New elementary principal named

staff report

BELOIT — Mathew Bowen, a principal in the Struthers schools, has been named the new principal at Damascus Elementary School in the West Branch district.

The West Branch board of Education hired him in a special meting Friday, giving him a two-year contract and an annual starting salary of $72,500. He will assume his duties in August.

He will replace James Turner, who is retiring this year.

Damascus Elementary opened in 2005 as the combination of the former Damascus, Beloit and Goshen Center elementary schools into a single building. It houses more than 400 pupils.

Bowen is a 1999 graduate of Youngstown State University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education. He earned a master’s degree in administration from Ashland University. He is certified as an elementary, middle and high school principal.

In other action, the board passed a resolution calling for the replacement of the gymnasium floor in the middle school.

The floor was installed in 2004 when the school opened, but school officials said there have been problems with it from the beginning and the district never accepted the original floor.

The board declared the work to be an “urgent necessity,” agreeing to pay Cincinnati Floor Co. Inc. $88,025 to do the work, subject to the approval of the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The job is to be done before Aug. 22.