Fox C-6 district officials have eliminated one elementary school assistant principal for next school year, and other administrative jobs may be eliminated before the 2023-2024 school year starts in August.
In an April 28 letter to families, Superintendent Paul Fregeau outlined changes at the administrative level for two middle schools and several elementary schools. He said two elementary schools will share an assistant principal next school year, allowing the district to eliminate one administrative position.
Fregeau said the district likely will eliminate additional administrative positions through attrition.
“Anytime you have to make transfers like this, it is very challenging,” he said. “However, we feel that these moves will create strong admin teams at these buildings.”
In January, Fregeau announced a plan to eliminate up to 27 teaching and three administrative positions through attrition to save about $2.4 million in salary and benefit costs for next school year.
In May, the district reassigned 25 teachers to different positions and in some cases to different school buildings based on their certifications to fill positions vacated by retirements or resignations. The maneuver drew criticism from the teaching staff because unlike in the past, the district did not ask for volunteers to be reassigned.
Kelly Bracht, assistant superintendent of human resources, said Fox has 877 teachers this school year and is projected to have 855 teachers next school year.
As of May 1, the district had 17 principals and 25 assistant principals, and Bracht said district officials expect to have 17 principals and 24 assistant principals for the 2023-2024 school year.
Salaries for the 2023-2024 school year for current principals and assistant principals are expected to be set by Board of Education members either this month or in June.
Simpson to get new principal
Fox Board of Education members voted unanimously April 18 to promote Katie Collins, an assistant principal at Clyde Hamrick Elementary School, to principal at Simpson Elementary School.
She will replace current Simpson Elementary Principal Bryan Clark, who is retiring at the end of this school year.
Collins will be paid $113,000 next school year as principal. She currently earns $84,468.24 a year as an assistant principal. Clark is making $132,206.75 this school year.
Collins, 37, of Imperial said she attended Clyde Hamrick as an elementary student and enjoyed returning to the school as the assistant principal.
“Hamrick is definitely very near and dear to my heart,” Collins said. “It is an amazing, passionate group of educators and kids. The kids are just so very special. It is those relationships that I will miss the most. They have helped me grow and develop into who I am, and I am excited to expand my family at Simpson.”
Collins began her career with the Fox district as a teacher at Guffey, where she taught sixth grade for one year, third grade for two years and fifth grade for six years between 2008 to 2017. She became assistant principal at Clyde Hamrick for the 2017-2018 school year.
She said her first priority at Simpson is to build relationships like she has at the other schools she has worked at in the district.
“I am really looking forward to expanding my Fox family with the Simpson family and building lasting relationships with the staff, students and community over there,” Collins said. “I have heard nothing but amazing things, and I am really looking forward to learning more.”
Collins said she knows it will be difficult to fill Clark’s shoes. He has been the school’s principal since 2001, and he was Simpson’s assistant principal for three years before that.
“There are different emotions people are feeling,” she said of the change. “It is normal to feel that way. I want to do everything I can to be visible, transparent and provide support in any way that I can because that is why I am there.”
Other administrator changes
Collins’ promotion led the district to reassign Holly Dreher, who’s in her first year as assistant principal at Guffey Elementary School, to be the assistant principal at Clyde Hamrick next school year. Dreher is being paid an $80,000 salary this school year.
Before working at Guffey Elementary, she taught at Fox High from 2006 to 2016, and she was a special education teacher at Fox Elementary from 2016 to 2022.
Liza Hazard, who has been the assistant principal at Simpson Elementary for the past three years, was reassigned to replace Dreher as the assistant principal at Guffey Elementary.
Hazard is being paid $82,812 this school year. She was a teacher at Clyde Hamrick Elementary from 2001 to 2002, and she taught at Lone Dell Elementary from 2002 to 2020 before becoming an assistant principal.
To fill the assistant principal position at Simpson, Fox announced Sara Helm, who’s in her first year as an assistant principal at Hodge Elementary School, will split time between two elementary schools next school year, serving as the assistant principal at both Hodge and Simpson elementary schools.
Helm is being paid $80,000 this school year.
Before becoming an assistant principal, Helm taught at Clyde Hamrick from 2004 to 2022.
The Fox district had elementary schools share assistant principals during the 2019-2020 school year, but in October of that school year, the district hired substitute administrators to provide help at the schools that were sharing assistant principals.
Then for the 2020-2021 school year, the district hired full-time assistant principals for all of its school buildings.
“At this time, we have not discussed substitute administrators,” Fregeau said. “However, if we receive feedback that it would be beneficial, we will look into it.”
Changes at middle schools
Along with the changes in the elementary schools, Fox also announced that Ridgewood and Seckman middle schools will exchange principals for next school year.
Courtney Meagher, who has been Seckman Middle’s principal since 2019, will be the principal at Ridgewood Middle, and Pat Schwalbe, who has been the Ridgewood Middle principal since 2019, will be the principal at Seckman Middle.
Meagher is being paid $116,971.95 this school year, and Schwalbe is making $116,971.95 this school year.
Before becoming a principal, Meagher taught sixth grade at Meramec Heights Elementary from 2008 to 2015 and was the assistant principal at Ridgewood Middle from 2015 to 2019.
Schwalbe previously taught social studies at Fox High from 2000 to 2013 and was the assistant principal at Guffey Elementary from 2013 to 2015 and the assistant principal at Meramec Heights Elementary from 2015 to 2019.
“Building principal shifts were made to form the strongest possible administrative teams at each building and to support the work happening in each building,” Fregeau said. “I think that both Mr. Meagher and Dr. Schwalbe will be successful in their new buildings.”