WATERLOO - Candidates for two district administrative positions in the Waterloo Community School District are being recommended for approval by the Board of Education at tonight's meeting.

Denise Schares, who has served as the Waterloo Schools' director of professional development since July 2005, is being recommended for the position of associate superintendent of educational and student services. She would succeed Patrick Clancy, who is leaving the district to run the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton. As associate superintendent, Schares will be responsible for curriculum and instruction; research and assessment; student services, professional development; special needs services, technology, Title 1 and early childhood.

Prior to joining the Waterloo Schools, Schares was the assistant director of educational services/school improvement consultant for the Area Education Agency 267 for six years. She held administrative positions in Vinton-Shellsburg, Hudson and Union Community School Districts for a total of five years. She also served as a consultant for the Iowa Department of Education's Bureau of Food and Nutrition and was a vocational home economics teacher in Waterloo and Vinton.

Schares holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction; endorsements in the superintendency and in elementary and secondary administration; and a Master of Arts in educational psychology, all from the University of Northern Iowa. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in vocational home economics education from Iowa State University.

Peg Dokken-Opat is being recommended for the position of director of professional development, the position currently held by Schares.

Since 1998, she has been the executive director of administrative and student support services in Salina, Kan., with responsibilities in principal coaching and supervision; policy development; management information systems; and the resolution of parent, student and school concerns. Prior to that position, she was an elementary school principal in Wichita, Kan., for nine years, and an elementary music teacher in Wichita and Junction City, Kan., for 10 years.

Dokken-Opat has also served as an adjunct professor at Wichita State, Webster University-McConnell AFB site and Baker University.

She earned a doctorate of education from Oklahoma State University in 1994. She also holds a Specialist in Education and Master of Education degree from Wichita State University and Bachelor of Science degree from Kansas State University.

Both positions are effective for the 2008-09 school year.