Education

Glenwood Superintendent Devin Embray has formally recommended the hiring of Genie Wickham as the new principal at West Elementary School.

If approved at the April 8 Glenwood Community School District Board of Directors’ meeting, Wickham would take over for Kevin Farmer as West’s new principal on July 1. Farmer announced in February he would be retiring at the end of the current school year.

The administrative law judge who will preside over the hearing that will decide the fate of suspended Glenwood Principal Kerry Newman has been selected.

Kathy Collins Reilly, an adjunct professor at Drake University Law School and former legal director of the School Administrators of Iowa, has been tabbed to serve as administrative law judge in Newman’s yet-to-be scheduled hearing.

Glenwood Community High School Principal Kerry Newman said she hand delivered the necessary paperwork to the Glenwood Community School District’s central office Monday to appeal the Glenwood Board of Education’s recommendation to terminate her contract.

Newman has been the subject of an investigation by school district superintendent  Devin Embray since being placed on paid administrative leave Jan. 18.

The employment status of Glenwood Community High School principal Kerry Newman is likely to be decided at a special meeting of the Glenwood Board of Education Tuesday, Feb. 12. The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. in the third-floor conference room at the school district’s central office, located on the campus of the Glenwood Resource Center at 103 Central.