Kathryn Longenbaugh was approved as Whitko Senior High School principal during a special meeting of Whitko Community Schools Board of Trustees, Monday, July 28, 2025. She replaces Jodie Clark, who resigned. JD Maurer, former WJSHS assistant principal, is Whitko’s Junior High School principal.

Longenbaugh, who taught psychology, sociology and US history at Whitko High School from 1996 to 2014, was East Noble High School’s assistant principal for two years and ENHS’s principal from the fall of 2016 through the spring of 2025. She received a master’s degree from Ball State University in 2010 and a bachelor’s degree from Huntington University in 1995.

Longenbaugh said she is super excited to return to Whitko. 

“Those 18 years were the most amazing of my career and gave me the foundation, as a professional educator, to know what it means to be involved in my community and to love my community. Now I have the opportunity to come back and build on the right things. I look forward to the start of school, to meeting the students and the staff and to be a part of this team again,” she said.

Whitko’s superintendent Dr. Amy Korus said, “I welcome Mrs. Longenbaugh back to the Whitko family. I worked with her for a couple of years and I know her enthusiasm, her energy. I know we’re in for a fantastic ride with lots of passion and lots of fun. She will be great for our students and staff.”

Longenbaugh lives with her family in Columbia City.