Skaggs

COLUMBUS — Dr. Walt Skaggs, superintendent of St. Clairsville-Richland City Schools, will begin his first year of a three-year term on the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors during the 2024/2025 school year. Skaggs has served as the Class AAA representative for the East District Athletic Board since 2008.

The OHSAA is the governing body of high school and junior high sports in Ohio. It is a voluntary, non-profit organization that governs 817 high schools and 747 middle schools, which includes approximately 400,000 student-athletes.

Skaggs is a 1987 graduate of Shadyside High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology from Muskingum College in 1991 and his master’s degree in education administration from the University of Dayton in 1992. He then completed additional coursework through Franciscan University to receive his superintendent’s license and completed his doctoral degree in education administration through Ohio University in the spring of 2016.

Upon graduation from Muskingum College, Skaggs accepted a graduate assistant position at Ohio Northern University, where he served as assistant coach for the sports of football, wrestling and softball and was the head strength and conditioning coach.

Skaggs began his teaching and coaching career in 1994 at Lima Senior High School, where he taught developmentally handicapped students, was a varsity football assistant (1996 Division I state champions) and the head coach for wrestling and tennis. In 1997, he moved back to Belmont County to serve as assistant principal and assistant football coach (defensive coordinator) at St. Clairsville High School. He became principal at the high school in 2000 and served in that capacity for eight years before becoming superintendent in June 2008. He held the dual duties of superintendent and high school principal from 2010-18.

Skaggs began serving on the East District Athletic Board in 2008 (president from 2013-15). He has previously served terms on the OHSAA Board of Directors during the 2009-10, 2015-16 and 2017-18 school years. He is also a member of the executive board of the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference (president 2013-15), the Buckeye Association of School Administrators and the Executive Board of the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools (CORAS). In addition, he was the co-founder of the Buckeye 8 Athletic League, where he served as president from 2003-08.

He resides in St. Clairsville with his wife of 32 years, Denise. They have two sons, Cole and Reese.