Vantage director new Wayne Trace supt.

Van Wert independent news

HAVILAND — A game of administrative musical chairs continues in the area with the hiring of Vantage Career Center High School/Facilities Director Ben Winans as superintendent of Wayne Trace Local School District.

Winans, who was approved as superintendent during a special meeting of the Wayne Trace Local Board of Education on Monday, will replace current Superintendent Stephen Arnold, who announced his resignation in April to take a shared superintendent’s position created for a collaboration between the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center and Allen County ESC.

Arnold will leave Wayne Trace on August 1 to become Allen County ESC superintendent following the retirement of Dr. Dean Wittwer. He will then become WBESC superintendent in 2017 when Brian Gerber retires.

Winans, a 1997 Wayne Trace graduate who still lives in the school district, will become Wayne Trace superintendent on August 1. Winans’ three children also attend school at Wayne Trace’s Payne Elementary School.

The Vantage director, who has spent more than 12 years in education, 10 of those at Vantage as a teacher and administrator, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Bowling Green State University, as well as principal and superintendent’s licenses earned at the University of Dayton.

Vantage will now need to find a replacement for Winans, who was hired as Vantage high school/facilities director in January 2014 to replace Bob Vennekotter. Vennekotter spent 14 years in that position prior to his retirement in December 2013.