After a nine-year career as Mount Vernon Superintendent and 28 years prior to that as a teacher and administrator, Dr. Tom Kopatich, along with his wife, Janice, have decided to make this their last year as educators.

Kopatich, a graduate of Castle High School, began his career at Castle Junior High in 1982, where he taught for five years. He arrived in Mount Vernon as a teacher in 1994, after a seven-year period at Gibson Southern.

In 2002, he became an administrator at the MSD of Mount Vernon, including Assistant Superintendent to Dr. Keith Spurgeon.