Wellsville Jr. Sr. High School new principal Allison Scott and assistant principal Kyle Exline making an impact in their new roles as the new school year gets underway. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

WELLSVILLE — Wellsville Jr. Sr. High School’s new principal Allison Scott and assistant principal Kyle Exline are confident in their new roles as the school year is off to a good start.

Exline, still somewhat new to the district after being hired last year as the athletic director, has now also taken on the role of assistant principal. Exline also served as transportation manager for the district last year.

Scott previously worked for the past two years at Garfield and Daw Elementary schools as a consultant for literacy through her employment with ESC of Cuyahoga County before being hired as principal this year.

Exline and Scott both applied for the positions after former principal Richard Shilling and assistant principal Melissa Hudson were let go by the Wellsville Board of Education last year.

Scott was a teacher at Youngstown City Schools and moved into a coaching consultant role while she worked on obtaining her principal’s license and her doctorate in educational leadership because it was always a goal of hers to be a principal.

“Once this position opened, I applied and then it was an intense interview process with an open forum with all the teachers and then interviews with the leadership team,” Scott said. “It was a really good fit, and I really enjoyed my two years at Garfield and Daw. I felt the staff was really positive and really welcoming, so when this opened up, I thought it was a good opportunity to join the team.”

Exline said he applied for the assistant principal position for much of the same reasons as Scott. He noted that he has an athletic background, but he also has an academic background.

“It seems that I am thought to be just athletically focused, but academically it’s also important to me,” Exline said. “So, having my hand in both kinds of feeds both parts of my side, my upbringing and what I have gone through to get to this point, so I was excited to have the opportunity to apply and thankfully be selected. Throughout the process seeing who I was going to be paired up with was also exciting, so it worked out pretty well.”

Scott and Exline both agree it’s been a challenging for both of them coming into new leadership positions without having the guidance of someone previously in the position,

“We are both very eager and willing to learn and we are taking a lot of advice from people who have been in the district such as school counselors who have been ingrained in the district for some time and Superintendent Dave Cappuzzello has been supporting them,” Scott said. “In a way it’s better that we both came in together because with such a major shift we have a lot of opportunities to make big differences and we are both on the same page with that. So, I think it’s a good thing it all happened at once because we are able to make a bigger impact quicker.”

Exline said the beauty of the two of them coming in together and not being in the shadow of someone is that it is almost like a blank slate or a white page where they have some precedents and some previous practices to follow but an opportunity to add their own twist or spin.

“Under the guidance of (Mr.) Cappuzzello, he has kind of given us the reins to take on that charge and lead from that position and so far, our staff has been very accepting and welcomed us with open arms and has been incredibly supportive,” Exline said. Some of the changes the duo plans to implement for the current school year is doing the NWEA MAP Testing which is a screener for all students to help staff obtain data for instruction of students. The testing will be done for all grades 7-12 students.

Previously, testing was only done for seventh and eighth-grade students. The testing will be done for reading, math and science. This will be a tool to see who students are growing and performing academically.

The school will also be part of a community/county initiative with OSU Extension to focus on attendance and help with truancy at the building. The OSU Extension office is doing a county-wide approach on truancy that will the school to send families to a remediation program for truancy, Scott said.

Scott noted that the school is currently experiencing 90% attendance for all grade levels and that last year the absenteeism rate was about 29% with a goal of 16%. She is working to keep the communication open as where the school is in that matter by posting the current numbers on social media and sending out all calls in cases of absence in hopes of breaking down that barrier and let people know they are looking at and trying to address the issue.

She also noted that at a recent building leadership meeting, she and Exline discussed with the staff different strategies they want to implement to check in on students to find out why they aren’t coming to school and if there are barriers that can be removed to get them back in school

Exline noted that everyone saw that the district has some gains to make when the state report cards were released and they plan to aggressively attack those gains and make the leaps and bounds needed to establish that the school has a quality education to offer for the community. Scott noted that according to the state report card the school outperformed the state average in American History and American Government. Everything else the school is working on addressing.

Scott noted that school spirit seems high as they see an increase in students and staff at sporting events this fall.

Exline noted that the cheer program has done a lot with the Jr. Tigers, and the school is trying to make connections in the community try to promote a sense a community.

The school has been celebrating students and their successes by heavily promoting all the good happening at the school on its Facebook pages to encourage the celebration of student successes.

Scott said the school is offering CCP Classes working with the career center.

The school is also initiating a 30-minute flex period for students who may need intervention in reading or catch up on schoolwork.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com