 W, due north of Union Township Middle and High Schools. Kyle Duarte, of Union Township, put that 800-acre development in perspective. 'All of Ameriplex (in Portage) is under 400 acres,' he said. The data center being built in New Carlisle, which is on 220 acres, will use 500 backup generators, said Bryce Gustafson, an organizer with Citizens Action Coalition. 'The driver for the data centers is artificial intelligence,' to facilitate language learning, he said. 'That's when we started seeing these hyperscalers coming to Indiana.' 'I think every community should have agency in what they want in their community,' he said, despite actions in the Indiana General Assembly that would take away local decisions on issues like where to locate small nuclear reactors. That's an issue relevant to data centers because of their high demand for electricity and reliability. NIPSCO has asked the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to allow it to create GenCo, a separate company devoted to powering data centers. The Citizens Action Coalition opposes it, Gustafson said, saying it would essentially be self-regulated. NIPSCO's integrated resource plan suggests 3,900 gigawatts generated by natural gas plants to meet data centers' demand. In comparison, peak demand for other customers is 2.2 gigawatts, Gustafson said. 'We've never seen anything close to what's happening right now,' he said. 'All of us know there's going to be a power plant back there behind our schools,' a resident said. Data centers have previously been proposed for locations in Chesterton, Burns Harbor and Valparaiso, all of which have been shot down by opponents. Smaller data centers have proliferated in Indiana, including one at Ameriplex in Portage. 'We knew it was QTS data centers proposing this,' a resident said, citing a web page that gave brief details about a proposed site in Porter County. That web page has since been taken down. Gary Brown, a member of the Porter County Izaak Walton League, urged the Union Township group to be vocal at the May 13 meeting. 'It's not how loud you scream, it's how you tell your personal story.' 'We need as many people as possible to let the commissioners know it's not right to charge the zoning right by our schools to light industrial,' Marissa Barnes said. The Porter County Planning Commission will hear the proposal first and decide whether to recommend the project go forward. It's up to the county Board of Commissioners to make the final decision. So far, Commissioner Barb Regnitz has expressed her opposition, Barnes said. Commissioners Jim Biggs and Ed Morales have said they want to see the process go through before voting on it. Concentrate on residents in their districts – north county and south county, respectively – to pressure Biggs and Morales, Barnes urged.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Parents upset after antisemitic incidents occurred at Cobb County schools
Parents and community members are outraged. In less than one week, two antisemitic incidents happened in Cobb County schools. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Outrage over hate is growing, and calls for change are growing just as strong. Last week, someone drew a Swatiska in a locker room at Dickerson Middle School and earlier this week at Wheeler High School. Mindy Harrison, a member of Cobb Parents Against Antisemitism and Shield says students in an advanced placement (AP) class saw a hateful slide that a teacher used in a PowerPoint presentation while defining ethnic cleansing. 'It showed an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldier sweeping up little bodies over a map that you could tell said Palestine and his broom said ethnic cleansing,' Harrison explained. 'There are a lot of allies that are not Jewish that don't want to see this behavior and this type of platform abused.' TRENDING STORIES: WATCH: Driver ends chase with GA deputies next to backyard pool Roswell police charge youth pastor with possession of child sexual abuse materials Woman accused of setting GA home ablaze before breaking in, stabbing women The district sent Channel 2 Action News the following statement about the incident at Dickerson Middle School that says in part: 'Once administration has identified who is responsible, consequences for this unacceptable, hateful behavior will be as severe as policy and the law allows.' The following statement was sent about the incident at Wheeler High School, that says in part: 'While ethnic cleansing is a standard in the class, the graphic used to teach the definition was wildly inappropriate and completely wrong. The graphic has been removed from the lesson and should not have been used.' [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Harrison says the slide is still accessible to parents and students online. 'Put some guardrails up on their learning platform, CTLS, so teachers can't upload this type of thing that would be helpful,' Harrison said. District officials told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell they are trying to determine who, how, and where the PowerPoint came from. They also told Newell the hateful graffiti was removed promptly from the middle school.
