Albion has some shake up in school administrators

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 August 2013 at 12:00 am

ALBION – Two departures in the school administration team – one a retirement and the other a vacancy created when an assistant principal took a job in a different district – has resulted in several changes among the Albion’s building and academic leaders.

Kim Houserman retired at the end of June. The former middle school principal was serving as Albion’s coordinator of secondary school programs. He handled some of the mandated teacher evaluations and was also a liasion between the district and the county court system for students classified through Probation as Persons In Need of Supervision.

Jim Wood, the veteran elementary school principal, is leaving that position to assume some of Houserman’s duties. Wood will be responsible for many of the teacher evaluations, which require two to four observations plus a written report. The district has 180 teachers. Building principals and vice principals will also be part of the teacher evaluation process.

Most of the PINS work that was part of Houserman’s job will be assumed by Brad Pritchard, who has been promoted from dean of students at the high school to assistant principal of that building.

Wood’s shift in administration created a vacancy in the elementary school. The Board of Education has hired an administrator from Silver Creek in Chautauqua County to lead the school. Rachel Curtin worked 18 years as a teacher and administrator at Silver Creek. She will have a veteran of the elementary school as her assistant principal.

The Board of Education on Monday named Jennifer Ashbery, the long-time fifth grade teacher at Albion, to be the assistant principal of the elementary school. Ashbery has completed her administrative certification and has worked the previous two summers in an administrative internship through BOCES, said Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.

The elementary assistant principal position was available because Bridgitte Griffin left to work in administration at the Rush-Henrietta school district.

There’s another impending change in administration: Maura Pierce will retire in September as the district’s chairwoman of the Committee on Special Education. The district will fill the CSE position with Jessica Beal, who has been working as a special education teacher in kindergarten.