More administrative moves within the Kenosha Unified School District are part of an overall plan to streamline and restructure, officials said.

The moves will save some money and put people where they can be most effective, said Joe Mangi, district superintendent.

The latest moves include moving Tim Miller, one of the executive directors of school leadership, out of the Educational Support Center and into Whittier Elementary School where he will be principal.

Sue Valeri, the former Grewenow Elementary School principal, was moved to the ESC where she is taking the new position of special education coordinator, created this year with stimulus money, though it is expected to become permanent.

Other moves include moving Terri Huck, formerly the coordinator of professional development to Mahone Middle School where he will be the assistant principal, and his former position will be assumed by other people in different departments.

In addition, Julie Housaman, formerly the intervention specialist for Title I, has taken over as Title I coordinator, but the positions will be combined.

Other positions are being rewritten and may be changed and presented to the School Board at the end of the month as part of the reorganization.

In 2007, Miller, along with other top administrators —Kathleen Barca, Edie Holcomb and Kurt Sinclair — were going to be moved into principal positions, which was unanimously approved by the board. As administrators, Barca and Miller oversaw half the principals in the district.

The board reversed course after Holcomb filed a lawsuit against the district, after e-mails surfaced that then superintendent Scott Pierce was against the moves.

Pam Stevens, the current School Board president who was the vice president at the time, said the board approved the moves after Pierce presented it as an option.

Holcomb has since retired and Sinclair moved to an administrative position in Illinois.

Mangi said Wednesday that none of the moves were demotions.

“The word ‘demotion’ is not in my vocabulary, and it’s not in the School Board vocabulary,” he said. “We are looking at our entire administrative team and everybody understands the kids and teachers come first, and everyone understands we have to pitch in for the good of our students. The reorganization puts our best people in place to maximize those strengths. This is a different administration and a different School Board (from 2007), and we’re a team. We have to look at closing our achievement gap and we need our best people to do that.”

Mangi said Miller previously did a great job as the Southport Elementary School principal, which influenced his decision, and Miller was happy with the position.

Miller told the Kenosha News that he was told there was concern on the School Board because of a potential conflict of interest because he supervised principals and his wife is a middle school principal.

He said he was initially offered the coordinator of professional development position, but asked to move to Whittier.

“I am pragmatic. That’s why I was requested to make a change, and I understand that logic,” he said. “It’s not negative. It’s a practical issue. I asked and wanted to go to Whittier and I am very excited. I love the school work. I loved being at Southport and being with kids. This was an opportunity to be with the kids and that very much excites me.”

Mangi said Valeri, who has a license in special education, was moved to the new position because she was successful at raising special education scores while she was the principal at Grewenow.

“We are hurting in (Annual Yearly Progress) for special needs students, and Sue has that expertise,” he said. “We need that expertise to help district-wide to improve professional development for all of our teachers.”

Valeri said special education programming has been historically understaffed, which is one reason it was hard to address those needs. She said she hopes to teach and implement the strategies she used at Grewenow.

“We were very big on an inclusive strategy and we worked very, very hard on that at Grewenow,” she said. “It’s got to be an entire staff philosophy, and everyone’s got to take ownership of these kids. It’s a lot of work. Nobody can hand off a child and say, ‘No, that’s not my student.’ It pays off when everybody takes ownership and works as a team to educate all of the students.”