School Board Hires Two New Administrators

Superintendent in waiting Lance Stout made his recommendation to the USD 480 Board of Education on Monday night to fill the role of Deputy Superintendent next school term. The board voted 6-0 with Cheryl Louderback absent to hire Dr. Diane Gross as the district’s next Deputy Superintendent. Gross currently holds the same position for the Haysville School District near Wichita. Gross has four years of experience with Literacy First and experience with AVID which are two programs that USD 480 already has.

The Board of Education also hired Paul Larkin as the new director of Human Resources. Larkin is currently the Principal at Augusta High School. This is a new administrator position that the district has not had before. The board voted 5-1 in favor of this with Reid Petty opposing.

The board also voted to keep the Dual Language program by a 5-1 vote with Dr. Jim Jury opposing. The board chose option one which is to keep the program and fund just four extra ESL teachers. This option will keep the Dual Language Program in place, but will not raise the LOB (property taxes) to do so.

In another action item, the board voted to approve a chain link fence for West Middle School by the practice field 4-2 with Petty and Tammy Sutherland-Abbott opposing.

The board also approved the following items with a 6-0 vote: Three resolutions involving non-renewal of three teachers; the approval of the school handbooks for the district for 2010-2011; implementing a Language Assessment Scale; the purchase of a Cisco 3750x Switch; the replacements of fire alarms at the high school and middle schools; the renovation of the roof at Southlawn Elementary; and certified resignations, transfers and employment.

The board will next meet on Monday, May 24.