Glenwood, Maple Grove Elementary Schools Have New Principals

The transformation of the Greenfield School District administrative team continued Monday.

One month after Lisa Elliott was named the district’s new superintendent, Dana Croatt has been chosen to be Maple Grove Elementary School’s third principal in three years, and Steven Newcomer was named principal of Glenwood Elementary School.

Croatt will slide in for Melissa Yow, who took a position with another school district after her one year in Greenfield. Croatt has eight years of teaching experience and has been a principal for the last four years at schools in Arizona, including a K-8 school that she helped open in 2011.

As a teacher, Croatt, who received her doctorate in K-12 Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California, has served as a special education director, a pre-kindergarten to fifth grade resource and inclusion specialist, a kindergarten through eighth grade integration facilitator and a grades 9-12 resource teacher. 

Newcomer will replace Dan Carr, who is retiring June 30.

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Newcomer has no prior experience as a principal but has been a teacher for 17 years. He has been at Templeton Middle School in Sussex since 2001, where he currently teaches sixth-grade math and literacy and led professional development programs for educators and revised the math department’s common assessments to better meet student needs. He also introduced the school’s curriculum to new parents during orientations and piloted the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support programs, among many other accomplishments.

Prior to teaching in Sussex, Newcomer taught at an elementary school in Stevens Point. He also brings more than a decade of high school boys basketball coaching experience. He coached Stevens Point Pacelli to its first state tournament in more than 20 years and was the varsity assistant coach at Hamilton High School while he taught in Sussex.

The district received 77 applications for the principal positions and initially interviewed 12 candidates. The second round of interviews were conducted by a large team consisting of teachers and parents from both Maple Grove and Glenwood.