Four new principals highlight new year in Ames Community School District

Classes start Wednesday for most Ames Community School District students, with several buildings ready to roll out new administrators.

Early kindergarten through fifth grade will begin the new year while middle school through high school start Thursday.

Here are a few things to keep an eye on as families prepare for the 2023-24 academic year:

Numedahl takes over as Ames High School principal

Formerly the principal at Humboldt High School, Paul Numedahl assumes his new role at Ames High School. The district announced his hire in February.

Numedahl holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Iowa. He served as assistant principal of Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, Colorado prior to his principal role at Humboldt,

More: Ames High grads team up at Campustown shop for smoothies and sandwiches

Freilinger is Ames Middle School principal

The Ames School board also approved the hire of Boston Freilinger as middle school principal. He comes to Ames from Hoover High School in Des Moines, where he was the associate principal.

Freilinger holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Viterbo University.

Freilinger was also previously vice principal of Meredith Middle School in Des Moines.

Coronado is principal at Sawyer Elementary

Ames School District veteran Nicole Coronado, formerly an associate principal at Ames Middle School, is now the principal at Sawyer Elementary. The district announced her position change in April.

Coronado has served the Ames schools for 11 years. She was a fourth-grade teacher at Sawyer before stepping into her middle school role.

Coronado has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with endorsements in math and English as a second language from Iowa State University, a master’s in curriculum and instruction from Buena Vista University, and a master’s in educational leadership from Iowa State.

She is a two-time Dan Woodin award recipient both at Sawyer and AMS, while she was a 2021 YWCA Women of Achievement Award recipient.

Clayberg is principal at Meeker Elementary

Lisa Clayberg is the new principal at Meeker Elementary School, the school district announced in May.

Clayberg comes from the Dallas Center Grimes district, where she was the director of teaching and learning since 2019.

Clayberg was a teacher leader coordinator and instructional coach for the Ames school district before her work at DCG.

She received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Northern Iowa, a master’s in education from Viterbo University and a master’s in educational administration from Iowa State.

Performing Arts Center named after Hank Hansen

The newly constructed performing arts center and swimming pool at Ames High were named posthumously for two icons in the Ames school district on Aug. 12.

The Wayne “Hank” Hansen Performing Arts Center is dedicated to the longtime speech and English teacher who founded Ames High’s theater program.

The state-of-the-art auditorium will hold nearly 950 audience members.

Hansen died in 2020 at the age of 80.

He taught from 1971 to 2003, directing more than 300 plays and musicals.

Nearly 2,000 people petitioned Ames High in a campaign drive to name the facility after the former teacher, with more than 160 alumni and former faculty members voicing their support.

Megan Geha, a 1995 Ames graduate and teacher at East High School in Des Moines, was a main organizer in the group seeking to honor Hansen. She wrote that he offered “a safe place for the kids like me.”

“The misfits, the weirdos, the kids who were the square pegs to the round hole that is school. He accepted us as we were. Spoke to us like adults. Took the time to build relationships with us. He saw us when so many other teachers didn’t,” Geha said.

High school swimming pool’s name honors Dan Flannery

Ames High also held a ceremony to dedicate the Dan Flannery Pool, which can seat 485 spectators.

The beloved swimming coach led the Ames girls’ program to eight state championships. He also led the boys' program to a state title in 2018, securing nine titles across a nearly two-decade career.

Flannery died suddenly from a brain aneurysm in July 2020 at the age of 44.

Flannery graduated from Urbandale High School and swam at Iowa State from 1994-98. He took over as the Ames boys’ swimming coach upon graduating from ISU in 1998. He became the girls’ coach four years later in 2002.

A Change.org petition was also created to push Ames to name the pool in Flannery's honor, garnering more than 6,500 signatures. The Ames school board voted to name the new pool after Flannery at a meeting in June of 2022.

Ames head swimming coach Joe Fisher, an assistant under Flannery dating back to 2013, felt his former boss deserved plenty of recognition for his success and his ability to tap into quality relationships.

“Dan, in my humble and biased opinion, is one of the greatest swimming coaches in the history of the state,” Fisher said in a previous interview with the Ames Tribune. “It is not the countless Coach of the Year awards, the nine state titles he won, or the countless runner-up finishers and dual-meet wins. It was his connection with the kids. His love of teaching them and building them up. His passion for the sport of swimming and the kids he felt so lucky to coach was an incredible thing to see. I was so fortunate to be on deck watching a true master at work.”

Ronna Faaborg is a reporter for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rlawless@gannett.com. Ames Tribune editor Brandon Hurley and reporter Phillip Sitter contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: What to know as Ames students head back to school Wednesday