Rufo, Bauer appointed to district posts
LANSDALE » Two new, but familiar, administrators are now on board for the North Penn School District.
The school board voted unanimously Thursday night to name Jenna Rufo, currently the district’s director of Special Education and Student Services, and Todd Bauer, current North Penn High School principal, to assistant superintendent posts.
“I’m really looking forward to working with them. I think they’re going to be a great team. So happy to have them on board,” said school board President Tina Stoll.
Last month the board approved the retirement of current assistant superintendent Diane Holben, who has held that position since 2010, in August to take up a new position in higher education.
“Dr. Holben has spent the last eight years at the academic helm of the school district. During that time, Diane has worked tirelessly to improve services and programs for our students, resulting in academic achievement for all,” said Superintendent Curt Dietrich.
According to Stoll and Dietrich, staff and the board felt two assistant superintendents were necessary due to several ongoing projects and initiatives, like an ongoing update of North Penn’s strategic plan and several planned building renovations.
Enter Rufo and Bauer, whose new three-year contracts were approved unanimously by the board, and who said they are both looking forward to working together to expand the scope of what had been just one job into two.
“One of the exciting things about having two people involved in this, is that we’re just going to get
so much more done for the district,” Rufo said.
Rufo has overseeing the district’s special education and student services since 2014, and joined the district in 2008 as assistant supervisor of special education, after eight prior years as a support teacher and special education planner at several schools in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, according to information provided by the district.
Her responsibilities will include professional development, school safety, mental health, strategic planning and cultural proficiency, and will work with other administrators to oversee special education, student services, curriculum, student discipline, and elementary program evaluation.
“We have a lot going on: we’re looking at implementing full day kindergarten,
along with other big initiatives, so I think it makes a lot of sense to have two people,” she said.
Bauer has led the high school since the fall of 2015 and had previously been an assistant principal at Central Bucks High School South, and previously a math teacher at Souderton Area High School and Indian Valley Middle School, after starting his career teaching math at Upper Moreland High School. His areas of responsibility will include assessments, accountability, review of school board policies, summer school, programs of study, redistricting if needed, and will work with other administrators on oversight of athletics, extra duty contracts, technology, student discipline, middle and high school program evaluation, and building renovations.
“On my list of things to do will be renovations. I’m not sure, typically, the assistant superintendent would’ve been involved in that, because it was only one person,” he said.
“I think the breadth and the depth of what we can do together, will be great,” Bauer said.
The district is currently seeking candidates to fill both positions that will be left open by those two when their new contracts take effect on July 15. A timeline for hiring for those two
positions is still being developed, according to Dietrich and Stoll, but Rufo and Bauer said they will be ready to hit the ground running.
“Todd and I are both very collaborative people, and we’re looking forward to getting a team together
and moving things forward,” Rufo said.
“I think we complement each other well, and I think that’s why the district went in that direction. I don’t think, if the two of us couldn’t work well together, that this would’ve happened,” Bauer said.