Daeschner takes reins at Greater Clark County Schools

Clark County

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July 2, 2009

New GCCS superintendent talks about challenges facing the corporation

By TARA HETTINGER The News and Tribune Thu Jul 02, 2009, 01:29 PM EDT

With a chief financial officer position open, a state budget just being set and many schools failing Adequate Yearly Progress, Stephen Daeschner has a long to-do list prepared for him as he takes over as superintendent at Greater Clark County Schools.

Daeschner, who formerly led Indian Prairie District 204 in Illinois, is not new to the area. The superintendent has spent 44 years in education, including across the Ohio River for Jefferson County Public Schools, where after 14 years, the school board choose not to renew his contract in 2007.

STAYING FOR THE LONG HAUL?

Daeschner, 67, left his three-year contract in Illinois a year early to come to Clark County, but said Wednesday during his first official day on the job that he intends to fulfill his three-year obligation with Greater Clark.

However, he said that’s not only up to him, but also the school board.

“I have no desire, but I also will say that when I was in the other district that I had no desire to leave, but right now, [I am] absolutely planning to fulfill my three-year contract and I’m excited about it,” Daeschner said.

Contractually, there are no penalties to Daeschner should he choose to end his contract early.

His contract also states that private donations will be sought to help pay for his $225,000-a-year salary.

“That’s something that someone else is determining,” Daeschner said when asked how he felt about that situation. “How it is funded is up to the individuals who created that.”

Daeschner added that he felt that there’s nothing wrong with the way his salary is being paid.

CHALLENGES AND GOALS

Daeschner said one of his goals is to give children more out of education, allowing them to learn more than they would have otherwise in a given year.

But first, he said he needs to understand the data specific to Greater Clark, such as graduation rates and the budget.

“We’ve got major financial problems in the state of Indiana with no new money [coming in], so that is going to be difficult — what do we do with raises, what do we do with this and that,” Daeschner said of the budget being determined largely by revenue from the state.

He said to balance the budget, he needs to talk to the board about what it would like to see and what he’d like to see.

As for whether there will be cuts in programs, Daeschner said those will have to be evaluated to see if they work and if they can fit within the budget.

STARS CLUB?

Stars Club, which is headed by a company run by school board Vice President Robbie Valentine, is one of those programs that will have to be looked at. Daeschner added that it was one of the programs he had at Jefferson County Public Schools.

“The data we had on that program indicated that it was doing wonderful things for kids,” Daeschner said. “We were keeping kids in schools. We were increasing the academic achievement faster with those kids than the rest of the population. They were reaching some kids we couldn’t reach.

“I assume it’s the same program ... but again, we’ll evaluate it.”

ONE-TO-ONE

Daeschner said he’s not sure yet if the one-to-one computer initiative, which gives each student a laptop, will be expanded from Charlestown High School to include the middle school or beyond.

However, he did say one of the three most important skills schools can give kids is technology skills, which needs to be addressed like any other subject and must have a curriculum.

“I don’t believe right now that we have technology skills curriculum,” Daeschner said. “The one-to-one is a hardware system. It’s a laptop.

“More important than the laptop is the skills.”

He added that while he was at Jefferson County, he had the one-to-one computer program in four schools.

“So, I’m very familiar with what it can and can’t do. We also had in place a skills curriculum in technology before we went to any hardware system. That’s the key,” he said, adding that’s something Greater Clark will have to look at.

Daeschner said the program had its pros and cons. Some of the cons included broken computers and children not turning them in by the end of the school year. He said he believes that the laptops may be made better now, causing less breakage.

He also said there’s software that will shut a computer down after a certain amount of time that can be put on the computers to render them useless if students don’t turn them in.

LESSONS LEARNED

Daeschner said his years in education have taught him a lot and those lessons will be able to help him lead Greater Clark.

“Every year I learn more and more and do more,” he said. “I do believe this — that more than ever you need a data driven system and you need to have clear goals and plans and you need rigorous professional development and you need great leaders in the school buildings ... you need to understand that’s how you improve the academic achievement of kids.”