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Valerie Simon new principal
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Ainslee Wittig/Range News By Ainslee S. Wittig\Arizona Range NewsValerie Simon was hired by the school board last Tuesday as Willcox Elementary School principal after Principal Eldon Merrell resigned to become Duncan School District's superintendent.
Merrell will leave at the end of June for his new position. Simon begins July 1. Nineteen people inquired about the elementary principal job, with nine completing all the necessary paperwork, said Superintendent Dr. Donald Roberts. A committee of 10, including the chairman of each grade level, the building secretary, a teacher's assistant, the academic assistance coordinator, Board President Lucille Seney and the superintendent, screened all nine candidates and chose five top candidates to interview. Of the five, two were in-house candidates, he said, "which speaks well for the quality of people we have." After comprehensive interviews, including an "in-box activity" asking the candidates to prioritize a stack of issues that come up and address them in memo and watching a taped lesson and critiquing it, the committee came to a unanimous decision to offer Simon the position, Roberts said. Board member David Collins said all of the concern he heard over Simon becoming WES principal was over whom they could name to replace her, as she is currently the district's coordinator of special services. Seney said, "I'd like to congratulate Valerie. It was quite a process - very physically and emotionally draining (on the committee). But we all came together in the end; we all felt confident with Valerie." Eldon Merrell also gave his approval. "Valerie has been a teacher, a reading coach, in charge of special education and special services at the elementary school. She knows the school and the direction it's going in. She understands the school's needs and should be comfortable there," adding she'll make a great principal. Also at the meeting, Roberts told the board that they may need to create another first grade teacher position. "It looks like we need to create a position to keep a low ratio in that area. Funds are available to offset that cost. We can fund half the position because we are not replacing a data assessment person," he said. "We have a classroom we can use - but this is the last classroom we have on the elementary campus, without adding temporary buildings or partitioning off the activity room." The school may also receive an influx of kindergarteners, as "this last week we have more students enrolled in kindergarten than ever before. We don't know if we've done a good job of getting the word out (about enrolling) or we will still have (the last minute enrollment usually experienced). It's a little scary." Other positions the district is still looking to fill are high school math, middle school fifth-grade teacher, two sixth-grade teachers, seventh-grade English, eighth-grade math and reading, and in elementary school, two kindergarten teachers. The school year's student count ended with 20 more students enrolled than last year at the end of May, with 1,346 students, Roberts said. "It's a good note to end on. I hope it's up again at the start of the school year (August). To have it make a difference in funding from the state, we need to be up by 75 more students," he said. The superintendent also gave a report on the percent of the budget spent in the classroom, as determined by the auditor general. Willcox School District spends 59.9 percent of its budget in the classroom, an average of $4,405 per pupil during fiscal year 2006. While the state recommends spending 65 percent in the classroom, Willcox remains higher than the state average, which is 58.3 percent, in money spent in the classroom. Willcox School District is ranked 45th out of 229 districts. Roberts said some circumstances that make it difficult for the district to raise that percentage include transportation, which continues to increase for Willcox because of fuel costs and the distances covered, and the fact that the K-8 schools are Title I schools (which receive money to ensure that disadvantaged (minority or ELL students or those living in poverty, with disabilities, etc.) children receive the same high quality education as their more advantaged peers), and that federal classroom funding has been cut.
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