After the retirement of Associate Assistant Director Sue Kovacs, there have been many questions about who will be taking over her many responsibilities. Uni Director Jeff Walkington has sent out an email to students, parents and staff with the new distribution of her duties in order to clear up some of the confusion.

According to Walkington, after the announcement of Kovacs's retirement a faculty meeting was held to determine a list of her responsibilities that would now need to be covered by others. This list was sent out to students, parents and teachers for advice, and once it was finalized, the staff was asked to volunteer for these responsibilities. Walkington and the Executive Committee then looked at the list of volunteers and matched them with the compiled list of responsibilities in the most even distribution possible.

Although this division may be more complicated than having just one person covering the majority of the responsibilities, without a replacement for Kovacs, this was a necessary action in order for our school to run. Although the loss of Kovacs has taken its toll on the school, the new division of labor could open up new opportunities and bring in new ideas.

"As everyone knows, Ms. Kovacs did an awful lot around here. So it took 15 people to replace her at least partially," Walkington comments. "... I think what works the best for our situation is that we have all of these great minds who are now devoted to these various tasks. ... By dividing the jobs up, we have empowered an awful lot of teachers to do some important things for the school and contribute in some ways they haven't been able to."

This distribution of responsibilities is not a permanent solution though. Walkington hopes to have a more permanent solution by the fall.

"We've got to decide as a community what we need and then form a search committee and get the word out there what it is we're looking for. It could be all kinds of things... but I believe we [will] all have that conversation together," Walkington says. "... I think we will find there are some things we find we like about it but also some things we find we don't like about it, but we have to make some kinds of decisions about the future this spring."

Until then, though, when issues or needs come up that would have previously been handled by Kovacs, they will be handled according to the assignments that can be found in Walkington's email to the school, as well as below. If anything is unclear, Walkington says that counselor Karl Radnitzer is the person to go to. He is currently occupying Kovacs's old office on the 2nd floor, and if he is not the person for the situation he will direct you to the person who is.

Breakdown of responsibilities

Joel Beesley

• Scheduling Uni Period

Dave Bergandine

• Overseeing requests for student sabbaticals/leaves

Jenna Finch

• Helping with senior end-of-year activities

Suzanne Linder

• Monitoring academic probation

• Assuring the proper following of sexual harassment policies and procedures

Carol Lombardi

• Assuring the proper following of sexual harassment policies and procedures

Lynda Lopez

• Scheduling chaperones for special events

• Overseeing supervision and discipline

Elizabeth Majerus

• Addressing instances of plagiarism

Rebecca Murphy

• Overseeing Agora Days

Karl Radnitzer

• Overseeing supervision and discipline

• Signing student forms (i.e anticipated absence, independent, study)

Craig Russell

• Addressing students' questions about schedules

• Opening and closing the building

• Supervising

• Monitoring academic probation

• Developing the Student Handbook with SFAC and faculty

David Stone

• Directing admissions

Sally Walker

• Answering PE and athletic questions

Jeff Walkington

• Assuring the proper following of sexual harassment policies and procedures