Cindy Appleby will be the guest of honor at a celebration and reception honoring her as the retiring principal of Whitesville Elementary School. A school-wide celebration is scheduled at 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, at WES and is open to the Whitesville family and community. Friends, family and current and former co-workers are also invited to attend a reception with light refreshments at 3 p.m. May 17 in the school cafeteria. Whitesville Elementary School is located at 9656 Kentucky 54 in Whitesville.
Cindy Appleby is retiring after 26 years of service to students, staff and families of Daviess County Public Schools. She began her education career as a third-grade teacher at Burns Elementary School in 1990. She transferred to Audubon Elementary School in 1992, where she taught grades 2 and 3 for three years and grades 3 and 4 for nine years before moving to the DCPS Central Office as elementary curriculum specialist in 2001. She was named principal of Whitesville Elementary School in 2003, where she has touched many lives over the past 14 years.
During her career, Appleby has served as extended school services coordinator, writing cluster leader, certified evaluation committee representative, and a member of the district safety committee. Some of her proudest moments have included the day President Bill Clinton visited Audubon in 2000 and accepting National Title I School honors on behalf of AES in 1999. Under her leadership, Whitesville Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2007. Appleby was honored as Campbellsville University Teacher of the Year in 1998 and received the Golden Apple Award from Ashland Oil in 2000.
Appleby’s legacy of leadership has included implementing Professional Learning Communities and The Leader in Me program, which led to WES being named a Lighthouse School in 2016.
WES instructional coach Tricia Murphy, who will assume leadership of WES as principal beginning July 1, said her mentor’s influence will continue to be felt. “Throughout her career, Mrs. Appleby has given so much love to her students, staff and families she has worked with each day,” Murphy said. “She has demonstrated exceptional dedication to professional learning, specifically in the areas of writing and building solid professional learning communities to differentiate instruction through evidence-based data analysis. She played a huge role in advocating for The Leader in Me to build a solid foundation of leadership life skills in our students. Mrs. Appleby also led the way to bring rigorous curriculum to Whitesville Elementary School with the implementation of Wit & Wisdom and Eureka Math.”
Cindy Appleby and her husband David have two children, Sara Appleby and Ginny (Manuel) Ball; and four grandchildren: Will, Jack, Brooklyn and Breckley.
