USD 410 fills both positions created by nonrenewal of teaching contracts

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ALEEN RATZLAFF

The USD 410 Board of Education has filled positions left vacant after board members voted to nonrenew contracts for two teachers at Hillsboro High School.

In a special meeting held Thursday evening and after more than 90 minutes in executive session, the board approved unanimously a teaching contract for Dustin Dalke to fill the art-instructor position previously held by Martha Roach.

The appointment will be Dalke’s first teaching position. Dalke earned his art-education degree from Fort Hays State University in May. He is a 1996 HHS graduate and son of Dan and Donna Dalke of Hillsboro.

At a meeting held May 20, Superintendent Gordon Mohn announced Tim Kilgore as the new hire for the vocational-agriculture position vacated by Kristy Esquibel. Kilgore, who recently earned his teaching degree from Kansas State University, comes to Hillsboro from Maple Hill, a small town about 20 miles north of Topeka.

Because both men are replacing teachers with more experience and Kilgore will teach 10 less days than Esquibel, the district will recoup more than $24,000, according to the list of certified-staff salary costs distributed at Thursday’s meeting.

Primary factors that determine base salaries are years of teaching experience and education level.

After board member Reg Matz reviewed changes negotiated by teams representing the board and teachers-the school board approved the master contract for the district’s certified-teaching employees by a vote of 7-0.

The contract includes the following:

— Increasing the salary package by 4.006 percent for returning teachers.

These changes include raising the base salary by $450 from $25,800 to $26,250, adding two steps and another column to the schedule grid-based on years of teaching and educational level-used in determining certified-staff salaries, increasing the extra-duty pay schedule, and increasing the defined benefit from $278 to $300 for certified teachers working 630 hours or more during the year.

— Adopting the revised observation-data sheet recommended by the teacher-evaluation committee.

— Changing the language for the payroll deduction plan.

Mohn said the wording change put the board in compliance with the Section 125 of the Internal Revenue code, which concerns employees’ making a salary reduction agreement once annually to cover all premiums for selected benefits under the code.

— Agreeing that during the fall semester, the board and teacher negotiating teams will study the feasibility of entering the State Kansas health insurance group.

Currently, employees receive health coverage from Blue Cross-Blue Shield. If changes in insurance carriers would be made, the decision must be reached before February 2003, Matz said.

As of May 30, Mohn said he anticipates an additional $94,424 in available funds for the upcoming school year.

“That’s a little better than we initially anticipated,” Mohn told the board.

Reserve funds, which include those committed and uncommitted in the general fund as well as the capital outlay fund, total $550,134 for 2000-03, Mohn said.

“We can use that to buffer some of the anticipated cuts in the future, due to declining enrollment,” Mohn said.

In other business, the board also voted unanimously to accept the computer bid of $108,987 from National Computer Resource in Wichita. While the bid covers 156 computers, only 86 computers of those will be placed in Hillsboro. The other 70 computers will be purchased from the district by Marion Unified School District 408 at a cost of $47,610.

This arrangement allows both districts to get a better deal on the computers, Mohn said.

“We done this for a long time,” he said about the cooperative agreement,” he said.

“I’m glad we can do that with Marion.”

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