BUTLER TWP — Carrie Morgan-Davis, the principal of McQuistion Elementary School, will make a “lateral move” to a new administrative position as the assistant director of instruction and professional development July 1.

The Butler Area School District school board approved her job change at a meeting Monday, June 12. Brian White, district superintendent, said the position is needed to update the curriculum in the district to better serve students whose education was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our curriculum wasn’t designed for kids coming off of COVID that aren’t successful in a traditional setting,” White said. “We have to redesign our curriculum to engage all learners so they want to come to school and be successful — we just don’t have the manpower on hand.”

Theresa Cherry, principal of Center Township Elementary, will move to McQuistion for the new school year to replace Morgan-Davis. Tanya Lewis, assistant principal at Center Elementary, will become principal of the school in Cherry’s place.

White spoke to the board about changing its meeting structure to improve communication between the school board and the community.

He suggested the board have one regular business meeting a month and use a second meeting to meet at the district’s different schools to speak with members of each individual school community. White commented that many of the district’s innovations over the years did not come about through an agenda vote, but through discussion with community stakeholders.

“The second meeting of each month … I coordinate with the building principals and we go to the site,” White said. “I think we can find more meaningful engagement with our full school community if we break away from our ‘U’ a little bit.”

White said the board may shift to a different meeting structure in the coming school year, but nothing is set in stone yet.