Benny Westcott
New Sweet Home School District Board members Amanda Carter, Mary Massey, Floyd Neuschwander and Jenna Jo Northern were sworn in Monday evening, July 10, at the board’s monthly meeting.
Massey was elected over incumbent Kevin Hill in the race for the Zone 3 (Foster) seat, while Neuschwander, Northern, and Carter won unchallenged races for the Zone 4 (Cascadia), Zone 6 (Crawfordsville) and Zone 2 (Liberty) seats, respectively.
Board members elected Jason Redick as board chair and Mike Adams was elected vice chair, each by 5-4 votes in which the four newly sworn-in members formed the dissenting voting block. Dale Keene was unanimously elected secretary.
Also at the meeting, the board:
– Voted to extend the district swimming pool operating levy for five years with an unchanged $0.30 per $1,000 assessed value rate.
– Authorized district staff to negotiate a contract with ZCS Engineering to provide engineering and project management services for the Oak Heights Elementary School seismic retrofit project.
– Accepted the resignation of Christy Vough, science teacher at the High School, effective immediately.
– Accepted the resignation of Kaitlyn Tesdal,sixth-grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary, effective immediately.
– Accepted the resignation of L. Carolina Tavarez, Spanish teacher at Sweet Home High School, effective immediately.
– Approved the hire of Caitlin Bowen as a kindergarten teacher at Oak Heights for the 2023-24 school year.
– Approved the hire of Madelyn Hatch as a second grade teacher at Oak Heights for the 2023-24 school year.
– Approved the hire of Lindsay Janzer as a PE teacher at Hawthorne Elementary for the 2023-24 school year.
– Approved the hire of Jo Pierce as a learning resource center teacher at the High School for the 2023-24 school year.
– Approved the hire of Breonna North as a language arts teacher at the High School for the 2023-24 school year.
– Approved hire of Kyra Wafford as a math teacher at the Junior High School for the 2023-24 school year.
– Approved an out-of-state field trip for Sweet Home High School Cheer to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Wash., July 17- 20, 2023.
– Designated the Local Government Investment Pool and Key Bank as depositories for the school district for 2023-24.
– Designated the superintendent as chief administrative officer, district clerk and hearings officer for 2023-24.
– Designated Pauly Rogers as auditors of record for 2023-24.
– Designated The Hungerford Law Firm as attorney of record for 2023-24.
– Authorized cooperative purchasing agreements with other local education agencies as well as county, state, and federal agencies for 2023-24.
– Designated the business manager as the deputy clerk, custodian of funds and budget officer for 2023-24.
– Designated the superintendent as the signature authority on all state and federal grants for 2023-24.
– Designated Brown & Brown as the district’s insurance agent of record for 2023-24.
– Authorized the business manager and superintendent to handle district funds for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
– Authorized the Sweet Home School Board as the Local Public Contract Review Board.
– Extended the award for food products and non-food supplies to Sysco for the 2023-24 school year.