Keith Hagene New Principal at PCHS
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the first time in 16 years, Keith Hagene is not spending his summer working construction. He is instead preparing for his position as Principal at Pinckneyville Community High School.
It's a little like coming home for the 1983 PCHS graduate, but he's quick to point out that it's not really a homecoming.
"I never left," he said. Hagene has taught at Nashville High School for the past 17 years and at Trico High School for three years before that. He has lived in Pinckneyville the entire time.
He and his wife, Diane, have three children who attend Pinckneyville Schools: Kaitlyn, 17, and 12-year-old twin boys Jacob and Zachary. Hagene has served as assistant basketball coach for the sixth grade team at PJHS and helped out with the fifth grade team.
With his recent election to a four-year term on the District 50 School Board and new job as Principal, Hagene will soon have experienced education from every possible angle: student, teacher, parent, administrator and board member.
"I'm not a nomad," he said. "If I hadn't gotten such a great opportunity at Nashville, I'd probably still be teaching at Trico."
Early in his career, Hagene had the opportunity to move to Nashville High School and build an Industrial Technology program. When he arrived there were five classes offered, each with 8 to 10 students. When he left, there were 131 students in the Industrial Tech program and he taught seven classes per day.
One of the things Hagene stressed in this Industrial Technology program is cross-curriculum teaching. Construction projects rely heavily on math and science, as well as accounting and word processing. A complete project in either metal or woodworking would involve drafting or design, machine processing, quality control, accounting and transportation.
Students were separated into smaller groups. Group members worked on different aspects of the project and coordinated their efforts.
"Writing memos and dealing with different types of learners gave the groups practical knowledge," Hagene said.
Becoming a school administrator is a natural progression. He hopes to work with the faculty and staff at PCHS to give the students the best education possible.
A significant amount of his time will be devoted to implementing the Response to Intervention program at the high school. The program was designed by Superintendent Jon Green. It will fall to Hagene to get the federally mandated program off the ground.
RTI uses frequent testing to determine which students have fallen behind and immediate intervention to bring them back up to speed. PCHS will focus on reading in the coming year.
Hagene earned an architecture degree from Rend Lake College, then a Bachelor of Science in Education from SEMO. He then received his Specialist in Education and Administration certificates at Eastern Illinois University.
While at Rend Lake, Hagene said it dawned on him that he did not want to draft or draw for 40 hours a week. Inspired by long-time Industrial Technology teacher Glen Hamilton, Hagene sought a teaching degree.
Growing up on a farm, he had a good idea of how things worked and appreciation for hard work. Industrial Technology was a good fit.
"Life is project based," Hagene said. "There's always something to do."