Plymouth Community School Corporation Superintendent Daniel Tyree announced his retirement Tuesday evening at the PCSC School Board meeting held at the school corporation’s administrative building.
Tyree said, “This is a bitter-sweet announcement,” at the conclusion of the meeting. His last day as Superintendent will be June 30, 2017, the end of the fiscal year.
During his 40 plus year career in education, Mr. Tyree has served Plymouth Community Schools for 38 years. He became the Superintendent in 2008; prior he was the assistant superintendent for three years from 2004 to 2007. Tyree was the assistant principal at Plymouth High School from 2000 to 2004, and a teacher at Plymouth High School from 1979 to 2000.
Tyree was born and raised in Tipp City, OH, just outside of Dayton. He attended Tippecanoe High School and graduated from Manchester College with a Bachelor of Science in English, Speech and Drama in 1976. After earning his degree, he had aspirations of teaching English and becoming a basketball coach. However, his first job, which was at Manchester High School, gave him the opportunity to change his passion from basketball to speech. He taught English and coached speech at Manchester HS, for one year. His second teaching position was a two-year stint at Knox High School coaching speech and teaching English. Tyree came to Plymouth HS in 1979 and taught English, speech, advanced speech, acting, stage crew, and broadcasting. He earned a Master of Science in Secondary Education from Indiana University South Bend and he earned his EdS in Educational Leadership from Ball State University.
Numerous awards and recognitions have been given to Tyree over his long educational career. Most notably include: being selected as the National Federation of Secondary Schools Regional Teacher of the Year; being named to the Indiana High School Forensic Association Hall of Fame; earning the distinction of a five diamond coaching award from the National Speech and Debate Association; being named to the National Speech and Debate Association Coaches Hall of Fame; and being named the Manchester College Alumni Teacher of the Year. He was also a Lilly Endowment winner and studied the history of his new home: Plymouth.
Tyree has taught, directed, and coached, thousands of students over his 40 plus years. His teaching legacy includes: creating both acting and stage crew classes and starting the PHS Children’s Show in 1979, where area elementary students came to PHS to see a live production put on by his acting and stage crew students, a tradition that still continues today; starting the PHS Speech and Debate Team and coaching the team to its first IHSFA State Championship in 1997; and starting the broadcasting program at PHS, which came to be the first Indiana high school TV station that was HD.
As superintendent, he has had the opportunity to expand his love of education by working with K-12 teachers and students, support staff, administrators, and the community. His administrative legacy includes the Project Based Learning initiative that not only brought about the Weidner School of Inquiry within PHS, but also a K-12 project based program that includes the Washington Discovery Academy. Plymouth Community School Corporation was the first corporation in the nation to provide a K-12 project based program and now serves as a model for schools not only across the country, but around the world. Mr. Tyree has also served on the Indiana Governor’s Council on Education that examined the graduation system and attempted to rewrite the coursework needed for an Indiana diploma.
Under Tyree’s leadership, Plymouth went through a rebranding process, establishing a new Mission Statement and Core Values. Other changes include an upgraded Career and Technology program, including a precision machining laboratory. He brought Chinese into the curriculum, hired a marketing director, and established a safety and security department. Science and math curriculum both saw changes that brought importance to those two areas. All students now carry a computer as an important education tool and students make up snow days by going through an eLearning day.
Tyree serves on the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, belonged to the Rotary, worked with Marshall County Educational Corporation and served as president of the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission.
In 1987, Tyree married his wife, Charlotte, who is currently an English, speech and theatre teacher, director, and speech coach at the high school. He likes to tell the story that he stole her from Wawasee High School where she was a teacher and speech coach. Their teams competed against each other every Saturday and when Charlotte’s students started beating Dan’s, he knew it was time to do something, so he married her and eventually got her to come to Plymouth to teach and coach. He has three grown children, Katie, Nancy, and Jonathan and four grandchildren; Owen, Duncan, Macson, and Benjamin, who range in age from 14 to just two weeks old.
Tyree, who will turn 64 in April, said he looks forward to spending more time with his family and fishing as often as possible. He will not completely retire. He hopes to work part-time with Wiers Trucking in Plymouth. Tyree also wants to stay involved in education and will be teaching a graduate class for Purdue to train incoming superintendents.
