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Board Names Four New Administrators
The Kalamazoo Public Schools Board of Education named four new administrators on Thursday, May 20:
- James English, assistant superintendent of operations;
- Caycee Sledge, executive director of instructional and informational technology;
- Wessam Abdelaziz, coordinator of English as a Second Language (ESL) and world languages; and
- Andrew Muysenberg, assistant principal of Loy Norrix High School.
Two transfers were also approved at the May Board meetings:
- Kimberly Kirshman, district administrator for K-12 virtual learning; and
- Linda Mitchell, principal of Woods Lake Elementary: A Center for the Arts.
James English is the chief financial officer of Calvin University in Grand Rapids. Before assuming that position, he served for eight years as associate superintendent of business services in West Ottawa Public Schools in West Ottawa; director of finance and bond management at Holland Public Schools in Holland; assistant superintendent of finance and operations in Wayland Union Schools in Wayland; and business manager of Summerville Schools. He began his career in education as a junior high math teacher.
He has an MBA from Grand Valley State University and a bachelor or arts in elementary education from Hope College.
Caycee Sledge will take on the new role of executive director of instructional and informational technology. She has been the KPS coordinator of instructional technology for seven years, coordinating with technology services and facilities on the design and implementation of all KPS bond technology projects as well as managing the review and inventory of educational software. She designs and leads professional development for students, staff and community partners on technology integration and use. She worked for Chicago Public Schools for 10 years before joining KPS. Before moving into technology, she taught for four years.
She earned her bachelor of arts degree in computer science and math from Kalamazoo College and a master of arts degree in curriculum and instruction from National Louis University.
Wessam Abdelaziz is a doctoral graduate teaching assistant at Western Michigan University, responsible for teaching Arabic and serving as an outreach coordinator to promote Arabic at WMU, to train all new Arabic instructors and teaching assistants, and to develop syllabi for new Arabic courses. Prior to that he was a program coordinator at Kalamazoo College, where he was responsible for the coordination and teaching of Arabic.
He has a bachelor’s degree in teaching English as a foreign language and a master’s degree in linguistics from Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt, and a master’s degree in evaluation, measurement, and research from Western Michigan University. He is pursuing a terminal degree in the same area.
Andrew Muysenberg has worked in the Kalamazoo Public School District for nine years. He is currently a math teacher at Hillside Middle School where he serves on the School Improvement team, the Child Study team, and the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support team. Before that, he was a strategic math teacher with the KPS Alternative Learning Program. He has served as a middle/high school math coach in summer school and taught math in summer school for six years. He was the head freshman football coach at DeWitt High School for four years while attending college.
He earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from WMU and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a focus on math and physical education from Olivet College.