Morristown Junior/Senior High School hired from within its new Assistant Principal and Athletic Director.

At a special Shelby Eastern Schools board meeting Wednesday, Dan Theobald (photo) was approved to move into an administrative role at the Shelby County school.

Theobald is a 2003 Morristown graduate.

“I’ve been in multiple sports for a long time and being back at Morristown the last two years has felt like home,” said Theobald. “I have really enjoyed my time there being able to reconnect to people I maybe haven’t seen in 15 years. I have people I went to school with that I have their kids in class. It’s been really fun to get back invested in the community.

“With my sports background and, I guess, maybe I’m middle-aged now, so it seemed like the right step as well for my career to move into a leadership role. I am excited to be able to work with all the kids in all the sports versus just focusing on the one or two sports I coach and the classes I teach.”

Theobald, a History teacher the last two schools years at Morristown, has served as a cross country and track and field coach. With his new roles, Theobald will give up coaching track and field but plans to remain the school’s cross country coach.

Theobald is replacing Collin McCartt, who accepted an administration position at Rushville High School.

“With Dan, he expressed an interest in administration and I’ve always been of the mindset that great teachers make great administrators,” said Shelby Eastern School Superintendent Dr. Todd Hitchcock. “When we have an opportunity to promote from within, we like to consider it. It doesn’t always work, but in this case we think it does.”

The longer hours associated with being an athletic director will come second nature for Theobald.

“I coached three sports last year so I was busy year round anyway,” said Theobald with a smile. “My kids are involved in half the sports or like to go to them because of their classmates (competing), so it’s a win-win for us.”

With Theobald’s hiring, Shelby Eastern now has its administrative team at Morristown and Waldron secured. Brad Peterson is the new Athletic Director and Assistant Principal at Waldron High School, replacing Alex Engelbert.

Andrew Shores is the new Principal at Morristown Junior/Senior High School, replacing Jeremy Powers, who accepted the principal position at Benjamin Rush Middle School in Rushville.

“This fills our last administrative vacancy,” said Hitchcock. “We have a few open positions. We have a couple teaching spots at Morristown. I think we are fully staffed at Waldron.”

In other board business Wednesday:

• Approved the hiring of Todd Weaver as the new Maintenance Technician for the Morristown schools. Weaver has been with the Southwestern school system for the last nine years.
• Approved the bid from Blake Thompson for a drainage project on Morristown’s baseball field. The winning bid came in at $14,100 and met the school’s timeline for project completion.
• Approved an increase to breakfast and lunch prices at Shelby Eastern Schools. Elementary school lunch price will increase by 20 cents to $2.90 per day. The cost will be $3 at both high schools. The breakfast price will rise 15 cents to $1.75. The cost only affects those students not on free or reduced lunch.

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