Middle school principal to leave

By JoANN JONES
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BERLIN CENTER -- Principal Dale Reese's philosophy at Western Reserve Middle School is that education should be fun for the pupils.
Throughout all the focus on proficiency testing and raising test scores, he said he believed he had put that philosophy into action.
But Reese said it was also time for him to make a professional move. So he gave his retirement resignation to the Western Reserve Local Board of Education on Monday to take a position as an instructional consultant with the Mahoning County Educational Service Center. The board accepted Reese's resignation with regret.
"I always wanted to make learning fun," Reese said. "I have all good memories. The middle school kids are fabulous, and the staff is great. I guess I'm not really leaving, because with my new position, maybe I can enhance the district from a different perspective."
Reese said he has been spent his career on all rungs of the educational ladder, serving as a janitor in the Austintown district for two years before becoming a teacher and then principal in the Western Reserve district. Now he wants to experience education as a supervisor at the county level, although he said his exact position has not been established.
Reese is the second principal to retire from the district since the beginning of the school year. Ellsworth Elementary principal Victor Ugran tendered his resignation, effective Aug. 31, in January.
Therefore, the board has hired Deborah Farelli as an administrator for the 2004-05 school year. Superintendent Charles Swindler said her assignment and her salary are yet to be determined because no final assignments will be made until a second administrator is hired.
Farelli, who has served as an assistant elementary principal for the past seven years in the Mohawk School District, has recently moved into the Western Reserve district. She received her bachelor's degree from Eastern Carolina University and her master's degree from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.