Watson has been with the corporation for two years and said he is resigning for personal and family reasons.
Watson said he's proud of the completion of MCCSC's one-to-one initiative to get a mobile computing device into every student's hand and starting up a computer repair class in the high schools. But his biggest accomplishments can be found in the work that isn't as visible.
"We really thought about what we want kids to be able to do, and then adapted the technology to make sure we're supporting instruction in the classroom. It's been a great two years for me here," Watson said.
In his position, Watson oversaw a large-scale infrastructure upgrade in the school district that included revamping fiber connections, cabling and access points to increase the Internet speed in the schools.
Reworking MCCSC's databases, starting a new learning management system called Canvas and overhauling the phone systems were all behind-the-scenes upgrades that Watson said took a team effort.
Besides quicker connectivity for the district, the result was fewer glitches when it came time to take ISTEP in 2015. While there were problems with servers in Indianapolis, MCCSC kept running, and Watson said the IREAD-3 and ISTEP 2016 standardized tests have been going smoothly for the district so far, too.
"We were one of the few districts in the state who really did not have any local technology problems with testing. Our infrastructure held up when others were failing," he said. "We've built an infrastructure that will be good for kids and the community for years to come. We didn't want to just band-aid it," he said.
Watson doesn't have specific plans at this time for another position, and he said he announced his resignation now to help ease the transition for the district and avoid a lapse in the position's being filled.
"I've enjoyed my time here, really enjoyed the people and the kids, but it's just one of those things where I really have to think of my family," he said.
Fischman will be leaving MCCSC after having been in the district since she began student teaching at Bloomington High School North in 2001. She has been leading Binford as principal for three years and has been working as an administrator within MCCSC for eight years.
She said making the choice to resign was a difficult one but that she wants to focus on her dissertation and prioritize her family. Fischman is currently working on earning a doctorate in education leadership and policy and a master's degree in strategic management at Indiana University.
In her time within the school system, Fischman said, she was proud of the work she did in collaboration with teachers to implement positive behavioral supports for students at Binford, Highland Park Elementary School and Batchelor Middle School.
She also played a role in developing the new state-mandated teacher evaluation tool that the corporation has started this year.
"I was glad to see MCCSC move forward really carefully and deliberately with the new teacher evaluation plan. It's an important step we had to take because of the law, but I feel like we did a really careful and thorough job and made it as fair as we could for the teachers," she said.
With a sigh, Fischman says she'll just be another MCCSC parent after the end of the school year. She has two children in the district.
She said she is grateful to Superintendent Judy DeMuth for giving her so many opportunities, and there is still a chance that she might try to come back to MCCSC after finishing her doctoral work.
"I will miss the kids a lot. I love Binford kids and their parents," she said.
The board of trustees for MCCSC will meet at 6 tonight at the Administration Center, 315 E. North Drive. Go to www.mccsc.edu to view the full agenda.
(c)2016 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
