BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
FAIRFIELD -- John Pennell will leave his position as assistant principal at Fairfield Intermediate School to become district administrative assistant for business.
The Fairfield Board of Education on Thursday approved a two-year contract for Mr. Pennell, 37. He will be paid $64,975 annually, the same salary he now earns. Mr. Pennell begins Monday.
This position is a restructuring of the one held by former Assistant Superintendent Al Grote, who left to be principal at St. James School in White Oak.
"John has administrative experience with our district; he's bright; he's well-known in the community," said Superintendent Charles Wiedenmann. "I have full confidence he'll be able to do the job."
For the past year, Mr. Pennell worked at the newly created intermediate school. The year before that, he was assistant principal at South Elementary School.
"When I came into education in 1992, my goal was administration. That's what I did in the Air Force," he said.
For the next few weeks, Mr. Pennell said he will work closely with Mr. Grote to learn his new job. "My second goal is to achieve the goals they have set already - the track project, the bus compound."
From 1992-95, he worked as a sixth-grade science teacher in the Princeton Schools. Mr. Pennell then worked as assistant principal at Milford's Pleasant Hill Elementary School.
Mr. Pennell is a member of the Fairfield Planning Commission and the Fairfield Community Reinvestment Board. He is active in the Fairfield Optimist Soccer Association.
