Started from scratch 20 years ago by a handful of school students and their instructor, the Purdy Recycling Center has evolved from a school project into a community-wide enterprise.
Gerry Wass, former Purdy Schools Spanish teacher and Spanish Club shepherd, has trouble getting his head around the recycling program’s 20-year milestone.
“In 2006, the school’s Spanish Club needed a project, something that would raise a little money for club expenses, while serving the community at the same time,” Wass said. “I didn’t know anything about recycling, but I knew that Purdy didn’t have a recycling center, so I thought it might be a program we could get started.”
After a little how-to research (which included consulting with the Monett Recycling Center), Wass and the members of the Spanish Club put out the word that the club would be accepting the community’s cast-offs. Trash soon began to trickle — then pour — into the club’s designated makeshift recycling area, where it was sorted by category (glass, paper, cardboard and metal) into large cardboard totes.
The operation was a bit primitive at first, Wass recalls.
“Marvin Kearney, with the road district, brought a pavement roller up to the parking lot to flatten the aluminum cans, then we shoveled them up and took them and will support teachers as needed,” Graham said. “It’s kind of sharing and compartmentalizing the load.”
Cornelius, who taught at the middle school level for several years, has been serving as assistant principal and athletic director. Graham said she will have an instructional focus on grades 5-8, plus provide behavior support for pre-kindergarten through high school.
Graham himself will serve as interim high school principal, in addition to his duties as superintendent, though those duties will change as well. Graham served as a middle school principal for five years before coming to Purdy in 2021, and hre plans to draw on his instructional background to provide the oversight needed next year.
Graham will have some of the supervisory duties he handled shifted to the newly created position of director of operations. That responsibility will go to Julie Keeler, who has served as transportation director. Keeler will continue to coordinate the buses, plus oversee custodial and grounds maintenance.
The restructuring will continue down to the lower grades. Julie Dalton, elementary principal, will add the seventh and eighth grades to her oversight, a strategic move since the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education tests both grades in the annual spring Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests. Dalton will continue as coordinator for the English language learners program and overseeing the federal programs for the district.
Jennie Hickinbotham, who has been an instructional member in the team that led the transition from the AmeriCorps program to the current Reading Success program, will become coordinator of early learning and intervention. She will oversee programs for the pre-kindergarten students along with curriculum and instruction for kindergarten through second grade.
“[Hickinbotham] will see teachers have the resources they need,” Graham said. “It all boils down to student success.”
In another change, Emily Kooi, who has been teaching business and serving as one of the on-site staff helping with the technology vendor the district has used, will become the new director of technology as the district takes on those duties and builds its in-house technology hub.
“My goal is to have a structure in place to build leaders from within,” Graham said. “We’re working on a committee structure to get teachers involved in areas like employee retention, parent involvement, climate and culture, increasing their involvement in the structure and school culture. We’re moving a lot of things to make sure the right people are in the right sets.
“The board had a lot of discussion. This is really forward thinking by the board to be mindful to create an organizational structure that does not change in two or three years, creating one that can be in place and stay for the long term. With an experienced person like Misty Hall, we want to show that as you invest in the Purdy culture, we will invest in you as well.”
Graham added he hopes Hall will be ready to take up the high school principal reins for the 2026-27 school year.
In other action, the board voted to extend Graham’s contract through the 2027-28 school year.
Homecoming was scheduled for Friday, Jan. 31.