The Dublin (Ohio) City School District has hired a retired assistant principal and former athletics director for a part-time position to advise athletics directors at its three high schools and four middle schools.
Kip Witchey, who retired June 1 as an assistant principal at Dublin Scioto High School, began his new role Aug. 1 as coordinator of athletics, said Superintendent Todd Hoadley.
As reported by ThisWeek Community News, Witchey, 53, was the district’s first athletics director for Scioto when the school opened in 1995 and served in that capacity for 16 years. The 1983 Dublin High School graduate has been employed by the district for 32 years total. Because of his athletics experience, the district decided to bring him on in a part-time role to ensure Tom McDonnell, director of secondary education, could focus on academics.
Witchey’s role does not involve supervising athletics directors, who still will report only to principals, but instead entails providing a central point of contact on athletics issues for all parties involved, which is what McDonnell did as director of student operations.
Witchey will have a salary of $50,000 annually, with benefits for the year valued at roughly $25,800, according to David Varda, CFO and treasurer for the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESC). Witchey will be paid by the district through the ESC. He still will receive his full retirement benefits in addition to the new part-time role.
Witchey was hired through the ESC, a decision that allowed the district to avoid attaching a multiyear contract to the position. The position is a one-year contract “to see how it works,” Hoadley said. If the position works out, Witchey said he’s willing to continue serving for multiple years. He said he sees his position evolving over time. As of now, he expects to work in buildings quite a bit with the athletic directors, running athletics council meetings and holding monthly meetings with the athletics directors.
“It’s an opportunity to help the athletic directors with projects that (they) may not have time to work with,” he said. “We’ll maybe be able to come up with economic ways to do more with the money we have and just try to maintain a good product.”
