On Friday, January 14, 2011
Anonymous said...
"Ptacek is leaving. He told his staff he was taking a job in Paducah, Kentucky."
Today, Thursday, January 20, 2011, the pjstar reports...
Richwoods principal may break contract
Ptacek in the running to be superintendent at another district.
After just three years, Richwoods High School Principal Steve Ptacek may be moving on and up.
Ptacek, 43, is a finalist for the superintendent post of a tiny southern Illinois school district of about 300 students. The Joppa Maple Grove School Board meets Monday and is expected to vote to hire a superintendent. The school district's current superintendent, Catherin Trampe, said she is retiring.
Ptacek, who came to Peoria in 2008, said he recently sent an e-mail to teachers and staff to quell rumors. Ptacek said, "I can't say what is happening," but noted in the e-mail he was not being fired and that he would remain at the school through the end of the school year.
"That's not healthy to have those kinds of rumors going around," Ptacek said. When asked about the job prospect, he replied, "I can't say anything officially right now . . . I'm not in that position, probably next week."
Ptacek originally signed a four-year contract with District 150 in 2008 and is paid $110,000 annually. Before coming to Peoria, he was principal at Centralia High School in southern Illinois. Prior to that, the Navy veteran was assistant principal at Cahokia High School, also in southern Illinois. He is from Lebanon.
Last year, Ptacek completed the necessary courses at Western Illinois University to hold a Type 26 certificate, which upon activation would allow him to hold a superintendent position for up to one year as an internship. Provided he showed the necessary skills during that time, he said a superintendent's endorsement would be granted by the state.
Anonymous said...
"Ptacek is leaving. He told his staff he was taking a job in Paducah, Kentucky."
Today, Thursday, January 20, 2011, the pjstar reports...
Richwoods principal may break contract
Ptacek in the running to be superintendent at another district.
After just three years, Richwoods High School Principal Steve Ptacek may be moving on and up.
Ptacek, 43, is a finalist for the superintendent post of a tiny southern Illinois school district of about 300 students. The Joppa Maple Grove School Board meets Monday and is expected to vote to hire a superintendent. The school district's current superintendent, Catherin Trampe, said she is retiring.
Ptacek, who came to Peoria in 2008, said he recently sent an e-mail to teachers and staff to quell rumors. Ptacek said, "I can't say what is happening," but noted in the e-mail he was not being fired and that he would remain at the school through the end of the school year.
"That's not healthy to have those kinds of rumors going around," Ptacek said. When asked about the job prospect, he replied, "I can't say anything officially right now . . . I'm not in that position, probably next week."
Ptacek originally signed a four-year contract with District 150 in 2008 and is paid $110,000 annually. Before coming to Peoria, he was principal at Centralia High School in southern Illinois. Prior to that, the Navy veteran was assistant principal at Cahokia High School, also in southern Illinois. He is from Lebanon.
Last year, Ptacek completed the necessary courses at Western Illinois University to hold a Type 26 certificate, which upon activation would allow him to hold a superintendent position for up to one year as an internship. Provided he showed the necessary skills during that time, he said a superintendent's endorsement would be granted by the state.
12 comments:
Hope Joppa understands he will only be around until he gets that paper endorsed. An ambitious man isn't going stay around long for the pay cut he will be getting. That area of the state isn't exactly rolling in the dough. Deep poverty down there.
Mahkno, I think you are the blogger who has expressed fears that the IB program would be ended. At the Whittier PTO meeting this week, Dr. Lathan stated that she hopes to expand the IB program into the middle school in some way--she didn't seem to indicate that the program would be chopped. Have you heard anything to the contrary?
I have heard nothing about middle school.
They do have an IB meeting for high school students coming up on February 3rd.
The delay in 'evaluating' program has pushed these dates into and past dates that the private high schools start doing registration. Private school registration usually involves a financial commitment. This is going to put some people in a bind because now they will have to decide on the private school first before they even apply for the IB program. Money is already at stake.
Last year... IB candidates knew their status before any other schools started registering.
