Marion Harding High School Assistant Principal John Carder has been named Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators’ Assistant Principal of the Year.
Carder will now be the state’s nominee to the National Association of Secondary School Administrators’ Assistant Principal of the Year competition. He will be recognized by OASSA at an upcoming conference.
“I’m happy that I will be able to talk about our story, things that are happening in our district,” Carder said.
Nominees for the recognition must have at least three years of experience. They must be nominated then complete an application that includes an essay.
Harding Principal Kirk Koennecke, Assistant Principal Ryan Rismiller, math department chair Kim Lutz and Jodi Rife, a secretary at the school and community member, nominated Carder.
“I am very proud of John,” Koennecke said. “He has tackled a lot of crucial projects and showed us an interest in helping students and teachers to improve. He wants to work with students to have good experiences here.”
Among Carder’s duties are leading the guidance office team and working with GEAR UP at Harding. He represents the high school in discussions about Diploma Plus, an initiative to better prepare students for success after they graduate high school, and College Credit Plus, which enables students to receive college credit while still in high school.
He also takes the lead in developing a plan to implement Next Generation Learning Environments, a method of instruction that uses technology to support personalized learning, at Harding. He works with consultants from META Solutions to transform classrooms into NGLE classrooms.
“I cannot think of another assistant principal I have hired or collaborated who has had such an impact on one building in the manner John has impacted Harding,” Koennecke said in his recommendation letter. “He truly cares for people, for progress, and he is a model administrator.”
Carder attributed his success to his team at Harding.
“One of the things I strongly believe in is a place like this doesn’t operate unless you have strong team support,” he said. “I don’t think things like that happen without team support.”
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