The Portage Chamber held a catered lunch meeting on August 19, 2010 at the Community Center in Woodland Park. Terry Hufford, Chamber President, opened up the meeting by welcoming guests and opened up the podium for business and organization representatives to give a 30 second promotion of their cause. Representatives scrolled by the podium and gave their pitch one by one for about ten minutes including PortageLife. The last speaker was Mayor Olga Velazquez thanking everyone for helping out at the Perch Fest and for coming today.
After the speakers were done, Hufford introduced the main speaker of the meeting, Michael J. Berta Jr. Berta, Superintendent of the Portage Township School Corporation, gave a presentation about the current status of the education system in Portage and future goals as well. The main message of the presentation was 'It’s a great day to be an Indian'. He assured that Portage schools were “on their way to the top".
“We have problems, just like every other school corporation does," said Berta, "but you will see manifested in this presentation the difference between the Portage School Corporation and other school corporations."
His speech talked about the different aspects of the school corporation including athletics, ISTEP scores, the food service department and many other topics. He opened up the speech by talking about the food service department and the number of meals served last year. Last year, 1,000,474 lunches were served to students. He gave a quote from one of the leaders of the food service department stating, “We purchase top quality wholesome safe food, and we prepare it with love and kindness."
He went on to talk about the ISTEP scores of Aylesworth Elementary. In the 2008-09 year, over 90 percent of students passed both the Math and English/Language portions of the ISTEP in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. He said that the unique thing about this is that the staff and teachers aren’t satisfied, and that 100 percent of students passing is the goal.
“Other school corporations see this and ask the question, 'What are you doing?' ” said Berta.
He went on to talk about the Information and Technology services department. Fire alarms and telephone systems were discussed, and Berta complimented on the employees' hard work and effort to maintain the systems. The school transportation system was complimented on their 1.2 million miles driven last year without a single injury caused by an accident. The disciplinary system was also praised for the impressive stastistic of less than 5 office referrals per week on average.
“When I was assistant principal…we’d have 5 [referrals] every 10 minutes,” said Berta with a smile. “Relationships are important,” said Berta.
After the speech, the audience applauded Berta, and Hufford adjourned the meeting. A table was available for organizations to hand out pamphlets on the way out. One thing is for sure. There are promising and exciting things happening in the Portage Township Schools.
Watch a video here about how the Portage Education Foundation strengthens our schools!