Personnel Matters Dominate Unit 40 Board Meeting

The Effingham Unit 40 Board of Education acted on a number of personnel matters Monday night, including many extra-curricular appointments.

The Board named Stephanie Uebinger the Prom sponsor and Cheri Lux the Senior Class sponsor.  Megan Whitacre was hired as a high school PE and Health and Driver's Ed teacher and Jennifer Buffington was hired as a junior high Special Education teacher. 

Family and Medical Leave Act leaves were approved for Patty Keck and JoAnn Haarmann.

Resignations were accepted from Special Education teacher Sally Maske, ELL Paraprofessional Maria Bushur, Second Grade teacher Kinda Morris, Fifth Grade teacher Ann White, assistant football coach Jerrod Ingram, and paraprofessional and high school assistant boys and girls track coach Jordan Jaspering. 

Holly Dust was transferred from Special Education Resource to Special Education Cross Categorical at Effingham Junior High School.

The extra-curricular assignments are as follows:

Mike Walker as high school assistant football coach and seventh grade boys basketball coach; Aaron Adams and Kyle Garland as volunteer high school assistant football coaches; Jerry Trigg as high school head girls golf coach and head high school softball coach; Colleen Westendorf as assistant high school volleyball coach; Aaron Witges as high school girls JV basketball coach; Troy Van Blaricum as volunteer assistant girls basketball coach; Cody Harpster as head wrestling coach; Steve Boswell as high school fresh/soph baseball coach; Ron Diehl, Mike McCollum and Curran McNeely as volunteer high school assistant baseball coaches and McNeely as high school assistant football coach; Jeff Tonn as volunteer high school softball coach and junior high assistant softball coach; Dana Koester as head basketball cheerleading sponsor; Angie Lark as volunteer basketball cheerleading sponsor; Lindsay Van Blaricum as junior high school head softball coach; Matt Farrar as junior high assistant baseball coach; Whitney McWilliams as eighth grade girls basketball coach; and Steve Pickett as assistant junior high boys track coach.

Othe new hires include Erik Williamson as high school head girls tennis coach; Karla Greenwood as junior high basketball cheer sponsor; Megan Whitacre as high school fresh/soph girls basketball coach; and Ben Giertz as volunteer student teacher assistant football coach and as volunteer student teacher assistant junior high boys basketball coach.

In other business, the Board transferred $423,400 from the Working Cash Fund to the General Fund to pay for several projects including resurfacing the gym floors at Effingham High School, tuckpointing work at the high school, the new secure entrance to the high school, and the new track at the high school.

Board members approved an agreement with the City of Effingham regarding crossing guards.  The City will hire the guards, but the school district will administer the program.  The City will still levy to pay the guards.  The Board also renewed a life insurance coverage for district employees for a total cost of $736/month.

Also Monday, Superintendent Mark Doan presented information on school choice, which involves a change to the Common Core curriculum.  Doan said the ISAT exam taken by Unit 40 students for many years will likely be phased out after next school year; that 20% of the questions on the ISAT exam this year will be Common Core based, but that 100% of the questions next year will be based on Common Core goals; that legislation approved by the US House last week would eliminate the Adequate Yearly Progress provision of the Federal No Child Left Behind legislation; and that Unit 40 parents will receive a letter around August 1 regarding changes in the AYP testing that all but guarantees lower schools due to an increase in what a child is expected to know.

Doan also reported that the Unit 40 share of an Effingham community property tax bill went down this year; and that the fiscal books of the district show a decrease of 1.22% over this period last year.

Board members Todd Schaefer and Jeff Michael were not present for Monday night's meeting.