The Beaufort County Board of Education approved the selections of veteran educators to fill key staff positions, and a veteran law enforcement officer was selected to direct safety and security at district schools.
Alice Walton, who has served as the district’s director for certified staff and teacher quality for the past seven years, will take over as its new Chief Administrative and Human Resources Officer. Walton has already been serving in the position in place of Jackie Rosswurm, who served as acting superintendent during the recent search for a new district leader. Rosswurm retired last month.
Walton has worked in Beaufort County schools since 1991 as a middle school teacher, team leader, gifted and talented coordinator and district-level supervisor of teacher evaluation. As a teacher, she worked at Hilton Head Island and H.E. McCracken middle schools.
Bonnie Almond will focus on middle and high schools in her new role as the district’s Director of Secondary Academic Intervention. Almond is a 36-year veteran who has served in North Carolina schools as a teacher, assistant principal, elementary school principal and high school principal. In Beaufort County, she will focus on improving achievement in grades 6-12.
Mark Chauhan will become the district’s new Director of Network Operations-Technology, responsible for monitoring and supporting computer and communications systems. Chauhan, a systems support specialist for the school district for the past four years, had previously worked in private-sector technology-related jobs.
The district also announced that two additional positions had been filled. David Grissom, a 25-year law enforcement veteran who currently commands the investigations division of the Hobart Police Department in Hobart, Ind., was named as the school district’s new Protective Services Officer. In his new role, Grissom will supervise safety and security at the district’s schools.
Alvilda Graham will become an assistant principal at Hilton Head Island Middle School. Graham has 13 years of experience as a classroom teacher and administrator in Florence, S.C., and Durham, N.C.