Just weeks after selecting a new district superintendent, the Watonga School District Board of Education convened for a special meeting on Wednesday, April 21, to hire Todd Overstreet as the new Watonga High School principal
Ȯverstreet comes to Watonga from Kingfisher, where he held the same position.
Overstreet told the Watonga Republican he has been a school principal for 17 years, first in Laverne and then in Kingfisher for the last seven. He said his conversations with new Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran convinced him the Watonga job was a good fit.
“Just the excitement that he creates and the opportunity to come here, we’re just really excited about that,” Overstreet said. He called Watonga a “good school and a great community” that he wants to help make even better.
“My strength (as an educator) is, I love kids,” Overstreet continued. “I love being around them, and just the impact I can have on them in their life, now and in the future as they get out and get older, I still have those connections with them. I think that’s the strength I have.
“I think, academically, we’ll be putting the emphasis on that and how we can just move forward with what they’re currently doing and see what we can do to make things better, if we can.”
Overstreet said Watonga is already ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting new technologies into the classroom. “Even when I was at Kingfisher, we came over here to see how they were doing it,” he said. He plans to maintain the district’s technological strengths.
Overstreet and his wife, Shelly, have two grown sons in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and are about to become grandparents, he said. Shelly Overstreet works at a law firm.
“Really, we’re just excited for the opportunity to come here,” Overstreet said, “and see what we can do.”
During the brief meeting Wednesday, the board also hired Taylor Bailey as an elementary school teacher and Tyler Roberts as a teacher and coach. Last week Watonga also welcomed a new boys basketball coach, Brandon Gallagher, and his wife, Tiffani Gallagher, a new middle school counselor.
The new hires will start during the 2021-22 school year.