The Duneland School
Board recognized four award-winning staff members at its meeting Monday
night.
Amanda Fronczak,
kindergarten teacher at Jackson Elementary, and Christine Bullock, Social
Studies teacher at Chesterton Middle School, were recognized as teachers of
the year. Fronczak and Bullock were presented with plaques and will be the
Duneland Schools nominees for the 2018 Indiana teacher of the year program.
Lynn Kwilasz,
Duneland Schools chief financial officer, was recognized for being named
Indiana School Business Official of the Year by the Indiana Association of
School Business Officials (IASB). Bernie Stento, physical education teacher
at Chesterton High School, was recognized for receiving the 2018 Newell
National Athletic Trainer of the Year award. Stento won $2,500 for the CHS
athletic department as part of the prize.
School Board
President John Marshall thanked and said a few things about each staff
member. He said Fronczak does a “wonderful” job of commanding her class, and
added, “You don’t have to be a student or a parent, you just have to be in
her classroom to see how special she is.” Regarding Bullock, Marshall
pointed out that she was reluctant to stand in the front of the room at the
meeting. “She didn’t want to come up here. You can’t meet anybody more
humble than Christine Bullock.” Marshall said everyone at IASB conferences
understands why Duneland is in such good financial shape when they find out
Duneland has Kwilasz, and he noted that other school systems aspire to the
way Stento runs the athletic training department.
Fronczak said she
feels blessed to be at Duneland. “People say it takes a village to raise a
child, but it also takes a village to raise a teacher. Duneland has been my
village.” Bullock, for her part, asked her coworkers to stand up and made a
long list of people who she said deserve more recognition, including Linda
Esserman, a transportation dispatcher who was recognized as Duneland School
Corporation Employee of the Year at the annual retirement reception last
month. She emphasized that everyone should give back and say thank you to
one another more. “I love my job. It’s not easy, but I love it,” she said.
“There are days where I hit my head against the wall and wonder if I did it
right.”