School board makes changes

There will be several new faces at Whitehall Central School next year.

 

 

 

 

There will also be familiar faces who will be working less in the coming school year.

The school board of education accepted 11 resignations of faculty and staff members, the majority of them due to retirmenet, at their March 16 regular board meeting, while later appointing four to part-time teaching roles that were created due to their resignations from a similar full-time position.

“I was just doing some quick math, and these resignations that we have received have over 300 years of experience devoted to our school district,” said superintendent James Watson. “We are very appreciative of the time and service they have given to our district.”

Resignations accepted by the board included special education teacher Molly Conner, who had been on leave for the 2008-2009 school year and opted not to return; and the “resignations for the purposes of retirement” of special education teacher Robert Isherwood, elementary teacher Diane D’Amico, library media services teacher Penny DeRocker, teacher aide Barbara Neddo, school bus attendant Lorayne Gebo, cleaner David Cassidy, math teacher Susan Mulholland, science teacher Mark Goodrich, family and consumer sciences teacher Jane Mowatt and elementary teacher Susan Monaco.

Once the resignations were accepted, the board moved to eliminate four full-time positions in the fields of math, science, family and consumer sciences and elementary teaching. The board then passed a motion to establish “60-percent” position in the same areas of study.

“The consolidation of these four positions will add up to $140,000 in savings to the school,” said Watson. “The elementary teacher at 60-percent will be incorporated into the science lab, and we will be able to cover the classes at the high school level with these changes.”

The board then appointed the former teachers who held the full-time position to hold the newly created part-time jobs, including Mulholland in math, Goodrich in science, Mowatt in family and consumer sciences, and Monaco as an elementary teacher.

The board also appointed Tara Gilbert to fill the special education position held by Conner. Gilbert had been serving as a long-term substitute in that position while Connor was out on a leave of absence.