Ashley Gustin has been named the principal of Mt. Vernon Intermediate School

Ms. Ashley Gustin has been selected as the new principal of Mt. Vernon Intermediate School. Ms. Gustin comes to Mt. Vernon from South Madison Community Schools as an assistant principal at Pendleton Heights Middle School. In addition to her depth of qualifications and leadership skills, she also has experience opening an intermediate school with 1,100 students at Anderson Community Schools.

During the 2024-2025 school year, Ms. Gustin will focus on building the programming and operations with a full staff prior to the school’s opening in the fall of 2025. She will be meeting and collaborating with the fifth and sixth-grade teachers throughout the school year so there is familiarity when the intermediate school opens. 

Ms. Gustin has served as the assistant principal in South Madison Community Schools for three years. Preceding that position, she was the principal at the Anderson Intermediate School where she collaborated and built capacity in staff while establishing processes, systems and structure for a safe and efficient learning environment. She developed leadership teams for curriculum mapping, common assessment revision and data collection, along with evaluating special education systems and implementing tiered support.

Superintendent Dr. Parker shared, “Ashley’s experience opening an intermediate school will be instrumental in setting up the operations, programming and staff for our new school. She possesses a strong skill set as a building leader and her experience leading Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) makes her the right fit for this position. She is a proven and data-driven instructional leader who will continue our district’s mission to support all fifth and sixth-grade students to learn at high levels.”

Ms. Gustin shares, “It is a great honor to lead and serve the staff, students and families of Mt. Vernon Intermediate. I hope to create positive relationships with all stakeholders. Through positive relationships, I promise to sustain a school culture and climate that supports students, parents, teachers and staff. Not only do I hope to have a positive impact on the school itself, but the community as a whole.”

Ms. Gustin earned her master of arts in education in 2016 and her bachelor of science in elementary education in 2005, both from Ball State University. Ms. Gustin also continued her education by completing two years of the Indiana New Administrators Institute from 2020-2022. She began her career as a fifth-grade teacher, as well as teaching fifth and sixth-grade high-ability students and second grade.

As part of MVCSC’s Future Growth Plan, a new Fortville Elementary School is being built across the street from the current Fortville Elementary School. The current Fortville Elementary building was previously an intermediate school for fifth and sixth grade. In the summer of 2025, the Mt. Vernon Intermediate School will open housing fifth-grade students from the elementary schools, and the sixth-grade students from the middle school. The brand new Fortville Elementary School in 2025 will open and house kindergarten through grade four students. MVCSC is grateful to our Community Champions and the Board of Trustees for their support with this expansion.