EATON — During the Eaton Board of Education meeting on Monday, Jan. 14, the board approved the hiring of Bradley Neavin as Interim Hollingsworth East Elementary Principal, on a limited contract for up to 160 days retroactive to Jan. 4.
Also during the meeting, the board accepted the resignation of former East Elementary Principal Joseph Mergler, effective Jan. 5.
“Our K-2 Elementary Principal resigned due to personal reasons just prior to the second semester and thus we had a very short turn around to find an interim principal for East School,” Superintendent Jeff Parker explained.
“Given the short turn around, we could not have landed any better than we did with Mr. Neavin. His experiences as an administrator over the last two decades will bring strong leadership to the students and staff at East. If you talk with respected administrators throughout Southwest Ohio, you will find that Brad (Neavin) is highly regarded and respected.
“Brad has elementary principal (Bruce) experience along with high school principal and superintendentexperience. Brad hit the ground running, meeting with every teacher individually within the first three days of the second semester along with getting in classrooms and interacting with the students.
“When I introduced Brad to the staff, I told them with Brad Neavin, I know East Elementary will be able to continue build on the initiatives and the momentum created during the 1st semester. Many times when a school district has to fill a principal’s position in the middle of the year, they just hope to find an experienced replacement that can ‘get them through.’”
Neavin started his teaching career at Twin Valley Local Schools in 1985 as the band director. Two years later, he worked as the band director at Trotwood-Madison for 13 years. His last three years in that position he also served as an assistant principal. He left Trotwood-Madison in 2000 to serve as Assistant Principal at Belbrook High School. Three years later, he worked as the Bruce Elementary Principal at Eaton Community Schools. He became high school principal in 2005, superintendent in 2007, and left the district in 2013. He went to Vandalia Butler School as their superintendent, where he retired in 2017.
His wifeMary taught her entire teaching career at Eaton Community Schools. She taught at Dixon Israel School, at the middle school. She spent a lot of time at William Bruce Elementary and Hollingsworth East Elementary. She also retired in 2017.
The couple’s daughter spent her entire school career in Eaton Community Schools, where she followed in both of her parents’ footsteps by attending Ohio University.
The Neavin family has lived in Preble County since 1985. They have lived in Eaton since 1987.
As for why Brad Neavin left retirement for the interim position, he said he saw the need and, having a close relationship with Superintendent Parker, thought the position would be a good fit.
“When he talked to me about this, and asked me if I would consider it, quite frankly, because of his professionalism, how much I like working with him, and the staff at Eaton Community Schools, that is why I decided to take the interim job,” he said.
“We are looking at literacy. We have a really good staff here, a tremendous staff. We are going to target our reading scores, to make sure we do all we can to push our kids to grade level by the end of the year. That is our primary focus. We started to implement some strategies, already. We have some more things that we are working towards.
“My door is always open and I’m easy to reach. Email me if you have a question and please don’t hesitate, whether your question is academic, behavioral, or on operations. I don’t go on Facebook, so I’m not going to know if you have a concern. I need parents to call me if they have any question.”
