Trotter named middle school assistant principal

By: 
Ann Gill
Editor

Coal City Middle School students will see a new face when they arrive for classes in August.
Taryn Trotter is joining the middle school administrative team as the school's assistant principal. She replaces Tom Ruzinok who resigned his post to take a principal’s position outside the district.
Trotter comes to Coal City from District 60C where she served as assistant principal and mentor coordinator at Saratoga School in Morris. She joined the staff in 2002 as a fifth grade teacher and was appointed to the assistant position in 2012.
“She comes highly recommended,” said Unit 1 Superintendent Dr. Kent Bugg.
According to the superintendent the district received a number of applications.  Under the direction of building principal Travis Johnson a team of faculty and staff members went through the applications and interviewed the top three candidates. From those meetings Trotter was recommended to the Board of Education, which approved her employment at its meeting last week.
Trotter attended Coal City Schools, earned her bachelors degree from Carthage College and her masters in education leadership from the University of St. Francis.
“We are excited to have her join our administrative staff,” Bugg said.
Ruzinok finished up at CCMS last month and has since started in his new position as principal of Westfield Community School , a K-8 building within District 300 in Algonquin.
“We hated to lose him. I always view this as a testament to our school district when an assistant gets hired for a principal position, it says we’re doing something right. So we are happy for him,” Bugg said.
Trotter was granted a one-year contract with a salary of $68,000 plus board paid contributions to the Teachers Retirement System (TRS).