Members of the Dexter Board of Education accepted the retirement notification of another high school instructor at Tuesday night's March meeting, adding to a growing list of retirees and resignations district-wide.
High School Instructor Katrina Strobel-Kluesner, who has taught science and chemistry for 25 years, submitted her intent to retire this week. She has accepted a position to serve as building principal at Guardian Angel Catholic School in Oran in the fall. Kluesner's notification brings the current list of retirees for the 2013-14 school year within the district to 13. In addition, the board has accepted the resignations of eight certified personnel, two of whom have already left the district.
Other business in executive session of the board Tuesday included the hiring of Crystal Earnheart as a first grade teacher. The need to hire an additional first grade instructor came with the unusually large classroom size of the current kindergarten class that will be moving up next year.
The board also officially secured Felicia Powers and Alana Dowdy, both already teaching in the district, as K-5 and Grades 6-12 curriculum and instruction administrators, respectively.
Additionally, Taryn Yeager was hired to teach math at the middle school level, and Jordan Boyer, currently an aide at Southwest Elementary, will be a Title I employee in the coming year. The assignment itself will be determined as other Title I staff are assigned to assume some of the duties previously being performed by Felicia Powers, who was assigned an administrative post earlier this year. Also hired at the elementary level was Whitney Hyten, who will teach kindergarten.
Veteran elementary teacher Debbie Thrower, who had worked in the I program, will resume her duties there in the coming year. Thrower has taught kindergarten this year, a position she returned to when enrollment numbers in August dictated the need for an additional kindergarten class.
Jennifer Peden was also hired in a special education position, yet to be determined, pending transfer requests under consideration. Her position, according to Supt. Dr. Thomas Sharp, will primarily involve work at the high school level.
The board also secured Brice Beck, who will be working as the high school PE/Weightlifting teacher as previously performed by Aaron Pixley.
Drew Pixley was approved by the board to voluntarily serve as a boys' baseball coach.
The board also approved a transfer request for Jessica Dement to the middle school and approved of the resignation of Laura Stone as varsity cheerleader co-sponsor.
Finally, the board approved the hiring of Corey Mouser as assistant superintendent. Mouser, who is also high school principal, stepped up recently to fill an interim assistant superintendent role upon the departure of Dr. Roger Alsup.
Resignations and hiring were not the only order of business for the board during their regular monthly meeting. During the regular session of the board, with about two dozen staff members present, the board approved T.S. Hill Middle School Assistant Principal Angie Duncan to coordinate and oversee the 2013 summer school program. The program has been headed up by Corey Mouser for the past several years. Mouser's new position as assistant superintendent will not allow him time to also assume summer school responsibilities.
Board members voted to approve a five-cent raise in lunch costs across the district for next year. The current cost of lunch in kindergarten through grade five is $1.60. That will rise to $1.65 . The current price of lunch for students in sixth through twelfth grades will be going from $1.70 to $1.75.
Crown Gym Mats, Inc., a company out of Barrington, Ill., was secured Tuesday night to refurbish the high school wrestling mats at a cost of $4,520. The process, said Mouser, was considerably less expensive than purchasing new mats.
A request was made to the board to hold the 2013 Project Prom activities in the Bearcat Event Center. That option was mulled over board members, and it was agreed the BEC would be a good fit for the annual affair.
Shelton Business Machines out of Malden presented the low bid to accommodate the district's current technology equipment needs. With a bid of $79,516, board members voted to secure Shelton for the purchases.
"This is part of the district's ongoing technology plan that was recently outlined for the board," Sharp said.
Another $6,900 was allowed to the Netchemia company for the purchase of performance evaluation software. Corey Mouser outlined the advantages of using the software which will make the evaluation process run much more smoothly and will enable the teaching and administrative staff to work interactively to complete the process.
The board agreed to meet in special session in the coming days for the purpose of hiring staff members. The next regular meeting of the board will take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16.