Nancy Welch, who has served as superintendent of schools of Mathews County Public Schools for the past eight years, announced she’ll be retiring from that post effective Sept. 1.
She handed in her “notice of separation” at the conclusion of Tuesday’s school board meeting, which was held in the Mathews High School media center.
The process to find a replacement begins next week; the school board will take up the matter on Tuesday following its public hearing and work session on the 2023-2024 budget. The hearing will be held at 4 o’clock in the MHS media center, with the other meetings to follow immediately after.
Welch’s career in education includes a 27-year span with Mathews County Schools. She began with the school division as a classroom teacher at Lee-Jackson Elementary, where she taught kindergarten, third and fourth grades for the first nine years.
As a teacher, Welch helped develop the division’s new teacher-mentor program. In 2005, she was named the elementary school’s Teacher of the Year.
Since then, she served in a number of different roles, including the division’s director of testing, professional development coordinator, instructional technology resource teacher, and education information management system administrator. In 2009, she was named assistant superintendent, replacing Donna Power who had accepted a position as superintendent of schools for the Town of Colonial Beach.
On July 1, 2015, Welsh began her role as the division’s top administrator following an in-house search for a replacement after the retirement of Dr. David J. Holleran.
A graduate of Longwood College (now University) with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, Welch earned an Educational Specialist degree from the George Washington University in educational leadership and administration in 2006. Welch lives at North with her husband, Todd.
Also following Tuesday’s closed meeting, the school board accepted the resignation of MHS teacher Stacie Martone and bus driver Alfred Stuart, approved the retirement of Mathews Elementary teacher assistant Cynthia Hayes and appointed Heather McDevitt to be the MHS forensics coach.