Still chalking up the deuces

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.

Richwoods' Principal addresses the rumors surrounding dropping the IB Program

I thought that Steve Ptacek's comments regarding this issue were so important, I pulled his post out of comments to post here. Steve Ptacek said...

"Sharon, I do read the blogs from time to time.

You have been hearing exaggerations and twists regarding my concerns with our IB program. Immediately upon entering RHS I started analyzing all available data to get a picture of the state of the school including our trends. I have questioned our decreasing numbers in both IB and AP. I have also questioned our performance.

I have questioned how we have been running our programs, not the programs themselves. This hasn't set well with some teachers and families associated with the programs. Many enjoyed the small "school within a school" condition that had been created.

People were shocked that I first questioned our high end classes. But I believe that you grow an excellent school by first ensuring that the high end is both expanding and performing. It is challenging to increase enrollment and performance in a top end program, but that is what truly great teachers do.

(Note: Our school IB coordinator has been doing a wonderful job, but her ability to expand the program has been limited. She might be the hardest working person in the district).

If we are going to create something special with the IB program, we need to commit to vertically aligning the program into the middle schools (ALL of them). Not only do we need to use the program to challenge our "traditional" top performing students, we also need to find, inspire, and motivate our untapped talent.

This year we have added the IB certificate option with the goal of increasing our junior and senior enrollment. For the last couple of years only about 20 students have taken the IB tests. Furthermore, just over half of those performed well enough to receive the diploma. With our current economic situation, I have stated that those numbers do not justify the program. But my solution is to commit to increasing the numbers. I know the talent is out there. From day one I had a problem walking down the hall and seeing 3 lower level classes with 26-29 students and several IB classes with less then 10.

I have also stated that not all of our high-end students have the same academic needs. For some, the IB program is perfect. For others, AP is a better option. Remember Sharon, prior to entering administration my background was a nuclear power plant operator and an AP Physics teacher. I firmly believe that top science/math students need to take AP Calculus along with at least one other AP science course. That is what the students take at New Trier, Barrington, Adlai Stevenson, and Naperville. Since we have only offered the diploma option, many of our students have had to decide between AP and IB. Their schedules have been full. Hopefully with the certificate option we can allow for both.

Our total number of students either testing for the IB diploma or taking AP exams over the last decade has declined. In contrast, statewide involvement has risen dramatically. (My data is mainly regarding the massive increase in state AP testing since there are only 3 districts in the state with an IB program). Low-income and minority testing has greatly increased throughout the state.

RHS once had amazing AP numbers. One of my goals is to return our school to those levels. For the past 10 years we have averaged 58 students taking an AP exam. This last year 94 students took at least one AP exam. Our overall pass rate was above 70% so I am delighted with what the staff was able to accomplish.

Also, Dr. Lathan is a huge IB supporter. Once the district is able, I am confident that the resources and support will finally be provided to create a truly successful program available for all of our students.

If anyone has any questions about the direction that I wish to take RHS.... PLEASE stop by, call, email, or send a pigeon. I gladly welcome the conversation. I have had several parents come to my office questioning me about the rumors that I want to drop the IB program. Once they leave, they have understood the truth instead of the rumors. "


Steve Ptacek
693-4414

Redefining “discrimination” in District 150

It’s true when you speak of “minority” students in District 150 these days, you are referring to any race other than African-American. As Mahkno so succinctly puts it, "At 61.1% of the student body, the African-American students are not a minority."

So, today when we speak in terms of “inequality in education”, let’s make it clear what categories we are referring to: African-American, Hispanic and/or all folks below a certain income level (or street).

When I saw in the pjstar that a retired District 150 teacher was quoted as saying "not allowing Richwoods students the ability to attend [summer school] was "discriminatory" and "unfair."" I had to laugh, because Title 1 is specifically for disadvantaged children and typically when you think of your average student at Richwoods, disadvantaged does not come to mind.

The retired teacher raised a good point that the Title 1 students, who are bused from RiverWest to Richwoods, would miss out on attending summer school, because there are only 120 slots for students from Title 1 high schools. Alas, Richwoods is fortunate enough not to be a Title 1 high school.

Should the Title 1 monies be sent back and none of the children have a chance for summer school? Some may consider it a tough call, but I don’t.

On the surface, I can see how it appears to some as unfair, but from what I have been told, at the early summer school planning meetings at Richwoods, efforts to develop a plan for having summer school without any funds were futile. There were simply not any realistic options and at first it seemed that none of the Richwoods students were going to be able to take the summer school option.

There was some discussion to have students pay for summer school, but the costs to each student would have been prohibitive to a significant portion of the school’s population. Unfortunately many in that population are exactly the students that need summer school.

School districts all around the state are canceling summer school, due to funding problems. This issue is not unique to Peoria or District 150. I guess we are fortunate that Title 1 will allow some students to get summer school classes. So, the question isn't "is it unfair that RHS students can't attend".

The focus should be on if the District can develop a plan during these tough economic times; are they going to deny the plan because the plan can not be applied for all students? I think and many would agree, that not using the funds to help whatever students we can would be a horrible thing. The funds are there. Title 1 is what it is and what it has been.

The term discrimination implies that someone has options and chooses an option that discriminates. In this situation, there are not any options. That is the crux of this dilemma. Discrimination would be to choose that only certain people get into the boat when you have a choice to pick.

I bet if you were to ask Steve Ptacek, the Richwoods Principal, what he thought, he wouldn’t see a huge issue with this. At Richwoods, they have about 30% low income students that might be listed as Title 1 students if they were at the other schools. But Richwoods being RICHwoods, their low income students are scoring better than the other schools and have a very high graduation rate.

You see, Richwoods has tried and true achievement networks that their students are privy to. As a result, even without summer school, Richwoods will be able to work with their students and develop a plan so they can overcome some lost credits. If they need to be creative with a student's schedule, I’m thinking they can make it work.

So, note to retired teacher, don’t worry about the Richwoods students – they are going to be just fine.