Veteran educator Jason Kupchella has been hired as the new assistant principal at Warren County's Briarwood Elementary School. A 1987 graduate of Warren Central High School, Kupchella has been in education since 1992. He taught and coached girls' basketball at Warren East Middle School from 1992 until 1997, then spent one year as a teacher and coach in North Carolina. Kupchella taught and coached at Bowling Green High School from 1998 through 2007, then spent the 2007-2008 school year as a math teacher at Greenwood High School.

Kupchella earned his bachelor's and master's degrees and his Rank I administrative certification at Western Kentucky University. He says he is looking forward to his new position at Briarwood, which is among Kentucky's top-performing schools on state and federal academic assessments. Briarwood recorded a non-adjusted accountability index of 107.0 on the 2007 Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) academic assessment, ranking among the top scores in the state. The goal for all Kentucky schools is to reach an accountability index of 100 by the year 2014.

"I'm excited about starting this new chapter of my career," Kupchella says. "Briarwood is doing very well academically. It's a great place to start out in administration. (Principal) Debbie Richey does an excellent job. I can't think of a better person to learn from."