The Portage Township School Corp. board unanimously approved a three-year contract Friday for Interim Superintendent Amanda Alaniz, to become the district’s first female superintendent.
Board members, in a 5-0 vote, voiced support for Alaniz, who replaces Richard Wiegel, who resigned abruptly last month. Wiegel named Alaniz director of secondary achievement and innovation last summer.
“Personally, I look at her as someone who will bring stability, who will be there a long time,” Board President Andy Maletta said before the meeting. “Portage has gone through some superintendents the past five years. What I’d like to see is some stability.”
Alaniz’s contract will boost her salary from $91,000 to $141,000, and it comes with other terms, such as the district making contributions to her retirement plan.
In one of her first steps in the schools’ top jobs, Alaniz offered the board a 30-day plan that included academic corrective action plans for each of the district’s 11 buildings. In the 2015-2016 school year, Portage schools, like most districts in Northwest Indiana, saw significant drops in ISTEP achievement following major changes made to the standardized test.
Academics are hugely important, but so is developing students into strong adults, Alaniz said.
“We’re not in it just to get a better ISTEP scores,” she said. “We’re in it to make sure our kids get the 21st century skills they need, the work ethic they need, and those effective skills we also hold in very high regard.”
Women have made progress into moving into the top office in public school districts, according to the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents. According to the agency, 48 out of 292 superintendents who responded to an agency survey in the 2016-2017 school year are women. In the 2014-2015 school year, 44 out of the responding 205 superintendents were women.
Locally, women lead school districts in East Chicago, Gary, Hobart and Crown Point, among others.
Originally from Hammond, Alaniz, 36, graduated from Portage High School in 1999. She returned to do her student teaching at Meyers Elementary and began her teaching career in the district.
Alaniz’s husband, Adam Alaniz, teaches and coaches wrestling at Willowcreek, and their two daughters attend Crisman Elementary in Portage. Her office is decorated with Portage gear, and red, black and white, the high school’s colors, dot the walls and bookshelves.
Alaniz later taught at Fegely and Willowcreek Middle Schools before becoming the dean of students at Fegely. While interviewing for that position, she told then-Superintendent Mike Berta she wanted to be the district’s first female superintendent, “but I didn’t think it was going to happen at (age) 36. I thought maybe (age) 46 or 50.”
After a year as Fegely’s dean, Alaniz was named principal at Central Elementary, a school that mirrors the district overall.
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The district has 400 teachers, with another 1,000 staff members and has 8,000 students, making it the largest district in Porter County. Only Lake Central in St. John is larger in Lake and Porter counties.
About half of Portage students are on free or reduced lunch, but Alaniz said she and her staff are driven but preparing her students to equal the achievements of more affluent districts.
“Our kids need us, and just whatever it takes to help them succeed is what we’re going to do.”
Still, her students’ social status is an issue, especially during harsh weather, when a superintendent has to decide on closing schools — and their school cafeterias — for a day or more.
“What keeps me up at night is school cancellations,” Alaniz said. “If I cancel, who’s not eating that day? Who’s not warm?
“You go to the families’ homes, and they’re bare bones with their needs being met and, in some cases, not being met, so when you call school knowing there are cabinets and fridges empty, that keeps me up at night.”
Alaniz, a former vice president of the Portage Association of Teachers, or PAT, said she’s received “an outpouring of support” from community members and teachers, since being named interim superintendent.
PAT President Deb Porter said union leaders have mostly worked well with Alaniz’s predecessors.
“It makes sense (Alaniz) would’ve gone to that position…” Porter said. “I’ve worked well with (Alaniz) in the past. I don’t see why that should change.”
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.