Everyday at Portage High School is different but there is no one who can say that more than Home School Advisor Tim Kunstek.
Kunstek, an 18 year veteran of the Portage Township School Corporation, has the unique job of Home School Advisor. There are three advisors at Portage High School, one at each elementary and two at each middle school in the school system.
“Home school advisors basically started 18 years ago, well I started 18 years ago, but the program has been around for 24 years,” Kunstek said, “[the role] basically, is to bridge the gap between home and school.”
Many do not understand what the job of a home school advisor is, according to Kunstek some think that the role is to home school students at the school. Kunstek, however is not your typical home school advisor. He has the unique job of being the handler of Prince, the compassionate canine.
Prince, who has been with Kunstek for three and half years, is at the school every day and follow Kunstek where ever he goes. Prince is owned by Lutheran Charities, a religious charity organization, and is placed in the Kunstek family home, for six years. Once his service time is up, Prince will become the Kunstek family dog.
Prince’s role is just what his job title sounds like, to be a compassionate tool that Kunstek uses when he speaking with a student about a problem or issue either at school or at home. He had two memories that stood out in his mind about his time with Prince. First was a group session with the dance team, which had just lost a member in a house fire.
“We lost a senior student in a house fire and I did a grief group in my grief room, she was on the dance team so all of the girls were sitting in a circle, we all sat down and I explained what we were doing and that we had lost this student and everybody was just sitting in their chairs and not talking,” Kunstek said, “Prince got up and went to one girl and she started to pet him, then he went to another girl and she started crying and said that she had a dog that had passed away. It led to a discussion about the loss of this student and how they were feeling and what we could do to support each other and help each other.”
He also distinctly remembered an event that occurred at the Porter County Government Complex in Valparaiso.
“We were at the government complex in Valpo for the Red Ribbon Kickoff. Myers Elementary had brought a group of fourth graders over and they happened to have a little boy that was in a wheel chair that was handicapped,” Kunstek continued, “We brought the wheelchair on top of the outside concrete area and all of the kids were grouped around Prince just petting him, and this little boy unbuckled himself from his wheelchair, slid off, and crawled over to Prince and started to pet him. I was sitting there and I had tears running down my face then, I looked back, and Mayor Costas and Sherriff Reynolds both had tears in their eyes. I don't know if there are too many people in this building that would crawl on the ground for me, but they would for Prince.”
You might ask what it like living and working with a dog like Prince but Kunstek assured that at home Prince is just like a typical dog. According to Kunstek, Prince likes to roll in the mud or going swimming in the lake. His favorite activity, to no surprise, is playing fetch! Kunstek said he takes Prince out in front of the school each morning a throws a tennis ball around before students arrive to school.
Since Prince is only around for two and half more years, what happens when he leaves you might ask? Well, Kunstek hopes to get a new compassionate canine because of the effect it has had on the students of Portage High School.
“It will be hard to work with another dog. I think that I probably would [get a new dog]. I spend so much time with him, I can't imagine not having him with me all of the time, but it will be hard to have another dog, “ he replied, “I spend more time with this dog than I do with my wife and children, which is both good and bad!”
Kunstek also sits on many drug and substance abuse boards as well as community activity boards but he said that his job as an advisor is very rewarding.
“There are those brief moments when you get that lump in your thought when you see a kid failing a class, then do better. When you see a kid be able to make different choices and turn their lives around. When kids comes back after they graduate and say, hey, I'm going into this field because of the things you helped me with. Those are all the things are the perks of my job. There are a lot of ups and downs, but there are definitely more ups than downs,” he asserted, “ to see a face of a parent when they see their child do better or a kid stop using drugs, all of those things put the lump in your throat and it makes you think, this is what I'm meant to do.”
Tim Kunstek and Prince are most definitely a Portage Life in the Spotlight.