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Strube leaving Tzouanakis for Central Office post

Tuesday, November 27, 2018
By JARED JERNAGAN, Assistant Editor

A year that has already featured Tzouanakis Intermediate School being closed for more than a month took another unexpected twist on Monday.

Jon Strube, principal of the school since 2011, is moving to a position in the school corporation Central Office.

Jon Strube

He is being replaced as principal by Jennifer Rhoades, who has served as assistant principal.

Superintendent Jeff Hubble notified Tzouanakis parents of the change with an email on Monday morning.

The plan is to move Strube to Central Office to assist with personnel and finance. GCSC Finance Director Jayme Barber was injured in a car accident earlier this fall and has been away recuperating ever since.

Barber’s absence, along with that of Operations Director Dan Green, was noted as the reason that Assistant Superintendent Donovan Garletts was recently assigned finance and operations duties.

Jennifer Rhoades

“Mrs. Rhoades is taking over as principal at TZ,” Hubble wrote. “We expect that this transition will be a very smooth one since Mrs. Rhoades has been at TZ for years and knows the programming very well.”

Rhoades came to Tzouanakis at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year, having previously taught in Danville and Avon, as well as running a daycare.

Later in the day, Strube sent his own email to Tzouanakis parents, mainly thanking everyone involved for a positive experience.

“It was an honor and privilege to have served as the principal of Tzouanakis Intermediate School for the past seven plus years,” Strube wrote. “I will take with me many fond memories, thanks to the TZ staff, students and parents.”

The Tzouanakis building was closed on Aug. 27 due to mold concerns in a number of classrooms. Students and teachers spent more than a month in other corporation buildings before the school was reopened on Oct. 1.

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  • What qualifications does Mr. Strube have for changing to a finance and operations position ?

    Why weren't these admn. changes announced at the last board meeting ?

    -- Posted by Lookout on Wed, Nov 28, 2018, at 11:55 AM

  • Mr. Strube is extremely detail-oriented and organized. This is a good fit for his skill set.

    -- Posted by Moretothestory on Wed, Nov 28, 2018, at 5:15 PM

  • Mrs. Rhoades will do an amazing job, however this whole situation is shameful. The “leadership” by the GCSC school board, superintendent, and assistant superintendent are lacking! Over the summer the mold issue could have been resolved correctly by hiring professionals without affecting every child and staff member in the district if they had taken it seriously. Many lies were told to the staff and the public during “Moldgate”. Candice Childress was terminated without cause, because K. Peeper didn’t like her. There is a lawsuit going on regarding a teacher at the middle school. And now, Mr. Strube is being removed from TZ without warning. Everyone is focused on test scores. How about listening to teachers and doing what is best for the kids instead of trying to save face with PR? TZ’s scores went up this year...but that was the reason given for moving Strube. This was a personal vendetta by the school board and administrators. Greencastle...start demanding answers. Call for the removal of Jeff Hubble, Donovan Garletts, and the school board. Demand that we move to an elected board. Ask yourself...do you really believe the move of Jon Strube to a closet at Central Office with the comment “you can be a teacher here next year if you want a job” in the middle of the year and just before the Thanksgiving holiday seems like a great idea? Does the message from Jeff Hubble make sense or does it would like lies? Show up at the school board meetings. Demand answers! Make them accountable. Let them hear your voice! The only way things will change for the BETTER is if YOU step up and demand it. Our kids deserve better, as do our staff!

    -- Posted by Speaktruthwithlove on Wed, Nov 28, 2018, at 11:32 PM

  • There is definitely more to this story. @speaktruthwithlove you can contact me at angelakhuff@gmail.com if you’d like to chat!

    -- Posted by angelakhuff on Thu, Nov 29, 2018, at 3:57 PM

  • The removal of Mr. Strube from his position at TZ is one of the worst decisions I've seen our current administration make. It's been such a long time since a good decision has been made by the administration I've forgot what it is like to have a functioning school system. From overpriced underused devices, lack of text books or curriculum for our teachers to teach from, a high school that can't control their own students to behave properly, discrimination against teachers of color, it's no wonder that Greencastle residents are putting their kids into other county schools. To remove a principal who is more dedicated to his teachers and students than I have seen in a very long time in the Greencastle School System is a defensive move so that someone else isn't scrutinized more closely to los HIS job. Jon Strube is the type of leader that we need to get our schools out of the hole we are in now. We need new superintendents, textbooks, devices to assist in learning in new ways not as the only learning tool, an elected school board. If you want to blame someone for the state of our schools and their grades and test scores let's start with the top of the chain and get that in order first.

    -- Posted by greencastleparent on Thu, Nov 29, 2018, at 4:08 PM

  • If you support Jon Strube, support needs to be shown to the school board. There are people on there who couldn’t teach their way out of a paper bag, are condescending to others, and in general should never have been in a classroom, much less on a school board. There are personal vendettas being hashed out between board members who are on power trips and are stepping into legal hot waters. This will not end well and the children and teachers will be paying the price. Even if I don’t agree with everything that happened under a principal’s leadership, the fact is that learning, enriching experiences, and the whole child are taken into consideration at TZ. This year has already been a hellacious one for this school. Let’s not make it worse by making really dumb mistakes—I am talking to you, GCSC school board.

    -- Posted by Moretothestory on Fri, Nov 30, 2018, at 12:49 AM
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