USD 333 Concordia Board of Education Makes Several Personnel Moves
The USD 333 Concordia Board of Education acted on several personnel matters during its regular meeting on Monday, March 18th.
The personnel decisions included:
Retirements
David Gieber, Personal Finance/Business Teacher at Concordia Junior/Senior High School; date to be announced
Resignations
Bailey Echer, School Counselor at Concordia Junior/Senior High School
Alyssa Breen, 4th Grade Teacher at Concordia Elementary School
Anna Kastrup, Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Coordinator/Teacher at Concordia Elementary School
Beth Gross, Title 1 Reading Teacher at Concordia Elementary School
Bailey Garlow, Title 1 Paraeducator at Concordia Elementary School
Kim Kindscher, Early Childhood Educator at Concordia Elementary School
Brandi Duskie, Learning Cooperative of North Central Kansas School Psychologist
Rio Brown, Head High School Volleyball Coach
Ashley Carlgren, Assistant High School Volleyball Coach
Sofia Gallup, Assistant High School Volleyball Coach
Dan Hyman, Assistant High School Football Coach
Dallas Cox, Assistant High School Basketball Coach
McElle Foster, Paraeducator at Concordia Elementary School
Shaina Wright, Substitute Teacher/Paraeducator
Phillip Brown, Substitute Teacher/Paraeducator
New Hires
David Strait, 7th-8th Grade Teacher at Concordia Junior/Senior High School & Assistant High School Football Coach
Elizabeth Bott, 5th Grade Math and Science Teacher at Concordia Middle School
Steve Nelson, Assistant High School Boys Golf Coach
Maria LeDuc, Assistant High School Spirit Squad Coach
Mariah Widen, Assistant Junior High Track Coach
Lisa Moore, Concordia Elementary School Library Paraeducator/Substitute
Bailey Blackwood, Summer Concordia Afterschool Program (CAP) Teacher
Transfers
Josh Brown, transferred from 4th Grade Teacher to Concordia Junior/Senior High School Counselor, replacing Bailey Echer
Bethany Richard, transferred from 5th Grade Teacher to 4th Grade Teacher at Concordia Elementary School, replacing Alyssa Breen
Hannah Koester, transferred from 2nd Grade Teacher to MTSS Coordinator/Teacher at Concordia Elementary School, replacing Anna Kastrup
Michaela Wetter, transferred from Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Itinerant to Early Childhood Educator at Concordia Elementary School, replacing Kim Kindscher
Carla Crutcher, transferred from Intern School Psychologist/Instructional Coach to Full-Time School Psychologist, a new position
Brad Wildeman, transferred from Assistant High School Football Coach to Head High School Football Coach
The board also approved the hire of Jenny Joonas as an Early Childhood Teacher at Washington County, Torie Baxa as an Interrelated Teacher at Belleville East Elementary, Cassidy Stenson as an Interrelated Teacher at Clifton-Clyde Middle School, and Christina Lesslie as an Interrelated Teacher at Republic County Junior/Senior High School.
Bailey Blackwood was transferred from an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Itinerant to an Early Childhood Educator at Pike Valley.
The personnel decisions came after the school board held three Executive Sessions for Non-Elected Personnel. The board met in two sessions, totaling 25 minutes in length, with Superintendent Quentin Breese, and held a third session for 15 minutes without any outside guests.
During the meeting, Superintendent Breese also shared his 2024-2025 USD 333 Concordia Prioritized Staffing Needs. Breese outlined his top priority areas, which include a new 7th Grade through 12th Grade Business Teacher to replace David Gieber, a new Physical Education Teacher and Strength and Conditioning Coach to replace Jordan Echer who resigned last month, a new Social Studies Teacher to replace Rowe Hinkle who resigned at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, and a new Concordia Junior/Senior High School English Language Arts Teacher to replace Ashley Blain who has been appointed as the new Elementary School Principal, succeeding Derek Holmes who is retiring effective September 1st.
In other business, the board voted to accept an early graduation request from Alex Mould to graduate by the end of the 2024 fall semester.
The board also approved the purchase of three new PowerEdge R650 Servers and one PowerStore 500T NVMe Storage Array with the purchase of a ProSupport agreement from Redesign, a global technology and cybersecurity consulting firm, at a total cost of $86,161. The action comes after a server housed at Concordia Elementary School originally purchased in 2016 is no longer operational due to hardware failure.
And the board took steps towards installing a new fiber network system in the district with grant and state funds. The board adopted Nex-Tech's proposal for service for the 2024-2025 school year, and commenced entering into a five-year agreement with WanRack beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, contingent upon the availability and allocation of grant and state funding to fulfill the agreement. Director of Operations and Technology Director Kelly Struebing told the board the district hopes to hear if they've been awarded funding by May or June.