Woodbury AD Schultz headed to Cottage Grove Middle School as assistant principal

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Two years after taking over the activities director position at Woodbury High School from John Soma, Jason Schultz is moving on.

Schultz, activities director for two years at Woodbury, has been hired as an assistant principal at Cottage Grove Middle School.

"I'm grateful for the opportunity I had at Woodbury," Schultz, 38, said. "It was an excellent opportunity. Woodbury High School has a lot to be proud of."

Schultz said he has had aspirations to be a principal since he earned his administrator's license. He said he let Woodbury principal Linda Plante know his feelings when he applied for the activities director position.

"One of my goals was to someday move from an A.D. position to an assistant principal position," Schultz said. "I wasn't looking, but when the internal positions came up in the district I thought I'd go for it now."

Prior to the time in south Washington County, he was the director of athletics and activities for the Chippewa Falls, Wis., School District. He has also been in administration in Elk River at a grade 6-12 building. Schultz, who lives in Mahtomedi, holds a bachelor of science from University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master's from Louisiana State University and an Ed.S. from St. Thomas in educational administration.

Schultz said his change in jobs doesn't necessarily end his role in activities and athletics for good, because the types of jobs in education are "intertwined," but he will now be more focused on academics than athletics.

"I definitely think I could see myself in a principal position someday at the middle school or high school level," Schultz said. "But, right now my aspirations are to be the best A.P. at Cottage Grove middle that I can."

The district has posted the Woodbury High School activities director position and said it will have someone in place for the start of the school year. In the meantime, however, Schultz will continue his role as Woodbury activities director while beginning his assistant principal job.

"I don't want to leave anybody hanging," Schultz said. "That's not how I do things. I made commitments to the people I hired and don't want to let them down. They've done a good job, so I want to make sure they're supported as we get moving and make sure whoever they hire has a good footing and foundation to get going, too. I'll do anything I can to make sure what we started building is successful."

Tags: high schools, updates, sports, education