Seymour Community School Corp. likes to grow its own leaders, so officials didn’t have to look far to fill two administrative positions.

On Thursday night, the board of trustees approved the hiring of Steve Bush as principal of Seymour-Redding Elementary School and Karla Bohle as principal of the Seymour Sixth Grade Center.

Bush has spent the past year as assistant principal at Seymour-Redding Elementary, working under Principal Jake Shaffner, who resigned this summer to become the assistant principal at Taylorsville Elementary School in Bartholomew County.

Bohle has spent the past three years as assistant principal at Seymour-Jackson Elementary and is replacing Principal Becky Davis, who transferred to the assistant principal position at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School, which was held by Lisa Speidel. Speidel accepted a position this summer as principal of Waldron Elementary in Shelby County.

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Bush has been in the education field for 13 years, working as a teacher and coach. Ten of those were spent in Michigan. He also spent one year as a teacher at Seymour-Jackson Elementary before becoming assistant principal at Redding.

“I came down here and had an opportunity to join the basketball coaching staff (at Seymour High School), and I fell in love with this community,” he said. “I have a young family, and we were looking for that right fit and fell in love with Seymour and Seymour Community Schools.”

After a couple of his close friends, including former Seymour basketball coach Kyle Clough, moved away to pursue other opportunities, Bush said he decided to stay.

“My whole career, I’ve always had my eye on being a leader within the school community, so it was a perfect transition point for me,” he said.

Having spent the past two years at Redding, Bush said he has developed a great rapport with staff and students. Redding has an enrollment of about 550.

“We have a wonderful variety of kids,” he said.

The school has implemented several special education programs for students with mild to severe disabilities.

“We have some amazing opportunities for those students in our community,” he said. “I fell in love with those kids from day one, and I’m just there to serve them and all of our students.”

He also said he has a lot of respect for his staff and wants to do everything he can to help them meet their professional goals.

“We all achieve together,” he said. “The sense of community that we have at Redding is very important to me. I just want to give everything I possibly can to Redding.”

Bush said he learned a lot from Shaffner and plans to continue in his footsteps.

“They’ve laid the foundation,” he said of Shaffner and other past Redding principals. “My job is to come in and continue the great things they’ve done and add my own personal touch.”

Under the leadership of Seymour-Jackson Elementary Principal Justin Brown, Bohle said she was able to learn and gain valuable experiences that will aid in her transition to principal at the sixth grade center.

“I think this is a really neat opportunity because (the sixth grade center) is a great building and a neat concept, so I’m excited to bring a positive vibe,” she said.

Although she will miss working at Jackson, Bohle said she will still see those students after they graduate fifth grade.

“I’m telling them I’m stepping away for just a short time, and then they’ll see me again,” she said. “I’m just going across the cornfields.”

Bohle said there are a lot of great things going on at the sixth grade center, and she plans to build on that.

“We’re just going to continue to mold these students as they are changing and build them up and prepare them for everything that is coming their way,” she said. “I want to make sure we are creating that positive and encouraging environment for them.”