Creston Community School District has selected current Centerville High School Principal Bill Messerole as the new principal of Creston High School.
Creston Superintendent Tim Hood said the district has offered the position to Messerole, and he has verbally accepted it.
“We’re extremely excited about having him,” Hood said.
Messerole, 46, will replace Jay Slight, whose resignation will be effective at the end of the school year.
There still needs to be the necessary approval of the principal position from Creston School Board during their next board meeting.
“Board members were involved in the interview process,” Hood said. “They’re on board.”
According to Hood, there was a lengthy interview process to find the new CHS principal. It originally started with forty applicants and was narrowed down to four.
Background
Messerole has been the high-school principal at Centerville Community Schools since 2005. This also includes the principalship at Appanoose County Campus, an alternative school open to county residents in grades 10 through 12.
Messerole’s educational background includes graduating from Westmar College in LeMars in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a history major and 18 hours in the masters program in educational leadership at the University of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz.
He received a master’s degree in educational administration from Wayne State College in Nebraska in 2002.
Before being the high school principal at Centerville, Messerole was the assistant high school principal and athletic director from 2003 to 2005.
From 2001 to 2003, Messerole was the junior high school principal at South O’Brien Community Schools in Paullina.
Before Messerole entered school administration positions, he was a social studies teacher at Washington High School in Cherokee from 1996 to 2001, Bradshaw Mountain Junior High School in Humbolt Unified School District in Prescott Valley, Ariz., from 1991 to 1996 and Antelope Valley Christian Prep School in Lancaster, Calif., from 1990 to 1991.
Influences
What influenced Messerole to apply for the principal position at CHS was his previous visits and knowing the school district had a good reputation.
“I really enjoyed the community,” Messerole said. “I thought it would be a very good place to put an application in.”
He added, Creston had the same core set of educational values that he believed in, including the desire to make sure students were connected to the school.
During Messerole’s interview process, he said one of his interview groups was made up of students. He asked the students what the best thing about Creston High School was, and they replied teachers cared about them beyond just being students.
“That appealed to me because that’s the type of environment I want to work in,” Messerole said.
Messerole’s contract date to start work is officially July 1, but he says he will be done in Centerville on June 6, and will start working in Creston as soon as possible.