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New principal will bring his tactics to Armwood

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published July 14, 2006

Marc Hutek has been principal at a school where FCAT grades have gone from great to excellent.

Now, his next challenge will be as the new principal at Armwood High School, where FCAT grades have hovered in the C and D range.

Hutek, whose appointment to the new post was approved this week by the School Board, said he was excited to be moving to Armwood, which is only 2 miles from his home in Seffner.

But he also expected to miss his close staff and student body at Walker Middle School, which he has led for the past two years.

"I certainly have mixed feelings because I'm leaving a school that has been phenomenal in every aspect," he said.

Hutek, 41, a native Floridian who graduated from Jefferson High School in Tampa, said he hoped to bring some of the same techniques to Armwood that he used at Walker.

"I've had the opportunity to experience what it's like when everything is jiving," he said. "A lot of it has to do with identifying the individual needs of the kids. That's how we made gains at Walker."

New teaching techniques, he said, can be subtly dropped into lesson plans across departments, including science classes.

At the same time, Hutek said he believed strongly in matching teachers' independent creativity with approaches proven effective through research.

"I'm not a micromanager," he said.

He plans to watch and learn most of the next year before implementing major changes, he said. He said he's outgoing and wants to involve parents in school activities.

Before Walker, Hutek was assistant principal for magnet curriculum at Middleton High School. Before that, he was assistant principal at Rogers Middle School. He started his employment with the school district in 1993 as a guidance counselor at Mann Middle School.

He obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in education at the University of South Florida and an education specialist classification at Nova Southeastern University.

Hutek replaces Maria Singfield, who has been appointed to a customer manager position with the district's human resources division.

Hutek lauds Armwood's athletic achievements - with two recent state football championships - but now he wants the classroom accomplishments to equal them.

"If I could get the academic performance up there with the sports performance, everyone would be looking at Armwood at how great it is," he said.

Other new principal appointments for east Hillsborough County include:

* Tommy Scott as principal at Shields Middle School. Scott is an assistant principal at Shields. Before that, he taught at Coleman Middle School and Adams Middle School, was an instructor at Hillsborough Community College and served in the Army for more than 20 years.

* Tim Ducker as principal for Mulrennan Middle School. Ducker is principal at Eisenhower Middle School. Before that he was an assistant principal at Buchanan Middle School and Tomlin Middle School. Before that he was a teacher at Eisenhower for about eight years.

* Richard Shields as principal at Yates Elementary School. He is an assistant principal at Yates. In the past he taught at Robinson Elementary School, Robles Elementary School and Ruskin Elementary School.

* Cleto D. "Sundy" Chazares as principal for South County Career Center, where he is assistant principal. Before that, he worked as school community specialist and assistant principal at Riverview High School, and alternative education teacher and migrant dropout prevention specialist at East Bay High School.

Saundra Amrhein can be reached at 661-2281 or amrhein@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 13, 2006, 12:57:29]