The Portage Township School Board has set the stage for a $6.35 million bond to be approved later this month. It’s expected to not impact tax bills.
Superintendent Amanda Alaniz explained the bond will pay for HVAC improvements at Jones Elementary School as well as various site improvements at Portage High School. Those include surfacing the baseball and softball fields, fencing and drainage.
“This is tax rate neutral,” she said, because of other debt being paid off.
Alaniz said at the April 22 meeting that the district’s spending on facilities is paying off. The board had asked her to see how much impact the facility improvements have had on operating costs.
Over three years, she said, the district has saved 12% annually, about $66,000, just from the switch to LED lights. That doesn’t even factor in a reduction of headaches that better lighting brings, Alaniz said. Bulbs last longer, too.
In rebates alone, the district has recouped $250,000 of the installation costs.
That’s about $450 per student in savings, she said. “I think that’s something to be really proud of in the long run.”
No one spoke at a recent public hearing on the proposed bond issue. The board voted unanimously to move forward with it.
The board did hear comments from recipients of grants from the Portage Township Education Foundation to support innovative programs and ideas.
“We are so appreciative of the Portage Township Education Foundation,” School Board President Andy Maletta said.
Not everyone who applied received funding. In some cases, there are opportunities for alternative funding sources where the proposal doesn’t meet the criteria set by the foundation’s board, Alaniz said.
“These are things they don’t have to do, so you really should be commended for wanting to do more for your kids,” Maletta said.
To those rejected, “please continue your dedication in the future” and apply again, School Board member Lori Wilkie said.
Alaniz said she recently won $2,500 at an education conference and pledged to donate it to the foundation.
This year, the foundation will begin recognizing career milestones with first-year, 5-, 10-, and even 45-year pins. “They’re a big deal,” she said.
Carrie Kietzman, a physical education teacher at Fegely Middle School, received funding for fishing supplies for a new adaptive PE class. “We got the supplies in today, and it was like Christmas morning,” she said. The kids were excited to hold a fishing pole. Next year, she hopes her students will be able to take a fishing trip.
Next year, the school is adding a collaborative PE class with eighth graders working with adaptive PE students. “I am so excited to get this started with these kids.”
Fellow teacher Jeff Moscinski received a grant for an archery set. The school resource officer will help work with PE students in grades 6-8 next year, Kietzman said.
Fegely Assistant Principal Jennifer Combs wanted flexible furniture for kids that could be easily moved around, allowing students who can’t sit still to move around in the back of the classroom without distracting anyone, she said. “We noticed a lot of similar kids’ names coming up repeatedly” in discussions of classroom behaviors. “As a former teacher, I noticed these kids need movement, they need something,” she said.
That grant request was declined last year, but the foundation did fund fidget devices to keep them occupied. “Sometimes they just need to move, and 10 minutes of instruction is too much,” Combs said.
Portage High School teacher Andrea Flynn is having students learning to teach at elementary schools write journals. Flynn had read a book about a first-year teacher’s experience. “I want these teachers to read the book and compare it to their own experiences,” she said. She hopes it will push them into teaching careers.
At South Haven Elementary, Megan Monahan was inspired after touring a Michigan City Area Schools multi-sensory room. “This will be used for special education students as well as students in the general education students as well,” Monahan said. Pulse oximeters and similar devices will be able to show how excited the students are to help them calm down.
At Portage High School, Frank Hobart received funding for equipment for the First Robotics team. “Robots are roughly 20 inches in perimeter and weigh roughly 125 pounds,” he said. The grant money is being spent on a seven-foot rolling tool chest, power tools, drills and impact sets. “The impact that I’ve seen on students, it’s transformational.”
John Kappes, also at PHS, teaches about pneumatics. “It’s pretty awesome how this came around,” he said. The foundation provided 10 kits with different actuators, solenoids, etc. “These pneumatic applications fit the infrastructure that we already had in place,” he said.
“This is really going to level us up. I’m so excited.”
“We’re innovators. We’ll take something and we’ll find a better way to do what we’re doing,” Kappes said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
