Pekin hires Pence counselor as principal

PACKWOOD ? Pekin Community School Board of Education hired Kim Ledger, a guidance counselor at Pence Elementary School in Fairfield, as Pekin?s elementary principal for 2012-13 at a salary of $70,000.

The board met Thursday evening to approve the contract and hear a presentation from Ray and Associates about the search for an interim superintendent.

The board decided not to hire an interim superintendent itself, but use Ray and Associates, a superintendent search company, to find an interim superintendent as well as a permanent superintendent.

?Gary Ray reviewed the guidelines for advertising for an interim superintendent,? John Dotson said this morning. Dotson is Pekin?s outgoing superintendent.

The school board discussed a possible interim superintendent candidate at an early morning Monday meeting, after accepting Dotson?s resignation June 11. His last day at Pekin is June 30.

?Ray will bring interim superintendents? resumes to a July 9 school board meeting,? said Dotson. ?The board will review those and select which candidates to interview July 11 and 12.?

Dotson said the board decided to search for an interim superintendent to serve the 2012-13 school year, because ?The pool of candidates for a permanent superintendent would not be as strong at this time of year. The board plans to hire a permanent superintendent in the spring.

?My decision to leave Pekin was really forced by the IPERS rules,? Dotson said in a phone interview June 14. ?I meet ?the rule of 88? and need to retire out of the system.

?I still have a lot of good working years left and I still greatly enjoy education and what I do, so I?m moving north to Minnesota to work.?

IPERS, the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System, has requirements about retirement using a formula that adds years of service plus age.

Dotson has a new superintendent job in southwest Minnesota, he said.

Pekin Schools are also searching for a candidate to take on the combined role of middle school principal and curriculum director.