New principal hired at GMS

Greencastle Middle School has a new principal in Shawn Wooden.

Wooden succeeds Tamra Walker after her July announcement that she would be leaving for a position in Georgia.

Walker had served as GMS principal since July 2011. Her resignation announcement left the Greencastle School Corporation scrambling to find a new principal.

In a process that usually takes a month and a half, the school board was able to find the new principal in three weeks.

Wooden was selected out of a group of 21 candidates for the job. He was drawn to the job at the middle school due to friends and staff that he had met through college and teacher training.

"I couldn't pass it (the job) up," Wooden said. "It's also about helping make a good school system great."

Wooden started his teaching career as a middle school social studies teacher and made his way to dean of students and assistant principal at Brownsburg.

Wooden started his first day on the job Friday, Aug. 2 and has hit the ground running by helping teachers to get ready for the first day of school for Greencastle students today. He is looking forward to making connections with the students, parents and staff this year.

The school board congratulated Wooden on his new job and also thanked Superintendent Dawn Puckett and Assistant Superintendent Jeff Hubble for the quick and thorough hiring process.

The board also used the brief meeting on Monday to approve a number of other personnel changes prior to the start of school today, including the hire of 10 teachers.

Teacher hires included Kevin Rowe as GMS mild/moderate intervention teacher; Dorothy Crawly as temporary eighth grade language arts teacher; Jimmy Beasley Jimmy Beasley as 7th/8th grade language arts teacher; Shannon Green as elementary media specialist at Tzouanakis Intermediate, Deer Meadow Primary and Ridpath Primary; Schantell Wharton, life skills special education teacher at GHS; Heather Miller as first grade teacher at Ridpath; Carmen Cross as third grade teacher at Tzouanakis; Kimberly Yocum as fifth grade teacher at Tzouanakis; Kelli Croan as kindergarten teacher at Ridpath; David Basan as GHS technology teacher; and Kieran Clapp as second grade teacher at Ridpath.

Additional teaching moves included transferring Erin Blaydes from Tzouanakis fifth grade to GMS sixth grade science teacher and the approval of an additional hour to Bob Hedge's contract as band director.

Other personnel items included:

* Hires: Debra Sabin, GMS cafeteria assistant; Dianna Geier, GMS instructional assistant; Angela Garl, GHS cafeteria assistant; Kathy Moore, Tzouanakis noon aide; Erin Sprinkle as Deer Meadow noon aide; Cheyanne Maddox as GMS instructional assistant; Shannon Sibbitt as GMS instructional assistant; Betty Chandler as GMS noon aide; and Danielle Richardson as Ridpath noon aide.

* Transfers: Wesley Stone from GHS to GMS cafeteria assistant and Dan Baker from Tzouanakis noon aide to GHS cafeteria assistant.

* Substitutes: Sandra Rasnake and Nicole Dearinger as substitute cafeteria assistants; and Melodie Taylor, Stephanie Hunter and Chris Clark as substitute teachers.

* Extra-curricular activities: Tony Judy approved as GHS volunteer assistant girls' softball coach; and Lyndia Alspaugh hired as GHS varsity assistant/JV softball coach.

* Resignations: Alyssa Lovett as sixth grade science teacher; Dawn Tucker as language arts teacher; Megan Jackson as GHS technology teacher; Sandy Baker as speech and language pathologist; Lindsay Garner as speech and language pathology assistant; Hope Sutherlin as GMS instructional assistant; Angela Berry as GMS cafeteria assistant; and Miranda Patterson as GMS cheerleading coach.