This may cost District 150 some students. Parents may not feel they can risk their students enrollment for a chance to get into IB.
On a positive note... they did put the application materials online at the Richwoods webpage, so that people could get started on them before the info meeting.
I had hoped to attend the meeting at Whittier but we are all sick here.
Yes, I agree that the delay is not a good thing, especially if District 150 wants to continue the program. Some may already have become discouraged. This is the second time I have heard Dr. Lathan talk about the IB program (or something) at the middle school level (in addition to Washington Gifted). She mentioned at the Brown Bag It meeting at Peoria City Hall.
The MYP is a IB primer program designed for grades 6th through 10th. It involves a more rigorous curriculum and an involved student evaluation/grading system which measures various facets of student learning – focusing particularly on critical thinking and analytical skills.
Like AP and IB, the MYP requires special teacher training and development. Also, for MYP to make sense, the middle school curriculum must offer a 2nd language. SO . . because of the resources involved and the student performance level required, an MYP magnet school would make the most sense. It would be a great opportunity to identify early on, promising poor and minority students, and help them grow and develop in order to be better prepared to handle the demands of the IB program. An MYP magnet school would “hook” parents early on into a curriculum that, IMO, they would be satisfied with and would create an automatic feeder into the IB program and, hopefully avoid some of the shopping around at private schools that Mahkno referred to above.
Dist. 150 has sent an official release to media on this, so I guess I can post it now, too.
"Remarkable Times" coming to Comcast Cable 22 starting Sunday, Jan. 23rd 5 pm on CAPtions. This new reoccuring segment includes:
Mr. Ptacek talks about the IB program; Dr. Sharon Kherat updates viewers on Manual activites, as does Randy Simmons on PHS.
Host of this 30 minute segment:
Dr. Grenita Lathan, Superintendent of Dist. 150. Various video clips of classrooms are also broadcast.
The rest of CAPtions features host Andre Bohannon & Engin Blackstone of the Quest Charter Academy.
Dr. Lathan did mention that she wanted to return foreign languages to the lower grades.
I haven't quite figured out how District 150 will have the money to keep all the promises Dr. Lathan made at Whittier: counselors for middle schools, return of librarians, IB program and foreign languages at middle school level, and a vocational school (will the TIF $2 million really pay for a vocational school?)
For what little it is worth... I think a second language should be mandatory from Kindergarten onward. The goal should be age appropriate fluency by 8th grade.
This would be testable. There are TOEFL like tests for Spanish, French and German. These tests are taken very seriously in their countries of origin, especially if you want to work there.
In high school, a 3rd language should be added to the mix. This is quite the norm in Europe.
As far as I know, no school is doing this except maybe Peoria Academy.
I tried to introduce Spanish to 2nd graders for less than 30 minutes a week and Valda Shipp told me, unequivically NO. I had connected the lessons to state learning standards and even showed her research proving how important this endeavor was. Funny, it was taught at Franklin Edison as a "special" when she was there, yet I was not allowed. Hmmmmm
Mahkno - I agree that learning a
2nd language should be introduced early.
When my children were at Kellar I coordinated a before school Spanish club and it was in high demand. But when I pushed the principal to consider re-working the curriculum and offering Spanish as part of the curriculum it feel on deaf ears.
Maybe with Dr. Lathan in charge there will be more urgency for change. Sure seems to be so far.
I remember when Mahliyah was in primary school she learned Spanish at Whittier--by the way my fifteen-year-old Mahliyah just won first in the Mid-State 6 Speech Tournament for poetry (and Richwoods won first). Just my moment to brag, and, also, to point out what a great start she had at Whittier--took her to Washington Gifted and then to IB program. I hope that opportunity at Whittier doesn't change for her four siblings.
Mr. Ptacek is actually hoping for a permanent move during this transition. He has said to me that this decision is not one for promotion, increased pay, or as a stepping stone for future positions, but one that will bring contentment to himself and his wife and great environment to raise his kids. This sounds like a great opportunity for him and maybe even for Richwoods, if the district can pick a worthy principal for the school.
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