Chittum Reflects On Triton Career
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Julie Harvey-
Chittum's new position will be as the executive director of the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center. The service center's main function is to assist schools in purchasing products and services through co-operative buying.[[In-content Ad]]A large range of commodities, including school buses, insurance, staff development opportunities and technology service and everything in between are what the center provides. Currently, there are 30 school corporations and a few private schools as members of the organization.
"I want to be able to show the schools what the service center provides its membership (and how it) impacts education in their schools," Chittum said.
He and his wife, Jan, were both employed as educators in Argos Community Schools in 1975. In 1999, Chittum was hired as the Triton High School principal, with the intention of him assuming the role of superintendent after Rex Roth retired in 2001.
"I have had a total of 16 years as a superintendent, the last seven at Triton. I have been fortunate in being in smaller corporations where I had to know how everything worked," Chittum said. "In school corporations our size, the superintendent has the opportunity to wear the hat of an educator while holding the purse strings. I never wanted a financial decision to be made in a vacuum of how that impacted kids. I have always thought that was the biggest part of my job - in making sure that we did that."
In Chittum's opinion, there have been two major changes that have impacted education the most during his tenure: the competing for tax dollars to run schools, and school accountability.
He said, "Today we are competing for tax dollars. Fewer families have children in school so we have started to look at funding public schools with a, 'Why should I pay, when I don't have any children attending?' mentality. My answer is simple - someone paid for you.
"The cost of schools doesn't go down - they still have the same expenditures that all employers' have with mandates that require us to provide additional opportunities for children that we haven't had to provide for in the past. People want the schools to continue to be all things for a community, but they don't want the cost to increase. We have to come to grips with that as a state."
The second change from the past is the accountability issue. The schools are now being held accountable for the education of their students.
"We have always been responsible for education, but schools in general did not want to be accountable. We make decisions based on data. With this we have to rethink how we look at how we measure our successes," Chittum said. "For example, we are now measured by what the student has learned, not how hard we work. I remember when people didn't think we could teach our kindergarten students to read when we implemented that five years ago. That was old thinking; we have for the last several years had at least 93 percent of our kindergartners leave reading at benchmark. That has been very rewarding to see this take place."
Chittum is very excited about the opportunity to "kick start" his career into a different direction, yet still stay in the area of his expertise and passion.
"People can get stale and routine can become a roadblock to improvement. I sensed I was getting to that point. I don't want to grow old and only be able to remember those times," he said.
Chittum has always had a special place in his heart for young children that did not like school or found it difficult.
"I was one of those children, I was a terrible reader," he said. "I remember night after night reading to my mother, as she did the dishes, sometimes persuading me with a wet dishrag. I believe that I am where I am today because my mom had taken the time to make sure I understood. All the more important then is school and great hard-working teaches because today our society has made it almost impossible for moms to stay home."
Chittum is confident that the board will find a compassionate and driven replacement for him. The board has expressed their gratitude and well wishes to him in the future.
He said, "We, as educators, could be the most influential adult in a life of a child. I would be very pleased to have a grandchild attend Triton School Corp. knowing how they teach."
Ultimately, he and Jan would like to retire to a warmer climate closer to their two grown sons.
Chittum's new position will be as the executive director of the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center. The service center's main function is to assist schools in purchasing products and services through co-operative buying.[[In-content Ad]]A large range of commodities, including school buses, insurance, staff development opportunities and technology service and everything in between are what the center provides. Currently, there are 30 school corporations and a few private schools as members of the organization.
"I want to be able to show the schools what the service center provides its membership (and how it) impacts education in their schools," Chittum said.
He and his wife, Jan, were both employed as educators in Argos Community Schools in 1975. In 1999, Chittum was hired as the Triton High School principal, with the intention of him assuming the role of superintendent after Rex Roth retired in 2001.
"I have had a total of 16 years as a superintendent, the last seven at Triton. I have been fortunate in being in smaller corporations where I had to know how everything worked," Chittum said. "In school corporations our size, the superintendent has the opportunity to wear the hat of an educator while holding the purse strings. I never wanted a financial decision to be made in a vacuum of how that impacted kids. I have always thought that was the biggest part of my job - in making sure that we did that."
In Chittum's opinion, there have been two major changes that have impacted education the most during his tenure: the competing for tax dollars to run schools, and school accountability.
He said, "Today we are competing for tax dollars. Fewer families have children in school so we have started to look at funding public schools with a, 'Why should I pay, when I don't have any children attending?' mentality. My answer is simple - someone paid for you.
"The cost of schools doesn't go down - they still have the same expenditures that all employers' have with mandates that require us to provide additional opportunities for children that we haven't had to provide for in the past. People want the schools to continue to be all things for a community, but they don't want the cost to increase. We have to come to grips with that as a state."
The second change from the past is the accountability issue. The schools are now being held accountable for the education of their students.
"We have always been responsible for education, but schools in general did not want to be accountable. We make decisions based on data. With this we have to rethink how we look at how we measure our successes," Chittum said. "For example, we are now measured by what the student has learned, not how hard we work. I remember when people didn't think we could teach our kindergarten students to read when we implemented that five years ago. That was old thinking; we have for the last several years had at least 93 percent of our kindergartners leave reading at benchmark. That has been very rewarding to see this take place."
Chittum is very excited about the opportunity to "kick start" his career into a different direction, yet still stay in the area of his expertise and passion.
"People can get stale and routine can become a roadblock to improvement. I sensed I was getting to that point. I don't want to grow old and only be able to remember those times," he said.
Chittum has always had a special place in his heart for young children that did not like school or found it difficult.
"I was one of those children, I was a terrible reader," he said. "I remember night after night reading to my mother, as she did the dishes, sometimes persuading me with a wet dishrag. I believe that I am where I am today because my mom had taken the time to make sure I understood. All the more important then is school and great hard-working teaches because today our society has made it almost impossible for moms to stay home."
Chittum is confident that the board will find a compassionate and driven replacement for him. The board has expressed their gratitude and well wishes to him in the future.
He said, "We, as educators, could be the most influential adult in a life of a child. I would be very pleased to have a grandchild attend Triton School Corp. knowing how they teach."
Ultimately, he and Jan would like to retire to a warmer climate closer to their two grown sons.
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