Fallsnewspress.com - Woodridge hires athletic director

by Steve Wiandt

Reporter

Peninsula -- Members of the Woodridge Local Board of Education welcomed Jill Schissler as the school district's newest athletic director.

The Board on June 17 approved Schissler as athletic director/attendance officer under a two-year contract, setting her salary at master's plus eight with two years experience. Her annual salary will be $72,213, according to Treasurer Deanna Levenger Her contract starts Aug. 1.

Schissler had been employed since 2005 by Johnstown-Monroe High School in Johnstown, Ohio, as a health and physical education teacher. Prior to that, she was the athletic director at Mt. Gilead Exempted Village Schools in Mt. Gilead, Ohio. Working in public education for 17 years, Schissler has taught and coached in Coshocton, Ohio, and Charlotte, N.C.

A native of Carrollton (south of Canton), she is a graduate of Carrollton High School and Muskingum College in New Concord where she earned a bachelor's and a master's degree. She has also attended the University of Akron, and served a year in the U.S. Army at Fort McClellan, Ala.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic," Schissler told the Board members and the audience. "Going through the interview process, the team was beyond professional and I'm really glad to be a part of a professional team again." Schissler said she is going to sell her house in Mount Vernon and looks forward to being a part of the Woodridge community.

In June 2007, the district's attendance officer left the district, Woodridge High School Principal Mic Becerra told the Falls News-Press, so he was left with a hole to fill. "We brought Mike Massey on board as the district attendance officer and administrator (dean of students) for the freshman class," Becerra said, adding that Massey was working on his administrative internship. He said Massey's job assignment was "a perfect fit," and it proved that the school needed a third administrator.

For the last three years, Chris Sieber was the high school athletic director and assistant principal. Becerra said the district felt that having both roles was "too much," so when Massey decided to go back to the classroom this opened up the possibility of combining two half-time positions, athletic director and attendance person, into a full-time administrator position.

Sieber will work only as the assistant principal.

Becerra noted that Woodridge has never had a full-time athletic director.

According to Becerra, out of 38 applicants for the job, Schissler was among seven finalists. The list of finalists included Laura Jagels of Westlake High School (physical education teacher), Jon Williams of Woodridge Middle School (special education teacher), Rose Marie Torma of Cloverleaf High School (assistant principal), Alex Popovich of Twinsburg High School (English teacher/assistant athletic director) and Peter Keenan of Black River High School (athletic director).

Only six were interviewed because the seventh candidate, Mike Cook, principal of James A. Garfield High School in Portage County, withdrew the day of first-round interviews because he was hired elsewhere, Becerra said. There were two rounds of interviews with an interview committee, and one interview with Superintendent Dr. Jeff Graham.

E-mail: swiandt@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3141