Two district teachers promoted to Thompson assistant principals
July 25, 2012
Oswego resident and current Long Beach Elementary School teacher Melissa Hinshaw has been tapped to fill one of two assistant principal positions at Thompson Junior High School in Oswego Community Unit School District 308 for the 2012-13 school year. Hinshaw was approved by the Board of Education at its July 23 meeting and was chosen from a slate of 165 applicants for the position.
“I am very excited and thankful for the opportunity to serve the Thompson School community,” Hinshaw said. “I look forward to working with the excellent staff and students at Thompson as well as the Oswego 308 Leadership Team."
Since 2008 Hinshaw has served District 308 as a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Long Beach. Also during that time, she served the District 308 students and community on a number of district-wide initiatives including diversity, school boundaries, writing assessment and Common Core State Standards. This year Hinshaw has also begun to use her experiences to help educate others outside of the district in gifted education as an instructor at Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development. Prior to her time in District 308, Hinshaw worked at High Touch-High Tech in Park Ridge as a hands-on-science instructor for kindergarten through sixth-grade students, as well as provided hands-on-science seminars for staff members in Minooka CCSD 201.
“Ms. Hinshaw has knowledge with the common core and instructional coaching,” said Superintendent Dr. Matthew Wendt. “With over 20 years of teaching and other educational experiences, including gifted education, I am excited Ms. Hinshaw will continue her career right here in District 308.”
Hinshaw attended Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina where she received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education. Her graduate work in gifted education was completed at Aurora University where she earned her master’s degree in educational leadership.
Hinshaw and her husband, Trent, have been District 308 residents for 15 years, living in Oswego with their two daughters, Carson age 13 and Ryan age 9 and their six-year old son, Grant.
“It is wonderful to see Ms. Hinshaw, who has taught fourth and fifth grade at Long Beach Elementary School for the past four years and served the district on the Boundary Advisory Committee, a Common Core Building Leader as well as a Diversity Committee member and Strand chairperson be promoted to be assistant principal at Thompson Junior High School,” Board President William Walsh noted.
Aaron Haber has been selected by the District 308 Board of Education from a slate of 165 applicants to fill out the 2012-13 building administrative team at Thompson Junior High School in Oswego. Haber will fill the assistant principal position at the school that was previously occupied by Shannon Lueders before she was selected in June to lead the school as its new principal.
“I am very excited to be starting the new school year as a Thompson Tiger,” Haber said. “I look forward to collaborating with the students, staff and parents in just a few short weeks. I am very proud to continue my career in District 308 and become part of the Thompson family.”
Haber is no stranger to District 308 as he has worked at Oswego East High School as a teacher since 2007. At OE he taught astronomy, biology, Earth science, Earth science honors and meteorology. Beyond teaching, Haber served the school as a faculty advisory council member and substitute co-department chairperson. Beyond the classroom, Haber was the assistant wrestling coach at OE since 2007. Prior to his time in District 308, Haber taught middle school science and honors classes at Hubert H. Humphrey Middle School in Bolingbrook from 2002-07, as well as served the school as a teacher mentor and climate committee member.
“Mr. Haber has demonstrated excellence in and out of the classroom at Oswego East High School,” said Superintendent Dr. Matthew Wendt. “His leadership as a departmental co-chair has positioned him well to lead as one of our junior high assistant principals.”
Haber received his bachelor’s degree in education with a focus on the biological and physical sciences from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. While earning his Master of Science degree in education from the University of St. Francis in Joliet, he served as an intern at Oswego East High School working as a dean, practicing with sophomore students for the Prairie State Achievement Exam and working on the school’s crisis management plan and earth science curriculum.
Haber is a seven-year resident of Oswego.
Board President William Walsh said, “Mr. Haber’s 10 years of science teaching experience, five years at Hubert H. Humphrey Middle School in Bolingbrook and five years at Oswego East High School, provides him with a unique viewpoint of what the students will need to be ready when they get to high school and their development process at the junior high school level.This experience is valuable to any junior high school and the students, teachers and staff at Thompson will benefit with Mr. Haber as one of their assistant principals.”