Personnel changes were at the forefront of Monday’s Marion County School Board meeting.
The board accepted the resignations of Kayla Haddox, East Marion Elementary kindergarten teacher; Charee Miller, East Marion School cafeteria worker; Kaitlin Walter, West Marion Primary teacher assistant; Larry Holman, bus driver; and Robert Marzoni, West Marion High School seventh-grade science teacher.
At the recommendation of East Marion High School Principal Cindy Newsome, Lisa Neely, history teacher; Sarah Holder, chemistry teacher; and John Lindem Jr., math teacher, were hired by the board. Kaitlin Stafford was also reassigned to be a science teacher at East Marion High.
Ashley Panquerne and Bridget Vanover were approved as teachers by the board for East Marion Elementary at the recommendation of Principal Chase Robbins.
In other personnel decisions, Fred Cooper was re-approved as the board attorney, Jerry Broom was rehired as the maintenance transportation supervisor, Gwen Battle was retained as a language speech therapist and Susan Bedwell was accepted as a substitute bus driver.
In other action, the board approved to advertise its property tax request for fiscal year 2020-2021. There will be a public hearing for the budget July 13 at 5:30 p.m. The tax rate is proposed to stay the same.
Monday night Superintendent Wendy Bracey released a letter detailing the potential options for reopening county schools and how much time and effort has gone into the discussions. She wrote that the hope is to start school Aug. 6 in a traditional classroom setting, but that could change as the pandemic progresses.
“Realistically, we know that this may or may not happen, so we want you to know that we have been working daily making a plan for each of the three models for reopening school. We have plan A, plan B and plan C… This is still very fluid. Curriculum, technology, special services, federal programs, administrators, and I are meeting and using parent and staff survey responses and state-level guidance as well as continuously monitoring CDC guidelines to plan alternate schedules that will enable the district to seamlessly transition to other learning plans such as a hybrid or virtual learning schedule if needed or if another local or state-wide school closure takes place,” Bracey wrote.
