The regular meeting of the Wrangell school board was Monday, January 20, 2013. KSTK’s Shady Grove Oliver has more.
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Diedre Jensen was appointed interim elementary principal by a vote of three to two.
School board president Susan Eagle and members Tammy Groshong and Rinda Howell were the votes in favor.
Board members Cyni Waddington and Krissy Smith were the votes against.
Jensen comes to Wrangell from Thorne Bay and says she is excited about the new position.
“Well, I was a special education teacher there for four years and I took a leave of absence just to wait for an opportunity like this to open up,” said Jensen.
In other personnel action, the board also approved Heather Howe as High School Girls’ Assistant Basketball Coach and accepted the resignation of Linda Gillen as Paraprofessional.
The board went into an executive session to discuss an employee grievance filed December 4th, 2013. The employee is formally identified only as number 14 – 01.
Before entering into the session, board member Cyni Waddington commented that the board strongly supports the staff and school. Waddington noted that she was speaking on her own behalf and not speaking for the entire board.
Board President Susan Eagle agreed that the board supports the schools.
“I just want to thank everybody for coming tonight as well. We do have some contention going on in the school right now. But I do agree with everybody else that the teachers and staff are handling it fine. Sometimes the public gets a little over-involved in things that aren’t as big of a deal as people make it out to be. We appreciate everybody’s attendance here and definitely support our teachers and our staff,” said Eagle.
The board returned after over an hour of deliberation and denied the employee grievance by a vote of four to one. Waddington was the vote against.
In total, the meeting lasted just shy of three hours.
There is a joint work session between the school board and the borough assembly scheduled for January 28th. The next regularly scheduled school board meeting is set for February 17th.
