Jul. 13—Beth Blandford has been named the Foust Elementary School interim principal for the 2021-22 school year.
She is filling a vacancy created when Janie Moseley left the position earlier this to become the Owensboro Public Schools director of multi-tiered systems of support at the district central office. Blandford will begin in this new role immediately.
Most recently, Blandford served as the Foust assistant principal, a position she has held for three years. Before that, she was a kindergarten teacher and a reading intervention specialist at the school. She began her career with OPS as a preschool teacher at Hager Preschool.
Blandford has a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary early childhood education from the University of Kentucky. She also earned a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Brescia University, and a Rank I in administration from Western Kentucky University.
She said she is looking forward to the new challenge of being interim principal at Foust, and that Moseley "did an outstanding job leading this school for more than 15 years."
"We have challenges to overcome as we welcome students back full-time following the pandemic, and I'm looking forward to making that transition as smooth as possible while making sure we are working extremely hard to shore up our learning opportunities," she said.
As the interim principal, Blandford will be responsible for the overall administration of Foust. She also will be responsible for creating the school's yearly continuous improvement plan, and planning and implementing professional development for staff, according to OPS officials.
Matthew Constant, OPS superintendent, said with the upcoming school year drawing nearer, the Foust site-based decision-making council wanted to place an interim leader of the school to ensure students weren't facing another "major change" as they start the new school year, especially one that will be full-time, in-person.
There is no set timeline for the SBDM council to resume the principal search at this time, he said.
"Beth was the natural choice for serving as interim because she has been working directly with Ms. Moseley for several years; the students know her and she is familiar with the day-to-day operations of the building," Constant said. "This will be a seamless transition while the site-based council conducts a full principal search in the coming months."
Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315
Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315