10/22/2022
I know not everyone has a subscription to the Vincennes Sun-Commercial but the 4 candidates for VCSC School Board election were interviewed this week. Here is a copy of my interview. Please consider casting one of your votes for me, Pat Hutchison on or before November 8th. Thank you.
Pat Hutchison is finishing his 16th year on the VCSC school board; he’s served 12 consecutive years — four years during a separate tenure before that, he said. He serves as a counselor at North Knox Jr. Sr. High School; all three of his children graduated from Lincoln High School, following in his own footsteps from years before. He’s been active within the VCSC for years, he said, serving as the scholarship coordinator for the Elks Club of Knox County, a past president of the Vigo Elementary y School PTO, on the board of the Vincennes Educational Foundation, and he spent 12 years on the football coaching staff. “My family has had more than 80 consecutive years of being employed by the VCSC, and I think that’s pretty awesome,” he said. “From my grandfather to my siblings, from the second World War on, all of them have been teachers or administrators with the VCSC.” H u t c h i s o n h i m s e l f worked for the school corporation in the 1990s, he said, as a counselor at LHS. Elected to the school board alongside Bobe 12 years ago, he, too, remembers well a school corporation in crisis mode, and how they’ve worked together to claw their way back. Being par t of that, he said, has been “the highlight of his professional career.” “They had just closed Washington School. There was a reduction plan for 20 teachers. We cut administrative positions, eliminated programs,” he recalled, “and in this 12-year period, along with hiring (superintendent) Greg Parsley, we’ve raised teacher salary more than 20%, restored administrative programs that were lost, brought back elementary programs, like boys’ and girls’ basketball and volleyball, added three SROs. That’s huge. “We’ve improved school safety,” he went on. “We’ve remodeled all four elementary schools without raising taxes, and we began offering alternative education at the Washington School. Last year it graduated 22 students. The year before it was 20. That’s 42 kids that maybe wouldn’t have been able to earn a diploma otherwise.” Hutchison said during this campaign season, he’s been asked multiple times why the board opted to renovate the former Washington Elementary School, now the Washington Learning Academy, placing alternative school programs all under one roof. The VCSC, he said, prides itself on affording opportunities to every student; without an alternative school program, they aren’t doing that. “Not everybody is ready for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” he said of a typical school day. “The public doesn’t often understand what some of these kids go through at home, living couch to couch, living with grandparents, friends. That alternative education program, if I wanted to lay my hat on something in the last 12 years, it’s that.” Too, Hutchison said he’s proud the board has looked to increase technology, even adding programs like automatic technology, welding, pa tnering with Twin Rivers in a variety of vocational opportunities for students and entry into certificate programs in partnership with Vincennes University. “Not every kid is meant to go to college,” he said. And at the other end of the spectrum, Early College allows the high s c h o o l s t u d e n t s m o s t driven to ear n college credits, thereby getting a jumpstart on their education. And at a significantly reduced cost. “That’s a great program,” he said. “Students can walk out with a many as 30-60 college credits,” he said. B u t a w e l l - r o u n d e d student, he said, means opportunities for a variety of extra-curricular activities as well, which is why everything — from sports to band — will continue to have his support, if re-elected, he said. “That’s one of the things that we’ve done that I’m really proud of,” he said. “We have to keep funding those programs, keep finding room in our budget. Not ever y kid is going to be a star athlete, but if you go see the plays our drama department puts on, it’s just unbelievable, the talent our kids have.” Hutchison also said, while he’s proud of what the board has done for teachers — last fall it voted to increase starting pay to the state-recommended $40,000 per year — there can always be more. “Finding and retaining teachers is going to continue to be a major problem,” he said, “but we have to do everything we can, look at every avenue, boost pay, offer incentives, look outside the box, too, maybe help with advanced degrees, especially in those areas of science and math. “We have to look at every option to keep the best people here.” Hutchison said that the VCSC provides “well-rounded experience for every student that enters our doors so they can leave and be a productive citizen.” “And that’s the most important thing to being a school board member, making sure that happens,” he said. Being a board member, too, he said, is more than a monthly meeting. “I think that’s a misconception, that we just show up once a month,” he said. “I spend countless hours; I read every material. There are other meetings to attend, professional development, and I feel you have to be visible in the community, go to the golf outings, the chili suppers, the ice cream socials. You have to make sure Santa Claus is at Title 1 night.”
