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Published: 6/23/2012 | Updated: 5/18/2013
By RODNEY HART
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
It won't be easy for Kelle Bunch to leave as principal of Madison School in Quincy. But the opportunity to be a superintendent in Liberty was too good to pass up. Bunch was named superintendent Wednesday by the Liberty School Board and starts her new duties next month. "My father, who passed away several years ago, always told me to move forward and to not look back," says Bunch, who was principal at Madison for seven years. "It's not that you don't learn from past experiences, but you don't dwell on them and you move forward, and you work on new goals." Bunch, 47, is married to Jeff Bunch and has three children, one in college and two others in Quincy Public Schools. She was a math teacher at Quincy High School for 10 years and principal at St. Boniface in Quincy for seven years before taking the Madison job. "I'm very excited, nervous and a little scared," Kelle Bunch says of the new job. "It's really sad because I love where I am at with Madison. It's a wonderful staff with great families and kids, and that's the piece of it that is bittersweet ... You develop friendships with everyone, and staff becomes like family, and it's hard to say goodbye to family." Bunch replaces Matt Runge, who left to become superintendent in Warsaw. Runge was superintendent in Liberty for four years. Bunch was selected from a field of three finalists. Bunch says she is impressed with the Liberty schools, and said new technology for teachers and in the classrooms is a positive sign in her new district. "Everybody I've met so far has been lovely and making me feel like it's going to be OK," she said. "They are very supportive and nice, and that's what you need. It's a huge learning curve, and it's nice to be able to rely on folks that are knowledgeable." Interim Quincy Public Schools Superintendent Bud Martin says the Madison principal job will be posted, applications screened and finalists picked for interviews. A new principal should be picked before the school year begins in August. "She will do fine," Martin said of Bunch. "It's like any other job, you learn more on the first day than anything that you do to prepare for it. We wish her well, and we are confident she will do a good job." Bunch's contract with Madison is up at the end of June, but she plans to work on a few initiatives to get ready for her successor. "I'm just a phone call away to help," she said. "I want to get everything done so all the new person has to do is walk in and enjoy being a part of Madison." -- rhart@whig.com/221-3370
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