Sullivan named new assistant principal at CCMS

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City High School business teacher Dana Sullivan has accepted the position of Charles City Middle School Associate Principal, the school district announced on Monday.

Sullivan was approved at Monday’s Charles City Board of Education meeting. She is the top pick out of 35 applicants for the position, and will be working alongside Charles City Middle School Principal Joe Taylor.

“I hope to build on previous and new relationships with the teachers, staff and students,” Sullivan said. “I am also excited to learn from Joe Taylor as a mentor.”

Sullivan said she hopes to learn from the students and staff who were there before her, and she wants to build those relationships and help staff continue to grow.

“They’re the experts; my goal is to use my own strengths to help them in any way I can,” Sullivan said. “I’m looking forward to taking some of my visionary ideas and helping implement them.”

The school board made Sullivan’s transfer official at the meeting Monday, voting unanimously as a part of the consent agenda to move her from the position of high school business teacher to the position of middle school associate principal, at a salary of $85,000, starting July 1.

She fills the position vacated by Thomas Harskamp, who was hired to become the executive director of student engagement and leadership for the Charles City School District in January.

Sullivan joined the Charles City School District in 2014 as a 7th-grade math teacher. She later became a high school math teacher and now is working in the high school business department.

Sullivan has also been a softball coach at Charles City for seven years, and said she will leave that position with some sadness.

“I have loved every minute of coaching, especially the relationships I have built with the girls,” she said. “They have been babysitters to my children and a huge part of my family.”

She was raised in a farming family in Fairbank and attended Wapsie Valley Community Schools. After high school, Sullivan attended the University of Northern Iowa while earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She received her teaching license through Buena Vista University and is currently attending the University of Northern Iowa to earn her master’s degree in education PK-12 principalship.

“We look forward to seeing Dana’s innovation, determination, open candor, and overall leadership in the years to come as a middle school administrator,” said Taylor, who congratulated Sullivan on her new role and commended her “grit.”

Sullivan is a mother of two, 9-year-old Brynlee and 7-year-old Sawyer, who both attend school in Charles City.