XHS Welcomes New Leadership Team for Fall
Posted on 05/24/2024
With the recommendation for a third new assistant principal at Xenia High School at the XCS Board of Education’s upcoming regular meeting on Monday, June 10, Xenia Community Schools will put the finishing touch on a new administrative team for the high school.
“It is not often that a school district is able to put together an almost entirely new team for an individual school, and I am excited by the opportunities this presents for us at Xenia High School,” said Dr. Gabriel Lofton, Superintendent. “The confluence of experience, energy, and new ideas that this team of experienced educators and administrators will bring to the high school will be invaluable for students and staff alike. This will be especially impactful as we enter a strategic planning process later this year that will set the tone and course of action at the high school for years to come.”
The administrative team will be led by incoming XHS Principal Todd Whalen, who was approved by the Board at the March meeting. He will be joined by new assistant principals: Jay Meno, Candice Patrick, and Matthew Bartley.
“I am excited to begin working with this administrative team and I look forward to connecting them with our current and incoming staff,” said Whalen. “The amount of talent, experience and dedication we will have in the building amongst these groups is tremendous and I know we will accomplish great things together."
MEET THE TEAM:
Principal Todd Whalen Principal Todd Whalen has an extensive background in education and school administration, and comes to the district most recently from Bellbrook High School, where he has served as Assistant Principal since August 2019. He also served as Interim Director of Special Education for that district in 2020-2021.
Prior to his time in Ohio, Whalen served in various teaching and leadership positions for districts in Waynesville, Missouri, as well as Charlotte, North Carolina and Salisbury, North Carolina. Over the past 18 years, he has been a teacher and coach, and has also held positions ranging from Dean of Students and Assistant Principal to Director of Student Services and Principal for three diverse districts in those areas.
Whalen holds a B.S. in AYA Education from the University of Dayton (2006), an M.A. in School Administration, Management and Executive Leadership from Gardner-Webb University (2011), and his Ed.S. in Educational Leadership-Superintendency from Arkansas State University (2019).
Perhaps most importantly, he is also a proud graduate of the Xenia High School Class of 2002, and is pleased to return to the district he grew up in.
Assistant Principal Jay Meno comes to the district from Sycamore Community Schools, where he served as principal for E.H. Greene Intermediate School from 2022 – 2024. Prior to that, he was the assistant principal in that same building (2017 – 2022), as well as holding that title at Middletown Middle School from 2014 – 2017. Prior to that time, he taught AP U.S. Government and Advanced U.S. History at Lebanon High School, where he also served as the Department Chair (1997 – 2014).
Meno has a Bs. Ed. in Secondary Education (1996) and a M. Ed. in Secondary Education for Curriculum and Instruction (2000) from Ohio University. His appointment as Assistant Principal was approved by the Board at the May 13 regular meeting.
Assistant Principal Candice Patrick has been an Intervention Specialist with Xenia Community Schools at Warner Middle School since 2016, and in Dayton Public Schools prior to that (2015 – 2016). She received her Bs. Ed. in Middle Childhood Education from Wright State University in 2014, and her M. Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Dayton in 2023.
Her appointment will be submitted to the Board of Education for approval at the upcoming June 10 regular meeting.
Assistant Principal Matt Bartley has been with Xenia Schools for more than 20 years, and served as an Intervention Specialist and multi-sport coach prior to becoming Dean of Students in 2023. His appointment as assistant principal was approved at the April 8 Board meeting.