Final administrative changes put in place for Wooster City Schools

For the administrative staff of the Wooster City School District, it’s been a very busy summer.In addition to working out the final details of its revamped all-day every-day kindergarten program and beginning the tedious process of conducting a study facilities optimization study of the district’s educational buildings, district officials also faced the prospect of filling a significant number of administrative positions left vacant by the promotion of building administrators to positions in the Central Office and the resignation of a number of key building level administrators.The shuffling of administrative staff was set in motion by the June resignation of Assistant Superintendent Richard Goodright, who left the district to take up his new duties as superintendent of the Massillon City School District.When Edgewood Middle School Principal Richard Leone was promoted to the Central Office to assume a portion of Goodright’s duties, Edgewood’s Associate Principal Rodney Hopton was tapped to assume the principal position, leaving an associate principal position vacant. That position was filled by Wooster High School social studies teacher Ned Lauver.Just prior to Goodright’s announcement, Wooster High School Associate Principal Scott Burnett announced his intention to leave the district to accept the position of assistant principal at Northwest High School. Named as Burnett’s replacement was Tyler Keener, who most recently served as a middle school and high school assistant principal in the Chippewa School District.Also resigning from the district was Boys Village Principal Brad Warner, who accepted the position of principal at Massillon Washington High School this summer. Tapped as Warner’s replacement was Joe Kacsandi, who previously served as an intervention specialist at Boys Village, dean of students at Cornerstone Elementary School and most recently, intervention specialist at Wooster High School.With those positions filled, the district turned its attention to filling two more administrative vacancies created by a pair of additional resignations at Wooster High School.When Athletic Director Keri Hamsher resigned to assume responsibilities as assistant principal at Rittman High School, the board of education named Andy Kellar as her replacement.A 1992 graduate of Baldwin-Wallace, multi-sport high school and collegiate athlete and the former athletic director of Black River High School, Keller comes to the district from the private sector.A second associate principal position at Wooster High School was also left vacant when Vicki Turner submitted her resignation in order to accept the position of assistant principal at Strongsville High School.During the final board of education meeting, before the new school year started, the board tapped Melrose Elementary School teacher Eric Vizzo to assume Turner’s position.According to Superintendent Michael Tefs, Vizzo, who holds a Bachelor of Science in education and Master of Arts in educational administration from The University of Akron, has been a sixth-grade teacher at Melrose Elementary since 2005. In that role, he established standards-based curriculum and instruction, and led and designed multiple school-wide activities to engage parents, community members and students in learning. He also helped with administrative duties when building principals were absent.“Mr. Vizzo will be a wonderful addition to our high school administrative team,” said Tefs adding, “He was a fabulous teacher-leader at Melrose and is going to contribute significantly to our strategic initiatives and priorities.”“I am excited to begin as associate principal at Wooster High School,” said Vizzo.“I thoroughly enjoyed working with elementary students and will miss interacting with them every day. However, I look forward to working with older students, helping them prepare for life beyond high school and, eventually, I will get to see my elementary students again,” Vizzo added.