Gabe Costa works with students during a two-week “forensic crime scene” camp at the Spanish Immersion School last summer. The project integrated mathematics and language arts study as students solved fictional crimes.
A veteran teacher at the Spanish Immersion School will be its next principal.
Gabe Costa’s appointment was approved unanimously by the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education during a special meeting Wednesday evening.
“I am elated and excited,” Costa said. “I love my school and I love this district. I look forward to building on the success of our school and working with our parents who are a big part of that success.”
Costa succeeds the retiring Jody Nash, the only principal the school has had since its inception in 2008. Enrollment on June 3 was 151 in kindergarten through sixth grade.
Costa, whose appointment is effective Aug. 1, is a native of Seven Hills near Cleveland. He earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and his master’s in primary education from Kent State University.
He taught in Mexico for a few years. Then for seven years before coming to Mansfield he taught English immersion to new Spanish-speaking arrivals in Houston – the reverse of his work here.
Costa was the MCS Teacher of the Year in 2013.
I n other action, the board unanimously approved a three-year agreement with City Mills Technology at $485,000 annually. In his recommendation to the board, Superintendent Brian Garverick said, “City Mills will provide six technology support personnel to provide integration, professional development and other related services for both computer hardware and software application throughout the district.”
City Mills president Dave Rose told the board he was successful recently in recovering $239,000 from the Ohio Department of Education’s E-Rate Technical Assistance Program. Rose said the district was eligible for the money in Fiscal Year 2012 but required paperwork was not filed correctly. He said he submitted a request for an extension with ODE and forwarded the paperwork, adding that he district should receive the money within three months.
Rose also told the board City Mills will undertake a major upgrade of the communications system in the district’s transportation department this summer. All buses will have new digital radios and GPS locators, while the bus garage office will have a new computerized radio system. Rose called the project “a significant safety improvement.”
The board will meet in special session at 8 a.m. on June 30 for routine end-of-the-fiscal-year matters. The next regular meeting will be at 5 p.m. on July 21. Both meetings will be at the Raemelton administration building.