USD 333 board approves hires, accepts resignations

Several resignations, retirements and new hires were included in the certified and classified staff changes approved by the Unified School District 333 board of education during its regular meeting on Monday night.
Included in the certified staff changes approved by the board was the resignation of Steen Danielson as Concordia Junior-Senior High School assistant principal and athletic and activities director.
Danielson took over the position with USD 333 in the fall of 2019.
The resignation of Taylor Danielson as a second grade teacher at the Concordia Elementary School was also approved by the board.
The certified staff resignations approved also included Melissa Petesch, social worker with the Learning Cooperative of North Central Kansas (LCNCK).
Retirement requests from Kimberly Sprague, art teacher, effective June 1, and Anne Stone, special education teacher, effective July 1, were approved.
Hired to new positions were Kyle Williams, LCNCK social/emotional behavior consultant, and Brad Wildeman, seventh and eighth grade science teacher.
Wildeman will also be the assistant high school boys’ basketball coach, assistant high school football coach, assistant junior and senior high track coach and assistant summer weights coach.
Keaton Snavely was hired as the junior-senior high school woods instructor.
The new hires also include elementary and middle school teachers Trey Kuhlman, Alyssa Smith-Breen and Mariah Blazek. Their positions are to be determined.
Included in the classified staff resignations approved was Michael Wahlmeier as high school girls’ basketball coach and high school boys’ and girls’ tennis coach, Larry Metro as high school softball coach, Fred Holmes as assistant high school softball coach and Lisa Otott as an elementary school grade level para.
Classified staff hires include Skyler Hittle as assistant track coach, Richard Nelson as substitute teacher/para, Tina Brewer as substitute teacher/para and Zoe Brichalli as substitute teacher/para.
The resignation of Renee Sederlin as an LCNCK para educator at Pike Valley was approved.
Tucker Peddicord, director of pre-construction for McCownGordon Construction, and Maria Kutina, principal at HTK Architects, met with the board during the meeting to provide an update on the work that had been done on possible facilities improvements within the district prior to an interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school board, in April 2019, approved partnering with McCownGordon Construction, Manhattan, in the construction management at-risk (CMAR) process.
As the CMAR, McCownGordon is providing professional services and acting as a consultant to the district during the design development and construction phases of a possible bond project which could include improvements at the Concordia Junior-Senior High School, Concordia Middle School, the Concordia Elementary School and the USD 333 Service Center (former middle school).
In July 2019, the board approved a contract with HTK Architects to work with McCownGordon on possible facilities improvements.
McCownGordon and HTK Architects, beginning in September 2019, starting meeting with representatives from the district to receive input on possible facilities needs. They also engaged with a 38-member community group during four meetings.
Facilities planning was then halted because of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.
Kutina said that when work began on the facilities planning an overall vision and some guiding principles were established.
“What we heard was we wanted to make the learning environment different; we wanted to make really world connections, have the students be ready for the future, but do that fiscally responsibly,” Kutina said.
McCownGordon and HTK Architects met with the board of education six times and the community group six times to establish the guiding principles.
Kutina presented some bullet points from the community group including: 87 percent opposed a capital improvement, or a plan that just addressed the code of American Disabilities Act compliance; 61percent were in favor of completing the pods at the elementary school;
80 percent believed that more time was needed to evaluate the options; 78 percent were in support of a $45 million bond and that dropped to 37 percent when it went to a $60 million bond; 54 percent believed the community would support a $35 million bond, that dropped to 41 percent for a $45 million bond.
Superintendent of schools Quentin Breese said that the community group was a cross section of the community and not just those who favored a bond issue project.
The amount of state aid the district would receive, should it move forward with a facilities project, was discussed.
Currently, USD 333 would receive 13 percent in state aid.
School officials across the state are pushing for legislation that would increase the amount of state aid for capital projects.
A bill in the Kansas Senate, if passed, would increase state aid for USD 333 to 42 percent for bond projects. It would impact any bond passed after July 2, 2021.
Breese said that it is currently looking like the bill is not going to make it through the legislative session.
Kutina informed the board that if it was to consider a vote on a bond issue in September of this year, it would need to approve a bond resolution by its June regular meeting. A bond issue vote in November would require the approval of a bond issue by the August regular meeting.
Board member John Culley said that he still has no idea of what the plans are for facilities improvements.
“We are talking about all of this money again. What are we doing? I have no idea,” Culley said. “We have had hundreds of things we have talked about, but I don’t know what it is that you (McCownGordon and HTK Architects) are looking at.”
Peddicord said that they could return at a future meeting and present the findings from the community group to the board.
The possibility of making improvements at the USD 333 Service Center building and moving fourth, fifth and possibly sixth graders into it was also discussed by Peddicord.