Jasper School Board: Paoli principal to join school corp as new assistant superintendent
The Greater Jasper School District has a new assistant superintendent.
After being the sole superintendent of the school system for several years now, Dr. Tracy Lorey will be joined by Todd Hitchcock by next semester.
When Lorey was promoted from Curriculum Director to Superintendent after former Superintendent Dr. Jerrill Vandeventer retired, she promoted Jasper High School Principal Bob Hacker to assistant superintendent. Hacker left after a year to take the position of superintendent with the White River Valley School District in Green County.
Hacker was never replaced. Instead, Kim Strobel was hired as the curriculum director. She stayed with corporation for 18 months before announcing her resignation.
She’ll now be joined by Hitchcock next semester.
Hitchcock attended Purdue University in West Lafayette for undergraduate work before attending Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion for graduate school. He served as assistant principal and principal of Paoli Jr./Sr. High School for the last three of six years there. Prior to that Hitchcock lived in Indianapolis.
Hitchcock has a wife and three children who still reside in Paoli. “We’re taking it one day at a time. So, this is step one. That’s something we’ll make decisions on in the near future,” he said about moving to the area.
Hitchcock’s primary responsibility at the school will be the management of the curriculum, but he will also be in charge of grant writing, teacher’s professional development and evaluations.
During the Buildings and Maintenance Update by Scott Stenftenagel, the board learned:
-Equipment will be delivered soon for the replacement of the Jasper High School Auditorium air handlers.
-Hedinger Roofing is preparing to repair a section of the JHS facility.
-Requests for proposals for new lighting in the JHS auditorium have been sent out.
-An underground chiller pipe at Tenth Street Elementary had to be replaced recently.
-Heard that two bids were received for the Fifth Street roof replacement project. The low bid was awarded to Hedinger Roofing in the amount of $40,000.00.
The school board also took the following actions:
-Passed a motion to replace eight year old laptop computers for Middle and High School teachers in the amount of $72,637.50 from the Indiana bid list. The money was allocated from the Capital Projects fund.
-Passed a motion to accept a bid for renewal of property and casualty insurance by Selective for the school district in the amount of $227,379.00, with only a small increase of $6,217.00 from 2015.
-Heard from Dr. Lorey that the 2017 budget timeline will include the presentation in the July board meeting with a public hearing at the August meeting and approval during the September meeting.
-Lorey also made the following announcements: Eighth Grade Achievement program will be held on May 26th, and JHS Commencement exercises will be held on May 27th. She also said that the fall semester will begin on August 12, 2016.
