Stew-Stras Board Hires Lindenmeyer as Superintendent

The Stewardson-Strasburg Board of Education has hired Michelle Lindenmeyer as the next superintendent of the Stew-Stras school district.

The vote Thursday was 7-0.  Lindenmeyer will work under a three-year performance-based contract that includes specific achievement goals including student achievement.  She will begin July 1, succeeding Steven Harsy who is retiring at the close of this school year.

Harsy said Lindenmeyer, a former building principal at Stew-Stras, is excited to be returning to the district and said she hopes to retire there someday.  Lindenmeyer will have completed two years with the Regional Superintendent of Education office upon her return and has completed work on her doctorate.

In other business, Harsy updated the Board on a meeting with Neoga school district officials on the potential of sharing teachers or programs in an effort to broaden course offerings and save money.  Harsy said the next meeting will be held early in February once the districts have completed registration for next year, and said Beecher City district officials want to sit in on the meeting.

Meanwhile, work moves ahead on athletic co-operation with the Windsor school district.  Stew-Stras and Windsor will co-op in high school boys baseball this spring.  Harsy said the coaches from each district will work together and will co-ordinate practices as well as games.  He said the goal is to show that the co-op effort will work could be extended in 2013-2014 in junior high girls basketball, junior high and high school girls volleyball, and junior high and high school boys baseball.  The current co-op agreement where Stew-Stras and Windsor send students to play on the Shelbyville high school girls basketball team will continue.

Harsy reported that the district continue to reach an accord on construction work related to the building addition at Stew-Stras.  One last set of engineering work is scheduled by the district's third party engineers.  He also shared that bid packages on facia work around the exterior of the roof of the old high school gym should be available in two weeks, and that the next project for which maintenance grant funds would be sought will cover an improved building security system allowing school officials to lockdown the building in the event of an emergency.

Representatives of the Stewardson-Strasburg Education Association were on hand to offer their support for the 50-cent per $100 building fund levy increase that will be on the April ballot and to say that they'll help promote the initiative.  The teachers will join the Parent-Teacher-Student Association and their community improvement organizations in Stewardson and Strasburg in promoting the initiative.

Harsy said the Board also agreed to the start the next school year on August 19 for Teacher's Institute and August 20 as the first student attendance day...and re-employed Jim Roley as a substitute bus driver.