THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180352
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The school district's new superintendent made his first administrative changes Tuesday as employees braced for the fourth reorganization in five years.
At superintendent Timothy R. Jenney's request, the School Board has approved two job changes for current employees and two new hires.
Michael A. O'Hara, who has worked with Jenney in three previous school divisions, will join Virginia Beach as associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Joan C. Mason has been named assistant superintendent for elementary education. She has worked with Jenney in two other districts. Both will start July 1.
``Obviously I've been pleased with their past performance,'' Jenney said. ``I think they're extremely competent and will bring a great deal of expertise to the district.''
K. Edwin Brown has been named assistant superintendent for accountability. Brown most recently served as executive assistant to the superintendent for the Educational Planning Center, program audits, and strategic planning under a reorganization plan by interim superintendent James L. Pughsley last summer.
His new duties will include supervising a department charged with assessing programs, monitoring standards of school success, planning, evaluation and developing report cards to track the progress of individual schools.
Pat House, who has served as associate superintendent for instructional services in the interim reorganization, will return to the position of director of instructional services she held previously.
Jenney said he will continue to make changes during the year but does not plan on a major reorganization of the division's top administration. Administrative jobs were substantially reconfigured twice under former superintendent Sidney L. Faucette, and Pughsley made additional changes.
Some senior staff members are concerned about morale in the district's administrative offices as employees worry over the prospect of more changes. Jenney said he was aware of the concerns.
``What I am conveying to my employees and the board is to have a good mix of current and new employees,'' he said.
O'Hara served as a teacher, coach and administrator in the Parchment (Mich.) School District for 23 years, including the five years Jenney was superintendent there. He was a high school principal for two years while Jenney was superintendent of the Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Okla. And he was assistant superintendent for planning and research and associate superintendent for instruction in Greenville, S.C., where Jenney was superintendent before coming to Virginia Beach.
Mason has held three principals' posts, including one in Parchment, and was the assistant superintendent for elementary education in Greenville.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB