Please join us in congratulating Gretchen Hoag on her appointment as principal of Sherburne-Earlville Middle School!

Hoag started the 2023-2024 school year as Sherburne-Earlville High School’s assistant principal and was approved January 8 by our Board of Education to become SEMS principal starting today, January 29. She essentially has switched positions with Randy Smith, who began 2023-2024 as interim MS principal and will finish this school year as interim HS assistant principal.

“I’m excited to work with the middle school staff and students,” said Hoag, whose career in education includes 17 years as a teacher at DCMO BOCES and one year as S-E’s at-risk coordinator before her appointment as SEHS assistant principal.

“I think making school as engaging as possible is going to be my push,” she continued. “The thing that students value the most here is hands-on learning … so we need to keep teaching kids skills and how to apply those skills. And applying the skills could, in fact, be fun.”

Smith spent 18 years as a physical education teacher at Greene, eight years as an assistant principal at DCMO BOCES, and five years as building principal of DCMO’s Harrold Campus before retiring in July 2022. A month later, he joined S-E to serve as interim MS principal.

“I’m here to help out and do what I can for the district,” Smith said. “I’ve always treated the administration role as a team event. We have to do this together; otherwise, it doesn’t work.”