Althoff Hired to Succeed Fox as East Side, ELC Principal

The Effingham Unit 40 Board of Education Thursday hired Lacy Althoff to serve as principal of East Side Preschool and the Early Learning Center for the coming school year.

Althoff will succeed Jennifer Fox in the position beginning July 1st. Fox is heading to the East Richland school district to serve as grade school principal in Olney.

Board members Jane Willenborg, Erica Boone and Chad Thompson were not present for Thursday's meeting.  Althoff is currently serving as assistant principal for the two buildings. Unit 40 Superintendent Andy Johnson said that the assistant principal position will dissolve and the duties will be shared with other administrators currently working for Unit 40. 

The Board also accepted Fox's resignation as Director of Early Childhood for Unit 40 effective June 30.

Board members also approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the Effingham Educational Support Professionals Association concerning health benefits and salary adjustments. The biggest item being removed from the Collective Bargaining Agreement with this MOA is a limitation of only granting three years of experience for placement on the hourly rate schedule. The MOA grants experience of similar work when being hired for Unit 40. Johnson said there is no back pay involved, but the personnel are being moved to where they should be as far as rates of pay.

A health benefit portion was put in place earlier in the current school year. The vote Thursday cleans up the original MOA and adds the salary adjustments for non-certified staff  based on work experience in a similar position. Members of the EESPA voted 44-1 in favor of the Memorandum of Agreement. The affected employees will be emailed that the Board approved the Memorandum.

The Board voted to declare certain school buses as surplus equipment.

In addition to the personnel action regarding Fox and Althoff, the Unit 40 Board took these actions:

Those hired--Lori Koester as high school assistant softball coach and Randall Hanson as a mechanic.

Leaves of absence granted--Darlene Coffin, Gwyn Smith, Lauren Vogt, Alixandrie Summers and intermittent leaves for Jennifer Patton and Emily Viverito

Resignations--Callie Probst as Art teacher at Central as of the end of the school year, Laura Hodges as a bus driver as of the end of the school year, and Megan Adkins as 8th grade girls basketball coach

Retirements were accepted from Leah Colclasure as head cook at the high school effective May 30 and from JoAnn Haarmann as custodian at the junior high as of February 26.

Board members Jane Willenborg, Erica Boone and Chad Thompson were not present for Thursday's meeting.