Northville Board of Education names Jennifer Bugar Acting Program Supervisor for Cooke School Special Education Center Program

Currently serving as Assistant Program Supervisor for the Northville Public Schools’ special education center program at Cooke School, Jennifer Bugar was named Acting Program Supervisor for the 2013-14 school year by the Northville Board of Education at its Tuesday, October 8, 2013 meeting. The open supervisor position is the result of Cooke Program Supervisor Mary Meldrum’s recent move to a position with the Macomb County Intermediate School District.

 As Acting Cooke Program Supervisor, Bugar will oversee the day-to-day operation of the district’s special education center program — financed through the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency and staffed by Northville educators. The program serves severely cognitively and multiply impaired students from preschool through age 26 from school districts across western Wayne County. In addition, district leaders will appoint an Interim Administrator-Dean for the school, to serve through June 2014, to complete the leadership team at Cooke School for the remainder of the 2013-14 school year.

“The decision at this time to appoint an Acting Program Supervisor and Interim Administrator-Dean was reached following a thoughtful process of review and listening to input and feedback from Cooke staff, parents and families,” said Northville Superintendent Mary Kay Gallagher. “The selection of Jennifer Bugar as Acting Program Supervisor for this school year will provide continuity for students, staff and families, and at the same time enable district leaders to post the full-time program supervisor position in early 2014, at a time when the candidate pool for the following school year is likely to be the strongest.”

In addition to serving as Assistant Program Supervisor at Cooke School since August 2012, Bugar has 13 years of experience in special education including as a teacher consultant, resource room teacher and center program teacher. Throughout her career — including in her role for the past year as Assistant Program Supervisor at Cooke — Bugar has taken on numerous leadership and administrative responsibilities, including training and supervising staff for a program for moderately cognitively impaired and emotionally impaired students; providing building-level professional development; evaluating students for special education eligibility and child study assessments; and serving as a mentor and trainer for new special education staff.

Bugar has a Bachelor of Science in Special Education — Emotionally Impaired and a Master of Special Education — Learning Disabilities from Eastern Michigan University (EMU). She recently completed her Specialist in Arts, Special Education Administration and Supervision degree at EMU. Bugar also is a 1989 graduate of Northville High School.

 “Cooke is a tremendous school with a dedicated staff, a supportive parent community and outstanding students,” Gallagher said. “We look forward to this opportunity for Jennifer to broaden the impact of her leadership, and to continue to serve Cooke students, staff and families.”

 Details regarding the time line and process for posting, interviewing and selecting the new Cooke School Program Supervisor will be available via LISTSERV and on the district website at http://www.northvilleschools.org/ beginning in early 2014.