At the summer church Voter’s Assembly, interim principal Greg Alberding shared a lot of great updates about the school. The first of which – he is returning for another year as interim principal to help the school transition to the next permanent principal. During this year the school board will be able to look for either a called Lutheran principal, meaning they have theological training and experience in Lutheran-specific settings, or another well-qualified principal.
Mr. Alberding (or Mr. A. as the students call him) also shared that all staffing positions are filled for the year. Thanks to his forethought in the spring, various teachers are moving classrooms and grade-levels but only one new teacher is joining the staff. Our fifth grade teacher took a position in Valparaiso to now teach where her daughter attends school. This left St. John’s with an opening. However, Mr. Alberding’s spring questionnaire for the teachers revealed ahead of time that she was planning to leave and that several teachers would be willing to swap grade-levels if the opportunity arose.
- Mrs. Lisa Vallaincourt wanted to swap from third grade into the vacant fifth grade position.
- Mrs. Angie Aquino wanted to swap down from sixth grade into fifth grade.
- Mrs. Cindy Skalka wanted to swap from social studies (all grades) to sixth grade.
This left the only vacant position in third grade and a slew of new-to-me classrooms to decorate and prepare lesson plans for!
The Middle School will be set up differently this year as grades 5-8 will have their own homeroom and each of those teachers will have a specialty class they will teach to all four of the grades. For more information on how this will work, check out this article.
The good news is we will be welcoming two new teachers to the faculty this fall! Multiple applications were received for the third grade position, and Ms. Sabrina Wallbright was selected to join the St. John’s Eagles. The School Board also has approved hiring a part-time ‘Specials’ teacher, Miss Lynndsey Zigler, who will teach both the art and physical education classes for grades Kindergarten – 4th grade. The staff look forward to welcoming these two new teachers to the Nest.
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