Bernhardt to retire at end of school year

Thursday, September 10, 2020
Bruce Bernhardt

It is rare for an educator to spend his or her entire career in the same school system. It is certainly special for one to do so for more than four decades.

South Putnam Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt has done both, serving as both a teacher and an administrator during his time with Putnam County’s third-largest school corporation. He feels it is soon time to step away from that career.

The superintendent publicly announced that he will retire at the end of the 2020-21 school year during the South Putnam School Board’s regular meeting Wednesday evening.

With a bachelor’s degree in music from Ball State University and later earning a master’s degree in elementary administration and a superintendent’s license from Indiana State University, he first came to the school corporation in 1977. He then became an elementary principal and then eventually served as an assistant superintendent for 13 years. He finally took over from former Superintendent Dan Schroeder in 2006.

Bernhardt’s retirement is to be effective on June 30, 2021.

“It was not any surprise to anybody,” Bernhardt, 65, told the Banner Graphic Thursday about making the decision to retire. “I’ve been telling everybody here at the school system for a couple years at least that, ‘Well, when I hit 66, I’m gonna retire.’”

Education was ingrained in Bernhardt from an early age. His father served as an elementary principal not far over in Mill Creek for 25 years, and this became an inspiration for him.

“I think I always knew that, ‘Well, I wanna be a principal some day,’” he said. “That was kind of the push behind me getting into administration, although I loved music and that’s what I wanted to do. But I had my long-term goals to be an administrator like my father was.”

In all of the positions he has held, Bernhardt has had the opportunity to see the process firsthand. They also provided a depth of experience which he could not have acquired by staying in one part of it all.

“At least personally, I feel like I’ve been fresh at what I’m doing,” he said about wearing his different hats. “In other words, I haven’t been teaching for 40 years or haven’t been just a principal for 40 years. I went from very different types of jobs ... and over that 44 years, it’s been something new and different.”

With South Putnam being a small, rural school and community, Bernhardt said limited funding and revenue have remained a constant challenge throughout his career. He remembered reams of paper being allocated when he began teaching there in the late 1970s.

“We’ve had a very tight budget for decades,” he said. “We’ve always had to do more with less, and that’s something we’ve had to watch constantly to make sure we could provide a good education.”

Bernhardt described South Putnam as having either been able to “just hold our own” or having lost students. He suggested that factors like inflation and salary increases make it hard to keep up with expenses.

But it is the family aspect -- in which both teachers and students want to be there -- that he believes always keeps South Putnam going.

“We’ve striven over the years to really create a tight-knit family feeling, and like any family you have disagreements of course,” Bernhardt said. “We’ve really tried to create an environment where the teachers that work for us, they wanna be here.

“We really strive on creating an environment where people say, ‘I wanna be here.’” he added. “Yes, we struggle with funding; we struggle with programs we can offer. But we try to make the atmosphere in the schools conducive to learning and a lot of support.”

Bernhardt credited South Putnam’s parents and families as being crucial to this. When their support combines with that of the teachers and staff who encourage this connectedness, this is what he is convinced makes student success possible.

Despite the challenges he and the school corporation have faced, Bernhardt said he was most proud of South Putnam’s longevity in being able to maintain a steady environment for its students.

“We haven’t had many low spots or many high spots,” he said, “but to just have that continually moving-forward atmosphere, (that) family atmosphere, (that) learning atmosphere. I think those are the things that I’m most proud of; having been here for so many decades, that I was able to at least be in a position where I was part of keeping things running smoothly and not having too many downturns.”

When the day ultimately comes and a new superintendent steps into his shoes, Bernhardt hopes the change will not be noticed. Rather, he wants the teachers and staff to continue to move the learning environment in a positive direction.

Through it all, Bernhardt is thankful for being able to serve the South Putnam community all these years.

“It was a long time ago when I was 23 and came out of college,” he said. “This is a community that I’ve grown up in basically. I’ve always enjoyed being here, and I never even gave a second thought of not being here. It’s just home to me.”

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  • Congratulations Bruce!

    -- Posted by harcourt1 on Wed, Sep 9, 2020, at 11:20 PM
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