By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

Following a unanimous vote by the Morgan County Board of Education (BOE), Dr. Jim Malanowski has officially been named principal of Morgan County High School (MCHS).

Two members of the high school’s School Governance Council were in attendance at Monday night’s meeting and stayed in closed session to offer the council’s opinion on the matter, which seemed to be in support of naming Malanowski principal.

“We do concur with you about changing Dr. Malanowski's status from interim principal to principal,” BOE Chairman Nelson Hale told the council members after the BOE came back into open session to take a vote on the personnel list.

Malanowski was named interim principal of MCHS for the 2012-2013 school year following the resignation of Dr. Mark Wilson, which went into effect at the end of June 2012.
At that point, system administration said the MCHS principal position would be advertised at the beginning of this year; however, it seems this plan changed.

"Basically, with Dr. Malanowski being in the job as principal, he's performed, in our opinion and the School Governance Council's opinion, well," Hale said Monday. "We're comfortable with him in that permanent role... We appreciate his willingness to step in,"
System administration "got the pulse" of MCHS teachers as well, and those opinions seemed to be in favor of Malanowski being named principal, Hale said.

This move to principal from interim principal doesn't include any changes to Malanowski's salary or benefits, Superintendent Dr. Ralph Bennett said.

In other news, the BOE unanimously approved the retirement of long-time system Director of Operations Bob Monk, who has been working for the school system since 1994; the resignation of an MCHS paraprofessional; and the recommendation for a school nurse at Morgan County Primary School two days a week.

Printed in the January 17, 2013 edition.