Northside, intermediate principals selected

Web photo
Web photo

Two Siloam Springs School District employees were chosen to lead Northside Elementary School and Siloam Springs Intermediate School next fall, Superintendent Jody Wiggins announced during a special school board meeting on Thursday.

Current assistant high school principal Jerrie Price will be transferred to the position of Northside Elementary School principal in place of Michelle Paden, who is being transferred to Allen Elementary School, Wiggins said. Current assistant middle school principal Justin Blanchard will be transferred to the position of intermediate school principal in place of Tim Hornbuckle, who took a job in another district next year.

Micah Cummings was also transferred from a middle school seventh grade math teacher position to middle school assistant principal starting next fall and Macey Miller was transferred from her position of intermediate school fifth grade language arts teacher to Southside Elementary third grade teacher, Wiggins said.

The school district formed hiring committees for the positions and there were originally two separate hiring committees for the principal positions, Wiggins said. Because almost all the candidates applied for both principal positions, the two committees were combined into an eight-person hiring committee that interviewed for both positions at the same time.

The combined committee interviewed a total of seven people, including two in-house candidates and five outside candidates, Wiggins said. Because the employment changes were transfers instead of new hires, they did not require school board approval, he said.

In other business, the school board approved a list of policy changes recommended by the Arkansas School Board Association. The changes included updates to the licensed and classified employee salary schedules, already approved by the school board in March, which will add $1,250 to the base annual teacher salary and give classified staff a 3.125 percent raise starting next year.

Other updates included changes to the certified and classified employee school calendar, family medical leave, drug testing, and mandated reporter duties, as well as changes to the licensed personnel grievance policy.

School board members took the following additional actions:

• Accepted the resignations of Adam Hansen, intermediate school fifth grade science teacher; Mary Cole, Allen Elementary School nurse; and Bethany Freeman, middle school speech language pathologist.

• Hired Heather Hinesley, middle school assistant band director; and Madison VanAllen, Southside Elementary School third grade math teacher.

General News on 05/03/2020