HEREABOUTS sandra baer
Tina Pernik knew she wanted to be a French teacher at a young age. But to her surprise, when the opportunity arose and she left her career as a French teacher at Bellbrook High School to become a guidance counselor at the same school, she found she liked her new position just as much.
“I had taken French class at Alter High School, and my teacher was so phenomenal that I knew I wanted to teach French also,” said Pernik, who actually taught French at Archbishop Alter High School after graduating from college.
“French was my first love, but as a guidance counselor, I’m helping students and their parents prepare for the whole college process. I try to answer all of the questions that go along with a college search.”
Tina Pernik, the daughter of Jack, now deceased, and Miriam Fitzharris, was born in Dayton, but moved to Centerville at the age of 2.
“We were the 50th family to join Incarnation Church,” said Pernik, who attended kindergarten and first-grade in Centerville, but then transferred to Incarnation when the Catholic school opened. “I used to baby sit Phil Donahue’s kids and they lived over by Erma Bombeck, so I’d be in and out of her house, too.”
Pernik attended Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering where she was active in the French Club, Spanish Club, Future Teachers of America and the Key Club, a service organization that she now co-advises at Bellbrook High School along with Jenny Kaffenberger.
After graduating from high school in 1968, Tina Pernik attended Ohio University where she studied French and education. While student teaching in Cleveland with her best friend from high school, Joni Pernik Hinshaw, she met Joni’s brother, Jay Pernik, who was studying mechanical engineering at Case Western Reserve.
The couple married in 1974 and moved to Nashville, Tenn., before moving back to Centerville where Tina taught French at Alter High School with Keith and Cathy St. Pierre. Meanwhile, Jay Pernik joined the family business, Dayton Products, founded by his father, John Pernik, who has since passed away.
After four years of teaching, Tina Pernik remained at home with the couple’s two children, Juliana and Audrey. Juliana is a 2001 Alter High School graduate who earned a degree in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at the Ohio State University Glenn School of Public Affairs. Juliana Pernik also started a young adult service group, called Columbus Gives Back, www.columbusgivesback.org, that currently has more than 250 members who meet to socialize and give back to the community.
Audrey Pernik graduated from Centerville High School in 2001, and from American University in Washington, D.C., in 2007 with a degree in broadcast journalism. Following a television reporting job in Charlottesville, Va., she returned to Washington, D.C., where she currently works for the American Public Health Association while pursuing a graduate degree in public health from George Washington University.
In 1990, Tina Pernik began teaching French at Meadowdale High School where she remained for five years before accepting a position teaching French at Bellbrook High School. After earning a master’s degree in school counseling from Wright State University, she became a guidance counselor. In addition to sponsoring a college planning night every January, Pernik also takes the students on a campus caravan, a road trip to visit and become familiar with different campuses.
She is an avid biker, who despite her hectic schedule, ensures that she has home-cooked meals, by preparing and freezing 150 entrees during the summer months when she is not in school.