MOUNT AYR — The Mount Ayr School Board approved the appointment of Chris Elwood, of Griswold, as the new Mount Ayr Elementary School principal at their regular meeting Monday.
Elwood has 17 years of classroom experience ranging from kindergarten to eighth-grade. Currently he teaches sixth- through eighth-grade math at Griswold Community Schools.
“For the first 14 years, I was an elementary teacher,” said Elwood. “I love the elementary, but one of the reasons I moved to the middle-school level was to take on more leadership. Now, I want to get back into the elementary system.”
At Griswold, Elwood was the assistant high school baseball coach 10 years, assistant high school girls basketball coach eight years, junior high football and boys basketball coach three years and junior high boys track coach two years. Elwood has also served as the middle school athletic director three years.
Elwood said he decided he wanted to make the move to administration before his son went into middle school. He added there were three things that impressed him when he came to Mount Ayr for his interview.
“The facilities were the first thing that stuck out,” he said. “The elementary building is great, and you can tell there is a lot of pride taken in that. The second thing was the experienced staff and how welcoming they were. Lastly, the parental involvement with the school and athletics stuck out. I like the small school dynamics — where everyone knows each other and looks out for one another.”
Mount Ayr Community Schools Superintendent Joe Drake said after a lot of input from staff, teachers, board members, parents and the community, he recommended Elwood.
“I recommended him for the 2012-13 school year with a $72,000 salary,” said Drake. “He would also get health insurance, $2,000 to help him move and his contract would be for 240 days.”
Elwood attended the board meeting to meet the board members who weren’t present at his interview.
“I just want to thank everyone for the opportunity to work at Mount Ayr,” Elwood said at the meeting. “My family is very excited about getting here and getting started. As soon as we can sell our house in Griswold we will be moving here, hopefully, in late July.”