Jasper School Corporation hires Strobel as curriculum director

The Greater Jasper Consolidated School Board hired Kim Strobel, 39, of Tell City as the new curriculum director for the school corporation.

The position has been vacant since June 2012, when then-director Tracy Lorey was appointed as the superintendent.

Strobel has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Southern Indiana. She completed her master’s degree in elementary education at Indiana University Southeast and earned an administrative certificate through Oakland City University.

She was a fourth-grade teacher at Perry Central Elementary for four years before transferring to William Tell Elementary School for two years. She then became the literacy coordinator for the Tell City-Troy School Corporation. She worked as an outside consultant for education centers until being hired by the consulting firm Smekens Education of Warren.

Her consulting position with Smekens led her to working with the Jasper School Corporation for 25 days last school year. Upon hearing of the position, she decided due to family responsibilities and the ties she had established in the school corporation to apply for the position as the curriculum director.

“I was able to form relationships with the teachers,” Strobel said. “When they heard I was leaving, the Jasper teachers said they would miss me. This made me feel very validated that they appreciated the work we had done.”

Strobel is very passionate about teaching and motivating students. “This has led me to leadership, I love empowering teachers,” Strobel said. “I love seeing the spark in them and them going wanting to go back to their classrooms and trying new techniques to see how it works.”

According to Dr. Lorey, Strobel was a good candidate for the position due to her background and depth of knowledge in education and literacy skills in particular, combined with her ability to engage teachers and her knowledge of curriculum. “She’ll be a great asset to the district,” Lorey said, “and I am excited she’ll be joining us.”

After assistant superintendent Bob Hacker departed the school corporation last month, the board decided to fill the curriculum director position rather than appoint a new assistant superintendent. Hacker’s duties in regards to building maintenance would be contracted to a local firm. At the Monday meeting, the board also approved a building maintenance program to be implemented by the Stenftenagel Group of Jasper.