Wes Weaver officially named Vermilion school superintendent

VERMILION — The Vermilion Local School District has a new superintendent after the board unanimously chose Wes Weaver as its new leader Monday. Weaver, 56, has served as interim superintendent since October, when former Superintendent David Hile retired early for personal reasons. Hile recommended Weaver, who served as his assistant superintendent, as his replacement and the board agreed. Weaver, who also served as director of curriculum under Hile, came with Hile from Licking Valley Schools, about 45 miles east of Columbus. Weaver was an assistant principal, an English teacher and a girls basketball coach before Hile tapped him to be a principal, serving alongside Hile for 15 years. He is an Ohio National Air Guard veteran, having served in Operation Desert Storm. He has spent three decades in education, and his father was a principal, teacher and school board member. "He's a really good fit. He's very visible, always out there at events with students and staff and the community," said school Board President Mark Benson. "We're really lucky to have somebody of his caliber with the Vermilion Local Schools." The district didn't interview other candidates, he said. "We ultimately felt like we had the best candidate. He had already been doing the job, it was kind of an easy decision," Benson said, adding that the interim role served as a great job interview. "We're really excited for the future, to continue making Vermilion Schools a great place to be." Weaver, who's already faced one sizable challenge for the district in the fall when it asked voters for the second time in a year for a $47 million bond levy to finance much-needed and long-overdue renovations and upgrades, knows he's in for struggles. But he expressed excitement over his new job Tuesday. "It's very gratifying to understand that people can believe in what I can do," he said. "I don't take it lightly. I want to embrace the challenge and I'm looking forward to it. One of the reasons it feels so great to me is that it's not a transition. We're not going to make a left turn at any point. It's a continuation of the hard work towards a better quality of teaching and learning and a higher level of safety and security that our community deserves it to be. Making Vermilion into the kind of place our kids and our staff deserves it to be." Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.