The Centralia City School Board’s August meeting had little to talk about aside from the hiring of multiple new teachers and faculty, filling several vacancies. This is expected to ease some of the strain teachers have faced in the past few years as schools in the district operated with those vacancies open.
Superintendent Craig Clark explained how negotiating with the union and offering increased benefits allowed the district to attract experienced teachers to fill these important roles:
“One of the things we wanted to do in those negotiations was try to get a contract in place that would be attractive to qualified teachers so that we could fill a lot of the positions that have been unfilled the past two or three years. With the work of the union and the board coming together to do that… we’ve been able to hire some highly qualified and experienced teachers. In the past couple years we’ve had anywhere between seven to twelve openings in the district, and we’ve utilized either other teachers giving up their plan periods to cover classes and teach others or having subs come in and teach. We were happy for that, but you can’t beat having qualified, licensed, experienced teachers in there… We still have two or three positions left to fill, but it’s a far cry from the twelve that we were facing at the beginning of the summer. That’s the biggest excitement as school starts this year, that we’re finally getting teachers in the classrooms and kids are going to have a good quality education this year.”
Registration for the new school year has been completed. This year, over 60% of students in the district registered online, including new students, expediting the registration process.
The budget hearing will take place at the September board meeting on Tuesday, September 12.
New Hires:
· Carly Kasten, Central Middle School Mental Health Support
· Casey Hughes, First Grade Teacher
· Paige Gogolek, Centralia Junior Special Education Teacher
· Ashley Moore, Third Grade Teacher at Jordan School
· Ryan Miller, Boys Basketball Coach
· Jace Hughes, Assistant Boys Baseball Coach
· Mike Morris, Cross Country Coach
· Elizabeth Bishop, Marching Band Assistant Director
Transfers:
· Jerri Gray from bus monitor to bus driver
· Lisa Faught from bus monitor to bus driver pending license
Resignation:
· Kaitlin Keeran, Third Grade Teacher at Jordan School
