Chad Gray, who serves as Mt. Vernon’s school board president, has been hired as the new transportation director for the Greenfield-Central schools.
GREENFIELD — Greenfield-Central schools has hired a new transportation director as the current director prepares to step down and return to his roots as a mechanic.
The school board approved hiring the new director, Chad Gray, at its Dec. 11 board meeting.
The corporation’s business manager, Nate Day, said Gray will likely start work the week after Christmas.
Gray comes into the position with a wealth of experience, most recently as assistant director of transportation for the Warren Township schools.
Prior to that, he served three years as principal of Providence Junior/Senior High school at the Pendleton Juvenile Correction Facility and five years as principal at Knightstown Intermediate School. He also worked in various administrative roles for the Indianapolis Public Schools and has taught middle school and high school math.
The New Palestine High School graduate also serves as school board president for the Mt. Vernon schools, where his four children have attended.
Gray said he was drawn to the opportunity to manage the transportation department for a well-respected school system like Greenfield-Central.
“I really enjoy the logistics side of creating and maintaining the schedule and routing system so that we can efficiently get kids to and from school — that whole problem-solving nature of how to most effectively do that,” he said.
Gray replaces Todd Prazeau, who served as Greenfield-Central’s transportation director for the past nine years.
Prazeau first came to the school system as a mechanic, and recently expressed interest in stepping back from his director position to return to working on vehicles.
“He’s ready to take a step back and just be a mechanic again. It’s his passion,” said Day, who added that Prazeau’s decision came after Greenfield-Central spent nearly three years searching for a second mechanic.
Prior to serving as school system’s transpiration director, Prazeau served the system as a mechanic for many years before taking over as the transportation director for the Eastern Hancock schools.
Day said Prazeau did a great job as director, and he has no doubt Gray will do a great job as well.
“I think (Chad) comes with a real breadth of experience in not only the transportation world but in the school administration world,” Day said.
“He has experience as a school principal and as a teacher but has transitioned to the operations side of schools. He also has experience as an assistant director in transportation,” he said, adding that Gray can help improve upon “what’s already a great operation.”
