The Valparaiso City Council selected childcare center director Erika Watkins in May to have a second term appointment to the Valparaiso School Board, and at her first new term meeting on July 30, she was voted unanimously by the trustees to serve as school board president.
Like Watkins, Valparaiso attorney John Peluso was also sworn in by the board as the new school board appointment from the Center Township Trustee Advisory Board. Watkins’ first term was as the Center Township appointee.
The July 30 meeting was the first meeting sans Robert Behrend, who served as the previous school board president and completed two four-year terms on the board.
The final year of Behrend’s time on the board was fraught with controversy after questions were raised at the start of the year about whether Behrend, a practicing dentist, spent more of his time in Valparaiso or a second address in Hartland, Wisconsin, assisting his son start his dental practice.
Behrend’s final school board meeting on June 20 included public complaints about his social media posts about low-income housing. While the other school board members publicly condemned his opinions, the board and Valparaiso Schools Superintendent Jim McCall also thanked him for his service and time on the board.
Democrat Watkins was publicly vocal in January to the Valparaiso City Council about her disappointment about not having an opportunity to serve as school board president.
Watkins said her appointment to the school board came at the same time as Behrend’s start for his second membership term.
“Usually, during the four-year term, you serve as school board member, then move to secretary, vice president and then presidency,” Watkins said during the Jan. 27, 2025, Valparaiso City Council meeting.
“That’s how the cycle usually takes place. Somehow, though, in my tenure, it did not happen that way. I’m not going to force something that was not to be. I had asked Robert, since he had already had his term as president, if I could have that position and it was not granted.”
For this second term, Watkins competed with finalists Brett Miller and Ron Donahue, both Republicans vying to fill the seat vacated by Jon Costas when he left the board to begin his term as mayor. The fourth finalist was Democrat Curtiss Strietelmeier, who was also an unsuccessful finalist for an open Valparaiso School Board seat in 2023.
New member Peluso had competed against fellow applicants Ruth Vance, Jerome “Jerry” Ezell and Lisa Gonzales during the May 19 interviews held at the Porter County Administration Building.
The rest of the school board includes Kaye Frataccia-Seibert, who was selected by the school board in December 2023 to complete the term of Costas, appointed by the city council in 2022.
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The board selected Frataccia-Seibert as secretary. Ashley Kruse, appointed by the city council in 2024, is vice president, and Karl Cender, who was appointed by the city council in 2023, will serve his membership term.
The first day of student classes for Valparaiso Community Schools is Wednesday, Aug. 13. The next Valparaiso Community Schools board of trustees meeting is at 6 p.m. on Aug. 28 at the Valparaiso Community Schools administration building.
Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.