Superintendent recommends McKeever to lead BMS




GINA MCKEEVER

GINA MCKEEVER

It wasn’t a done deal at press time, but if the superintendent’s recommendation was approved by the school board, Gina McKeever will be the next principal at Brundrett Middle School.

The Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees met last night, Wednesday, July 8, to consider recommendations for hiring from Superintendent Sharon Doughty.

The South Jetty went to press before the meeting convened.

Doughty said earlier in the week she intended to recommend McKeever for the position vacated by Bob Byrd, who resigned in an agreement with the district last month.

McKeever was one of seven applicants interviewed by Doughty and business manager Olivia Mixon.

Three of the applicants are employees of the district, McKeever included. She spent the last year teaching pre-kindergarten and the previous seven years teaching fourth grade at H.G. Olsen Elementary School.

Doughty said because three of the applicants were from within the district she enlisted Mixon’s help rather than establish a committee of teachers and administrators, which is typically the procedure in interviewing prospective teachers and principals.

Doughty used a formula that included a one-hour written response, a onehour verbal interview and a scoring process to evaluate the applicants.

In addition to the three in-district applicants, four others were from as nearby as Corpus Christi and as far away as the Texas Panhandle.

McKeever, who earned her master’s degree in 2007, said she has been working toward becoming an instructional leader since then.

“I’ve been here since 2001, my kids went to school here, and this is where I want to be,” McKeever said.

“I wanted to stay in the area, so I sat back and learned from Mrs. (Sylvia) Buttler (Olsen Elementary principal), and I worked on campus as a leader,” McKeever said.

That included working with RTI (response to intervention), which is a program to meet the needs of all students, as well as helping to free teachers to do things besides instruction in the classroom so that all students needs are met and avenues are opened up to allow them to go further.

“Now I’m really excited to be part of a district where I’ve learned these things that I can use on another campus,” McKeever said.

Other hiring recommendations made by Doughty were:

• Joe Kocurek as middle school math teacher and coach, filling a vacancy created by the transfer of Susan Hamilton from the middle school as per her request and that of high school Principal Travis Longanecker. Hamilton will handle special education, replacing Claudia Locher, who retired. Kocurek is expected to be assigned as assistant varsity boys basketball and head track coach.

• Kate Williams to teach middle school English language arts to replace Mary Sibley, whose contract was not renewed.

• Evonne Valle to teach high school special education and coach tennis. She would replace Piper Boies who resigned to take a position in Marble Falls.

The board also was expected to, in closed session, discuss the district personnel policy that requires administrators to live in Port Aransas.

The policy has not been enforced in recent years in the cases of elementary school Principal Sylvia Buttler who lives in Flour Bluff, and former middle school principal Bob Byrd who lives in Corpus Christi.

Any action relative to that policy would take place in open session.


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