Duneland School Board members showered their departing Superintendent Chip Pettit with praise at his final board meeting Monday.
Pettit’s last duty of his seven-year tenure will be to preside over Chesterton High School’s graduation set for Wednesday evening. He will start his new job the next day as superintendent of Hinsdale Township High School District 86, west of Chicago.
Assistant Superintendent Robert McDermott, Pettit’s successor, will become the interim superintendent on Thursday until his contract becomes effective July 1.
School Board member Alayna Lightfoot Pol noted how Pettit distinguished himself from the start during the interview process seven years ago.
“It became very clear that he was the person for this job,” Pol said.
Pol said there were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed, and that Pettit “worked very hard” on them from the outset.
One of the major initiatives was a $171 million construction project that expanded the Liberty and Chesterton Middle Schools so they could accommodate seventh and eighth graders. The Chesterton Middle School was closed, with much of the property turned over to the Duneland YMCA which is redeveloping it into a Healthy Living Campus.
School Board President Brandon Kroft said that Pettit “laid a foundation for Duneland” not only in brick and mortar, but by what he has done to upgrade the academic programs.
Kroft cited one small example of how Pettit oversaw the process for WDSO-FM, the student-run radio station, to move its transmission tower operation from the old Middle School building to Tremont Road.
“You’ll be missed. That goes without saying,” Kroft said.
Board member Kirk Redman said what impressed him immediately when he joined the school board three years ago was how “tremendously professional” Pettit and the Duneland staff are.
“You look at the progress of the students, the test scores. The results speak quite a bit for themselves,” Redman said.
Board members Jocelyn Hibshman and Beth Mehling also lauded Pettit’s work in improving Duneland’s academic performance.
Methling said she appreciated how Pettit was committed to the success of every Duneland student.
“I have no doubt that the community of Hinsdale will quickly discover what an incredible leader, person and educator that he is,” Mehling said.
Pettit was brief in his parting remarks: “It’s been my pleasure to serve the students, staff and families in the Duneland community. And I certainly appreciate the support from the school board.”
While it was Pettit’s last chapter with Duneland, the board announced the hiring of Josh Malone as a new assistant principal for Chesterton High School and Will Fortenberry as the new head varsity boys soccer coach.
It is a homecoming for Malone, 39, who is a 2004 Chesterton High graduate.
Malone has 17 years of experience, mostly with the Michigan City School District, where he started out as a physical education teacher and once served as the head varsity basketball coach.
For the past eight years, Malone has been the principal at Krueger Middle School. Malone will be one of the three assistant principals at the high school.
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“It means everything to me to get back to the students and staff,” Malone said.
Fortenberry will be a social studies teacher along with his duties as head boys varsity soccer coach. He replaces Lucas Sabedra, who resigned after serving eight years as Chesterton’s head boys soccer coach.
A veteran coach and teacher, Fortenberry was the head boys coach at Boone Grove High School. He was also head coach at Portage (2014-2016) and Kankakee Valley (2017-2019). Fortenberry also heads the Northwest Indiana United Lions club soccer team
“It’s an honor to follow Coach Sabedra. I understand and cherish the tradition of what has happened here,” Fortenberry said.
Chesterton High Principal Brent Martinson said he happened to walk by the school’s weight room Monday and saw “Will was already working with all the kids and talking to each one of them.”
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.