What are you most excited about this upcoming school year? 

“This is my 29th year in education, and [at] the start of the school year, I still get the same butterflies that I had when I was a student,” Keith Gunuskey, Wallenpaupack Area School District superintendent said.“Those butterflies represent excitement, just the hope of what the school year possesses.” 

Gunuskey added that he is also excited for the creation of the Wayne-Pike Career and Technical Center (CTC), a hub where Wayne and Pike’s career and technical programs can exist separately from the high schools. “The sky’s the limit with that,”   

What’s your favorite spot on campus (high school)?

“My favorite spot is any place that there are students.” Gunuskey stated. “I love to see students' success, and you can’t see that in your office.” 

What is your school’s phone policy?

Gunuskey shared that Wallenpaupack has a similar policy for middle school. “From the time you walk in to the time you leave school, no cell phones,” he shared. “That feeling of confidence that they can learn without that distraction in the back of their mind has helped immensely,”

For the high school students, Gunuskey said that the policy was to not have phones out during class, but between classes is fine. For the 2028-2029 school year, a new policy will be put in place to align with state guidelines.

What is your favorite school event?

“Gosh, I have so many.” Gunuskey remarked. “I love the winter concerts, I love the spring concerts,” he said. “They’re off the charts, it’s like mini Broadway in our auditorium.”

What’s your school’s AI policy?

“AI has been a part of our school for a long time. You know, you can’t type anything without spellcheck coming on,” Gunuskey commented.

Gunuskey added that the Wallenpaupack has recently started discussion with parents and faculty about AI usage. Some concerns that have come up are if kids are still thinking critically using AI, and if they are not learning how to use it enough.

“It’s important to fact check it, just because ChatGPT says this, doesn’t always mean that that’s right.” he said. “It might be pulling information from unreliable sources.”

What is the impact of school choice on your district?

“Cyber school impacts us from a financial standpoint because you know, unfortunately, there’s a lot of advertisement out there that it’s free to go to cyber schools,” Gunuskey remarked. “And it’s not free. It costs the school district, which costs the taxpayer a lot of money to send kids to cyber programs.”

Gunuskey added that while cyber school can be the warranted choice in some cases, the general quality is not as high as in-person school. “We have 10 career and tech ed programs. All of them require extensive hands-on learning.”

What’s something about your school that you don’t get to talk about often?

“I think people see our school and see our beautiful facilities and they immediately assume that we live in an affluent area. And what many people don’t recognize is that over 60% of our students are considered economically disadvantaged.” Gunuskey said, adding that the district has free clothing and food pantry programs to help fill in that gap.

“I’m very proud of that from a school district perspective that we’re able to provide our students what they need in order to be successful,” he concluded.

What are some challenges your district is facing this upcoming year?

“We have a significant shortage of bus drivers and van drivers,” Gunuskey stated. “If anyone out there has a CDL please give us a call.”

Gunuskey added that funding is also a challenge for his school district. Previously, Wallenpaupack was able to raise taxes to “whatever level they needed to meet their budget and the demands of the school,” Now, however, there is an Act 1 index that gives the district a maximum amount of taxes they can raise. “It squeezes the budget significantly,” he said.

Gunuskey stated that while maintaining teachers hasn’t been a problem for Wallenpaupack, finding substitute teachers can be difficult.