New School Quality Manager Takes Charge in Mostviertel School Inspectorate

MOSTVIERTEL After the generational change in the school quality managers (SQM) in the school inspectorate of the Mostviertel, the team of department head Dietmar Nahringbauer in the school inspectorate is now complete again with effect from July 1st. Markus Mandic, director of the Pöchlarn middle school and deputy mayor of the town, will now take over the agenda for the Scheibbs district with the exception of Wieselburg and the southern part of the Melk district.

The 47-year-old from Pöchlarn had been active in the Pöchlarn Eco-Middle School for almost two decades, which he also headed for the past four years. “I leave my school with mixed feelings because I really enjoyed my job as headmaster. Nevertheless, I am now looking forward to the coming challenges in school supervision,” says Mandic. “I now see my task as being able to support the schools accordingly and to help with development processes.” In the future, Mandic will be responsible for 51 schools, 6,000 children and young people and 40 school administrations. As a mathematics and sports teacher, Mandic, who was also district sports officer in Melk, wants to focus particularly on the healthy development of children through exercise and sport. “Health is an important prerequisite for a child to be able to learn,” says the father of two children who are still in education.

The provisional successor in the eco-middle school in Pöchlarn is the 51-year-old Monika Winkler from Yspertal. “I taught at the Yspertal sports school for twelve years. In 2021 I completed the Master’s course in “School Management” and I’m looking forward to the new and challenging activities as headmistress and to working well with the new team at the Öko-Mittelschule Pöchlarn,” she says.

With the appointment of Markus Mandic as school quality manager, the school supervisory team in the Mostviertel is now complete. After the retirements of the school quality managers Wolfgang Schweiger, Michaela Stanglauer, Leopold Schauppenlehner and most recently in October 2022 the head of the educational region Josef Hörndler, new appointments have become necessary. The head of the Mostviertel educational region, which includes the districts of Amstetten, Melk, Scheibbs and Waidhofen, Dietmar Nahringbauer, now has Christoph Maurer, Christine Schmutz, Ruth Salamon and Markus Mandic on his school supervisory team. “After a very challenging time, I am very happy to have a complete team again. I am very pleased that there are now highly qualified and motivated school quality managers in the Lower Austrian Education Directorate’s branch office in Waidhofen,” says Nahringbauer. He himself has held this management position since October 2022.

Preparations for the 2023/24 school year are underway

“The planning for the coming school year has been going on for the past semester and has largely been completed,” says Nahringbauer. “A major challenge was and is to fill the retirees and other absences of teachers in the classes with high quality.” This could be ensured up to the last day of school mainly through transfers and new appointments, readjustments are still necessary in the holiday months. “From my point of view, it is gratifying that we do not have to do without offers for the pupils in any school or class. The quality at the individual school locations continues to be assured at the usual high level. In this context, the directors act extremely professionally, they focus on the pedagogical needs of each individual student. Any upcoming absences will then have to be filled at short notice,” says the head of the educational region.