ONAWAY — Longtime Onaway resident and educator Mindy Horn has taken the reins as Onaway Area Community Schools superintendent after an appointment by the school district’s board of directors on April 20.

The board selected Horn from among four candidates.

Horn has served as interim superintendent for the district since November, when her predecessor, Rod Fullerton, took a position in another school district.

A product of Onaway schools and a fourth-generation Onaway High School alum, Horn taught in elementary and junior high school classrooms for nine years, seven of them in Onaway, before serving 13 years as elementary principal and special education director for the school district.

Coming years will present staffing challenges for the district, with a “tremendous” number of staff planning to retire in the next three to five years, Horn said.

The district has posted several teaching positions and is accepting applications for the elementary principal position Horn still holds alongside the superintendent role.

Among other goals for the district, Horn hopes to start a Career and Technical Education program at the district and has advertised for a CTE teacher.

With 574 preschool through high school students, the rural district “doesn’t have a lot of extras” and can’t boast of specialized programs or extracurriculars, Horn said.

Instead, she said, teachers have gotten very good at core programming, earning state and national awards for student achievement.

The transition from student to teacher to administrator has given the superintendent a bird’s-eye view of the changes of the past and the district’s direction in the future.

“To see how I can shape things,” Horn said, “to plan for the next 15, 20 years out — it’s pretty neat.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.