Tom Henderson, director of personnel for the school district, and soon-to-be superintendent, replacing Smiga, who’s retiring as of July 31, gave his last official board report as personnel director.
Smiga called his departure after 36 years of service “bittersweet. It’s been a great run,” he said.
“I wish the district well.” The district is expected to receive another rating of ‘Excellence with Distinction’ in the near future,” he said, adding that “it takes a village,” and “our community has stepped up.” He credited the staff, teachers, students, parents and supportive community for making the district as good as it is.
School board President Karen Myers presented Smiga with a plaque honoring him for dedicated service to the district, from his start as a fourth- and fifth-grade elementary school teacher to his rise through the ranks to principal at Cline Elementary School, and eventually to superintendent from 2005-09. The plaque will be hung in an honored place in the high school, she said.
The board also gave Smiga a gift basket with a bucket of golf balls and school memorabilia.
Marcia Waters, the library director at Cline Elementary School, was honored by the school board for being named school librarian of the year by the Ohio Education Library Media Association, a state organization for school libraries. Her award, to be presented in October at OELMA’s annual meeting in Columbus, is called the 2009 OELMA Media Specialist of the Year. Waters said she has been in library work for 20 years, 12 of them in Centerville.
“I’m very proud to be a part of a winning team,” she said.
Christine Findlay, the Central Resource Center director for the district, who coordinates library services, was honored as a representative of the district’s 13 school librarians, who’ll be honored at an October board meeting, Smiga said. The district received the 2009 Library of Distinction Award from OELMA. Findlay said Centerville is one of two districts in the state with professional librarians in all their schools.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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