New members join USD 333 board

Two new members were sworn in during the regular meeting of the Concordia Unified School District 333 board of education Wednesday night at the Concordia Elementary School.
The meeting was originally scheduled for Monday night, but was postponed because of inclement weather.
Amber Lambertz, District 4, Position 7 at-large, and Lindsay Metcalf, District 1, Position 1, were sworn-in by board clerk Tracey Holmes.
Lambertz defeated Bryan Cleveland in the November election in the race for the at-large position.
Metcalf ran as a write-in candidate for the District 1, Position 1 seat after nobody filed for the election.
Mike Cleveland was elected to the District 3, Position 3 seat on the board in November.
The board voted to appoint Cleveland to finish the term of Tony Miller, who stepped down from the board.
Cleveland was sworn in during the December meeting.
Also during the Wednesday meeting the board elected officers.
Brad Berk was elected as the board of education president.
Cleveland was elected the board vice president and was appointed as the member of the Kansas Association of School Boards governmental relations network.
Nancy Owen was appointed to the CloudCorp board of directors.
In action taken during the meeting, the board approved a bid of $68,259 from Access Elevator & Lifts, Inc., Oklahoma City, for the purchase and installation of an inclined platform lift to replace the one in the Concordia Junior-Senior High School building.
Superintendent of schools Quentin Breese informed the board during the December meeting that the chairlift that serves the stairway off of the varsity gymnasium was not working.
Following a discussion on what action should be taken, the board approved the bid for the new chairlift.
By a vote of 6-1, the board approved a 2025-2026 district school calendar.
The calendar approved by the board does include a fall break from October 14-17.
During a discussion on the school calendar in December, Berk presented the idea of starting school a week later and doing away with fall break.
The board tabled action on the calendar until the January meeting.
A motion was made to approve the calendar as presented and it was approved.
Also approved as presented was the January 2024 organizational meeting.
Included in the organizational meeting approved by the board for 2024 was the appointment of Ronda Gumm as business manager/district treasurer; Shana Stokes as clerk of the board; Kim Muff as deputy board clerk; Lucinda Thrash as transportation director; Kansas Association of School Boards for USD 333 attorney; United Bank & Trust, Central National Bank, Citizens National Bank and Guaranty State Bank & Trust as the official depositories; The Concordia Blade-Empire as the official publication for USD 333; Mapes & Miller as the district's auditor; substitute teacher pay of $120 per day; and mileage reimbursement rate for travel for district employees of 65.5 cents per mile.
The board tabled action on the administrative contracts.
Certified staff changes approved by the board included the hiring of Autumn Zimmerman as a social studies teacher at the Concordia Junior-Senior High School for the 2024-2025 school year and the retirement of Marilyn Knox.
The board met in executive session for 10 minutes with Breese for the purpose of discussing non-elected personnel.