CROTHERSVILLE
Over the years, Drew Markel’s work has rotated between school administration and technology.
Since shortly after the start of the 2017-18 school year, he has served as principal of Crothersville Elementary School.
Before that, he served as an administrator at the junior-senior high school and director of technology and also had worked for a technology company.
He recently decided to return to the technology field, so he submitted his resignation letter to Crothersville Community School Corp. Superintendent Terry Goodin.
During a meeting Monday night, the board of school trustees unanimously approved his resignation. That’s effective this summer when Markel’s contract expires June 30.
“It was a very tough decision to make,” Markel said. “I really appreciate the staff and everybody at the school. I’ve had a great time there, but with the current explosion of IT and digital marketing out there, I’ve just got a good opportunity to go and do that work.”
Markel said his work will involve consulting and marketing like he did in the past.
“I just wanted to make sure that the staff and teachers at the school had plenty of time,” he said of submitting his resignation now. “I wanted to make sure there was a seamless transition into the summer, just make sure that they had plenty of time to plan as a school corporation instead of letting them know the last day of school.”
Goodin said he and the board are going through the process of deciding whether to hire a replacement for Markel or not. Last summer, Doug Ballinger was hired as the junior-senior high school principal.
When Markel started as elementary principal, he replaced Chris Marshall, who resigned shortly after starting his 10th year to become Scottsburg Elementary School’s principal.
Goodin appointed Markel as interim principal for the remainder of the 2017-18 school year. Since Markel already had been serving as an administrator, Goodin said he decided to make an administrative transfer. It didn’t have to be voted on by the school board because of the interim tag.
In June 2018, Markel’s interim tag was removed, and his principal contract started.
During his tenure, Markel said one of the corporation’s biggest accomplishments is technology.
“We’re one of the first schools in the county to go 1:1, one of the first schools in the county to have wireless internet in the school building,” he said. “That has changed over the years. We ended up having Chromebooks this year for the first year. We started out with iPads. I think that has been one of our bigger pushes was just to that digital curriculum and utilizing more and more technology as a small district.”
He said he will miss being around the staff, which includes about 20 people.
“The staff is a family there at the school,” he said. “It’s a small school, so everybody knows each other, and we take care of each other like a family.”
He also will miss the school’s nearly 225 students from preschool to fifth grade.
“We have great students, a great community,” Markel said. “Just seeing their smiling faces and seeing them come to school and do their best, it has been great. The kids make it great.”
No matter what decision Goodin and the board make administratively, Markel said he hopes there’s plenty of support for the staff and students going into the future.