3 teachers are retained, reassigned
ADAMS TWP — While three faculty furloughs were included in the preliminary 2016-17 Mars School District budget passed last month by the school board, a switch in the teachers' assignments will allow them to remain at the district.
Superintendent Wesley Shipley explained at Tuesday's board meeting that the district now contracts with the Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit for English as a Second Language services for students who enter the district with little or no knowledge of English.
“We have students here in need of those services,” Shipley said.
He said that money being paid to contract ESL services could be spent to retain the three teachers and reassign them as ESL teachers.
This would bring the ESL program in-house, which would allow the district to keep the teachers.
Shipley said the teachers would be required to attain their ESL certificates.
Three parents who spoke at the meeting decried the possible furlough of the teachers were glad to hear the furloughs had been canceled.
Also at Tuesday's meeting, the board promoted Elizabeth McMahon to assistant superintendent.
McMahon has been in the district for 11 years, first as the principal at the primary center and then as assistant superintendent/director of curriculum for elementary education.
McMahon's new position has a five-year contract. Her annual salary will be $123,302.
School board President Dayle Ferguson called McMahon a “fireball of achievement” due to her energetic performance.
“Whatever she touches, it's with what's best for students in mind,” Ferguson said, “and she delivers results that are bigger, better, faster and definitely more organized than ever before.”
The board also hired Kara Eckert as the first director of curriculum, instruction and innovative practices.Eckert, who will earn $115,000, was a teacher in the Woodland Hills School District and was an elementary principal and assistant to the superintendent in the Shaler School District.For the past year, Eckert worked in educational consulting as an instruction coach in integrating technology into the classroom.She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary and special education at Duquesne University, where she also earned her master's degree in school administration.Eckert is enrolled at California University of Pennsylvania, and expects to receive her superintendent letter of eligibility by December.Ferguson said she looks forward to the enhancement in academic programs that Eckert will bring to the district.“Your expertise in curriculum and instruction is a much desired, strategic complement to the administrative team,” Ferguson said.Eckert will begin at Mars July 1.
