BENTON COUNTY — Two newly-created administrative positions have been filled with teachers already on staff. Monday night, School Board members approved Matthew Wood as the new high school assistant principal and Aaron Gaffigan as the director of technology and communications and the director of the alternative school.
“What impressed our committee, Matt is going have instant credibility with curriculum ... he’s very, very articulate and very knowledgeable with what’s coming down with Common Core. I think Matt has, the one thing that I look for out of these leaders, theyhave to have a love for kids.
I think these two guys sold me better than the rest,” Rick Neal, high school principal, said. Neal will be the new superintendent July 1.
Wood, sixth-grade math teacher at Pea Ridge Middle School, has been in Pea Ridge since 2005 and driven a bus since 2010.
He is also director of the children’s ministry at First Christian Church, Rogers.
A 1999 graduate of Rogers High School, he earned abachelor’s from University of Arkansas in middle level education, and also attended Texas Christian University and NWACC.
He is working on his master’s degree from Arkansas State University and expects to graduate December 2012 with a master’s in educational leadership.
Gaffigan, currently teaches JAG and accounting at Pea Ridge High School.
He is a graduate of Dyersburg, Tenn., High School.
He attended University of Arkansas, NWACC and Eastern Illinois University majoring in English, history and career and technology. He earned a masters of education from the U of A in 2009. He has been a teacher in Pea Ridge since 2004 and driven a bus since 2005. He is licensed as a Primary through eighth and seventh- through 12-building administrator.
“We’re really putting a great team together right now,” Neal said. “That’s exciting for me to be able to start with this.”
Neal said he received over 24 applications for the assistant principal position, with five people already on staff applying.
School, Pages 11 on 04/11/2012