Life after years of serving as a school superintendent is a lot more relaxing than the job itself. Tasked with addressing macro-and micro-level policies that need to be developed for the stability of whatever school district they oversee, the one fulfilling the role of superintendent is bound to face different challenges with each new day. Roger Luekens’ life, for many years, followed that pattern. Even happily retired, he still finds the time to involve himself in the happenings of a few local schools about the Region.
From an early point in his life, Luekens was inspired by the right people. Growing up on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, his years spanning the time between preschool and eighth grade were spent at Messiah Lutheran School. After that, he attended Lutheran High School West, which is where his passion for teaching was born.
“My high school band director, John Katt, was the inspiration for me to get into teaching. I enjoyed my high school years. I was in both band and orchestra with Mr. Katt. He was really a good motivator and a good teacher, so I one day wanted to be a good teacher too. I always was decent in both music and mathematics, so I knew if I went back to being a Lutheran High School teacher, I would probably have to teach in multiple departments, and so I got a minor in teaching math and a bachelor’s in music education,” he said.
Luekens only had one college on his radar when he was applying: Valparaiso University (VU), the sole school he applied to. Valparaiso was also where his father studied, so the choice, unsurprisingly, was easy.
Four years of hitting the books and playing music finished, and then Luekens went right into teaching at his alma mater. It wasn’t long after that he fully became the first school superintendent for East Porter County Schools, serving 11 years. Teaching may have presented its fair share of difficulties, but this next step in his life quickly proved itself to be unlike any beast he had ever braved. It certainly was a position that challenged how well Luekens could stay poised, and tested if he could stay as collected as a juggler working their magic. Nevertheless, his tenure speaks for itself as well as all the accolades he’s garnered throughout the years.
“Being superintendent was the most difficult position because you were influencing all of the kids in a school corporation. The stress of it did not let up. Over the years, when I was a high school principal, I was sometimes busier than others, but as a school superintendent, you're busier than ever. You had to make sure your staff was the best it could be, but you also had to remember that the kids were your first priority. Everything after that was mostly secondary. You wanted to give the kids as rigorous and as helpful an education as you possibly could, which is what we were always trying to do,” he said.
Upon his retirement in 2005, Luekens still found himself remaining as occupied as ever; he established his own company, ViewPoint, Ltd, an educational consulting corporation. After he himself spent so much time as a principal who wanted the word about the schools to be as clear as possible and reach the right eyes and ears, he began to write newsletters detailing crucial information relevant for the parents of the kids of the community schools.
“As a principal, I wanted to get information out to all of my taxpayers, not just my parents, so I tried to write a newsletter, which I called the 'East Reporter.' I thought that it could be helpful, especially with the small school corporations, to write a newsletter for them, which is what I do now. I get the ideas from whoever they appoint — sometimes it’s a superintendent, sometimes it's someone else in the corporation. Then I go out and visit the schools, taking pictures, writing articles, and doing investigations of certain programs. They’re positive articles about happy kids and happy teachers and happy parents,” he said. “They’re all about the positive things about the schools because so often in the newspapers you don't hear all of the positives. That's what we're trying to do accurately. Currently, I write for Union Township, and I have Valparaiso Community Schools, too.”
Outside of the expansive realm of education, Luekens gives a lot of his spare time to his trumpet. As he is a part of the Windiana Concert Band, a group out of Northwest Indiana organized by Dr. Jeff Doebler for current and former music teachers, he does a good bit of traveling, too, performing all over the world. In years past, the group has traveled all the way to China. Recently, between this past Christmas and New Year’s, the group performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Being a member has helped Luekens to realize his claim to fame: having a locker in the Sydney Opera House for six hours on a Sunday afternoon.
When he puts a pause on being a musical star and grounds himself on home turf, Luekens can be found maintaining his vegetable garden, growing tomatoes and peppers. Exercise-wise, during the winter, he’s on the treadmill, but in the summer he’ll take walks with his wife.
Luekens’s favorite part about Valparaiso is simplistic; he’s a fan of the ripple effect that any kind of activity causes and how the community is always branching out in order to become a prettier tree.
“It's a positive community, and I like that. We've had leaders, especially in recent years, who have been forward-looking and have improved the town. We have involvement from all over the community, and the businesses help to make everything around here exciting,” he said.