Granton Has a New Interim Administrator
Tuesday, September 8th, 2020 -- 1:12 PM
The following is an interview I did with Granton’s Interim Administrator James Kuchta:Q: Can you tell me about your history and qualifications?
Mr. Kuchta: “I graduated from a high school north of Green Bay. I went across the state to UW-River Falls and I went for Ag Education. I was an Ag Teacher for 8 years and then earned my Master’s Degree, as well, from River Falls. Met my wife there, incidentally, as well. After a few years of teaching, I was encouraged to pursue administration. I went to UW-Madison and received my principal licensure from UW-Madison and then, ultimately, from St. Mary’s, Minnesota through an alternative program from Wisconsin, I received my superintendent license. So, after teaching 8 years, I worked as a principal for 16 years at a couple different schools and then my last 8 years, prior to retiring, I worked as a superintendent at two different school districts, 4 years each. So, I had 8 years as a teacher, 16 as a principal and 8 as a district administrator/superintendent.”
“I decided to retire at the end of June 2019 and was planning to move to the Marshfield area where my daughter and granddaughter and son-in-law live. And my wife and I decided to move to this area. And I was contacted about the need for Granton to have a superintendent because someone had left after a short time. And I thought I would certainly give it a shot to help them out and I’m excited about working with Granton and the great people that we have here.”
Q: “Granton started a little bit earlier school wise than some of the other local districts, they started on the 25th of August. Can you talk about how it’s going so far?”
Mr. Kuchta: “I would say things are going great. As you said, Granton started early. The Department of Public Instruction allowed schools to do a beginning of school year waiver to start earlier than September 1st this year. And so Granton did that and we had three days of school last week and now four days of school this week. After Labor Day, there will be four days of school and then five days going forward. And so Granton’s plan is to offer face-to-face instruction for all students PreK-12 and most students are doing that. But we started the school year also offering the virtual component. So, all of our teachers are able to teach our students virtually and we did have 40 students that took that option starting the school year, they were learning. So, we have a blended option, both face-to-face instruction, five days a week, for every school day and virtual students as well. And my understanding is we’ve had a number of students that have come back to school to receive face-to-face instruction. They miss the direct contact with their classmates and their teachers and, clearly, I think the best instruction is when it’s face-to-face in a learning environment with students.”
Q: “With the procedures put in place to combat the coronavirus, have you found the community to be pretty responsive and supportive of that?”
Mr. Kuchta: “Very much so! The parents, the community is very supportive of the school. And really, the Granton area schools, the community has always been very supportive, as I’ve been told by many people. And it’s clear to see. Parents are very supportive and just the community in general. And so some of the measures we have in place, working under these unprecedented times in this COVID environment, we hired extra support staff for students, but also extra custodial staff. We’ve got someone throughout the building every day, wiping door knobs, light switches, handles. We have students all wearing masks, they’re required, and staff wearing masks every day during school. All students come to the field house where they’re dropped off by the buses or parents or students that drive. They enter through the field house. They are temperature checked every day before they come into the building. Staff do self assessments, so they check their own temperature or for any symptoms. And so far, I just talked to one of the people doing the temperature checks, and, in our three days last week and four this week, we’ve had no students that have had a high fever that we’ve had to send home. There had been students that had not been feeling well or had some symptoms that were checked and, fortunately, so far there were no students that were sent home or were positive.”
“All students have been negative for COVID at this point. I’m not saying it will stay that way, but we’re taking every measure that we can. Also, teachers are wiping desks between every class. Teachers and students are taking measures that have never really been done before. So, we’re taking extensive measures and, so far, I would say people are being very responsible. Social distancing and keeping masks on throughout the day. And it does present some challenges like at lunch time. We have to social distance and some classes take food back to their room and eat. We’re using a small gymnasium that we have. I just counted, we have 16 additional tables that we put in and seating only 4-5 students at 8 foot tables spaced out in our small gymnasium as well as in the cafeteria where there’s social distancing. Of course, sometimes there are thing we can do a little bit better. We just keep reminding people to please mask up and social distance. So, everyone is working cooperatively because we want to stay in school as long as we can.”
Q: “Is there anything else you’d like the community to know?”
Mr. Kuchta: “Just that we want to continue to do everything we can to keep our students in school. We only have a couple of bus routes and we’re short drivers. We’re recruiting for additional bus drivers and we don’t have a lot of food service or other support staff, so anyone interested in coming to work at the school or driving a bus, and that’s a problem everywhere, not only Wisconsin, but nationwide. So, that’s what I would like to leave you with and I’m really happy to be at Granton. I am the Interim District Administrator, so I’ll be here through June. And, as we talk, the board and I will talk further as to what their future plans will be. And I will say that Granton has great staff, great people and awesome families and I really enjoy working here. It’s a great opportunity for me as well.”
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