Amstutz resigns as VWCS superintendent

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert City Board of Education accepted the resignation of Superintendent Ken Amstutz after a decade at the helm of the district during its March meeting on Wednesday, and also heard more about Van Wert High School’s world-class Robotics Team.

Amstutz tendered his resignation as superintendent, effective August 1, noting that he felt he has accomplished much of what he set out to do when he came here 10 years ago this month from the Ottoville Local School District. The longtime superintendent talked about what he feels are his biggest accomplishments at Van Wert following the board meeting, noting that he thinks the district is on the right path for future success.

“When I came in, there were a lot of things that we needed to accomplish,” Amstutz said, noting that the district was struggling, both financially and educationally. With former treasurer Mike Owens announcing his retirement in April 2007, Amstutz then brought in Mike Ruen, who he had worked with while superintendent at Ottoville, to help conserve district finances.

Amstutz said he feels one of his biggest accomplishments is avoiding having to go to district taxpayers for a new operating levy during his tenure at Van Wert. “Many people said to me when we started that we were going to have to get a levy passed real quick,” he noted. “In my 10 years in the district, we still have not done that.

“I felt as though I needed to be a good steward of their money,” the superintendent added. “I felt as though that was my challenge and my charge when I came here, and I feel like I have done that.”

Amstutz is also proud of his educational accomplishments, noting that he feels the district has made significant progress educationally.

“But I also feel as though, even through the challenges financially that we’ve had, we’ve also moved things forward [educationally],” Amstutz noted, noting the implementation of more rigorous STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education and project-based learning (PBL) programs throughout the district, as well as improving administration of the district.

Amstutz is passionate about PBL education, and said he hopes the next superintendent will also embrace that educational program: “because it is absolutely the right thing for kids to have.

“To give [students] 21st century skills; to give them an education that is not just standards based, but goes beyond that,” he explained. “That, in my mind, is vital for this school district.

“I truly feel that what we are doing every day in our classrooms, what we are doing administratively, is the right thing to do,” he added.

Amstutz said he was also pleased with the Van Wert Elementary School project he shepherded through without problems, especially after the unhappiness many district residents experienced with the high school-middle school project.

“The elementary school is a wonderful facility,” he said.

While noting he feels he has taken the district as far as he can, Amstutz said he hopes the district will be able to hire someone who will do even more.

“My hope is that you continue where we are at, and that you get somebody in here who is going to take [the district] even farther than what I was capable of taking it,” he said.

The ability to communicate all the good things happening in the district is perhaps the one area Amstutz said he feels he could have done better.

Meanwhile, Amstutz said that, while he doesn’t have anything in mind at the moment, he does feel he has more to give to education.

“I’m not ready to retire; I feel that I have way too much to offer than to do that,” he said, “but I think it’s a good time to move on from Van Wert.”

One thing he would like to do, he said, is find a way to get state legislators to better appreciate what districts like Van Wert are doing educationally for their students. He also feels the state needs to find a better alternative to “dumping” a community’s social problems onto its schools.

“I think we’ve done a nice job with that, but I think there is a better way of doing that than what we’re doing,” Amstutz said. “We’re supposed to educate them, but on the flip side, we’re also supposed to parent them, we’re also supposed to house and feed them … it can’t all fall back on education.”

Also Wednesday, the board accepted the resignation of VWHS social studies teacher George Scott, effective the end of the school year, after eight years in the district.

In addition, the board heard a presentation from the state champion VWHS Robotics Team on its members’ efforts to return to the world championships, which are being held this year in Iowa. The next step for the team is the North Super-Regionals, where doing well could qualify the team for the world championships.

Attending the board meeting were coaches Bob Spath and Zane McElroy, as well as freshman team members Sydney Mailer and Nick Carter, sophomore Noah Carter, and junior Katie Able. The coaches and team members talked about some of the design problems they faced to accomplish the tasks assigned for this year’s robotics competitions. Also discussed was the strategy that goes in to each competition, where each team must function well on its own, but also in partnership and alliance with other teams, as well as the tweaking and maintenance needed to keep a robot functioning at its peak performance.

Spath said he was also proud of the fact that nearly everything on the VWHS robots is made by students, versus some other teams’ robots, which are commercially manufactured.

In other action, the board:

• Approved resolutions accepting funds from the Leslie Scholarship Trust Funds and then donating them to The Van Wert County Foundation, which will then administer them.
• Approved a supplemental contract for Dr. Shad Foster as district athletic trainer.
• Acknowledged the following donations: $1,000 from the Cooper Family Foundation of the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund, for the VWMS Renaissance program; and $238 from Mark and Beth Collins for the Van Wert wrestling team.

The next meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, in the First Federal Lecture Hall of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio.