Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MENTONE -ÊStudents and teachers at Burket Elementary School will see a new face in the school beginning Oct. 19.
Monday, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board unanimously approved Mary Ann Irwin as Burket principal and corporation curriculum director. She is on a 210-day contract with a salary of $61,000.
Current Burket principal Karen Shelley was reassigned as consultant for the visually impaired for the North Central Indiana Special Education Cooperative.
Irwin will resign from her position as Wabash City Schools district coordinator for Title I and ISTEP remediation today. She said she expects the Wabash school board to approve her resignation Monday.
"I'm excited," said Irwin. "Burket is a small school but a family school."
She said she is looking forward to the responsibilities that come with her new job. She lives in Wabash but is looking to move to the Burket area soon.
She has four grown children, three of whom are sons who teach. Her husband also teaches school and is a coach at Eastbrook High School.
She received her bachelor's degree from Indiana University and her master's degree and principal's license from Ball State University. She is doing her superintendent internship with Tippecanoe Valley Superintendent Dr. Karen Boling. She said she hopes to receive her EDS this summer and her EDD next summer.
Irwin has taught kindergarten through adult education.
The best part of her new job, she said, will be as curriculum director.
"Tippecanoe Valley offered me the opportunity to do the curriculum and not lose touch with being a school principal," she said.
Her sons Rob and David both went to Burket Elementary.
"They have wonderful memories at Burket," she said. "Mr. England and the Burket gym can take credit for Rob being a coach."
