Big Foot School Board Approves Hires and Quits: Board Approves Safe Return Plan for 2022-23 | Local News

The board approved the resignations of English and reading teachers Jana Alonso and Laney Lovell.

Alonso leaves to become Director of Educational Program at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, while Lovell leaves to teach in Waukesha County at Waukesha West High School.

“We wish them well in their new roles,” said District Administrator Dr. Doug Parker.

Board members approved the hiring of English teacher Kristin Zachman, who is earning her master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We’re really happy to have Kristin on board,” Parker said. “We think she will be a great addition to our staff and a great addition to our English department.”

The teacher resignations and endorsements come at an increasingly difficult time as school districts in Wisconsin and across the country grapple with staffing issues in an extremely tight and increasingly fluid hiring market for teachers. educators.

“Staffing has gotten harder and harder as the pools have shrunk, but we’re really lucky,” Parker said of Big Foot. “All of our new employees are excellent and will be great for our children.”

There are also plans to join the district for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year, said Parker, husband-and-wife engineering and technology (tech ed) professors William Hibbard and Anna Stamshror, whose hires were approved by the Board of Education. in May.

They replace EJ Tuchscherer, professor of technical education, and Angela Gulotta, professor of science and engineering, both left to work in the private sector.

The couple have been teaching abroad in Thailand for several years.

The Board of Directors also approved on June 20 the staffing of three coaching positions: Allysa Zilmer, junior varsity (JV) volleyball coach 1; Dean Connelly, JV Golf Coach; and Madelyn Bigelow, varsity women’s tennis coach.

Big Foot Union High School was among the school districts in the state and nation to receive funds from the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) grant program, authorized under the law. American Rescue Plan (ARP) to provide funding to local educational agencies to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A federal grant under ESSER III was recently released.

As part of the receipt of ESSER funds, on June 20, the school board approved the continuation of its existing plan for the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services for the district.

The plan, last updated November 15, 2021, is available online at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tsIKSYfy-z1MzO3Y_LeIRwnZpYAiUZkbtE5QkIbkvQM/edit.

In other developments, the Big Foot Board of Education:

Set your retirement goal for Monday, July 11 at 5 p.m.

Announced that its next regular business meeting will be Monday, July 18 at 7:00 p.m.