Daily Reporter staff Reports
FORTVILLE — Heather Whitaker, principal at Mt. Comfort Elementary School, was nominated for 2015 District Principal of the Year.
Whitaker also was nominated to be a mentor for the Indiana Principal Leadership Institute.
The Principal of the Year program is offered by the Indiana Association of School Principals, which annually recognizes outstanding leaders in each of the 12 Indiana districts.
Criteria for the award include leadership in professional organizations, personal community involvement, leadership within the school, providing positive environment for students, sharing best practices at the district and state levels and more.
District winners will be notified in May. The state winner will be announced in the fall at a professional conference banquet.
Whitaker also was nominated to be a Leadership Institute mentor.
The group’s mission is to provide principals with the tools needed to increase their and their school’s leadership capacities.
The Leadership Institute was created by the Indiana General Assembly with the goal of strengthening education by focusing on how to make principals better school and community leaders.
Mentors, appointed by the program director, are a key component of the program.
Mentors maintain weekly contact with their understudy through a two-year period.
They also visit their understudy’s school at least twice per year.
