Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, March 17, 2016, Pages 1 & 9

A number of personnel matters from a new teacher leadership team to a new band instructor, the calendar and the budget for the 2017-17 school year, and several buildings and grounds items topped the list of topics discussed when the Mount Ayr Community school board held its regular meeting Monday night.

The school district will have a Teacher Leadership Compensation program in place beginning next year. The additional funding for the program comes through a state grant that the district has received.

With the plan, instructional coaches have been chosen for the elementary school and the middle school-high school. In addition, six model teachers have been chosen for each level.

The instructional coaches are full-time positions in the district and will oversee a program to help improve the instructional level in the district. They do no have their own classes and are paid an additional $12,000 a year for their work.

Chosen as the instructional coach at the elementary school was Jill Weehler while Abby Elliott was selected at the high school.

Elementary model teachers will be Betsy Budach, Katie Coulson, Jess Frost, Dara Greenland, JoAnn Sheil and Darla Sobotka.

Secondary model teachers will be Fay Howie, Kurt Wallace, Scott Giles, Brandie Ruggles, Sherry Adams and Brett Ruggles. These teachers will have classes but will be paid to help model instruction for other teachers and will received an additional stipend of #2,500 a year.

Because the district has incorporated Authentic Intellectual Work in the grant, Abby Elliott will attend a conference in July to receive training to be a certified AIW coach for the district.

In addition, two mentor teacher positions may be opened soon to help first-year teachers in the district to be more successful as part of the TLC grant program.

A new high school band and vocal music instructor was employed by the district at the meeting Monday night to take the place of Greg Storhoff, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Colin Zidlicky is currently student teaching in Indianola and will graduate from Simpson College this spring. He is originally from rural Decorah.

After his interview, Zidlicky came back and spent three-fourths of a day sitting in on music classes in the district and meeting music students. He is equally strong in vocal and instrumental music, principal Lynne Wallace told the board.

[Page 9] Storhoff's early retirement request allowed the district to get a jump on hiring a new music teacher, superintendent Joe Drake told the board.

One resignation was approved by the board as well. Alan Brown is resigning his position as a bus driver for the district. He has driven a bus for 28 years in the Clearfield and Mount Ayr Community school districts. . . .

The district also hired some middle school coaches at the meeting. Nathan Nickel and Tess Rinehart will coach middle school softball and Tiffany Bolles and Bret Ruggles will be new middle school track coaches.

. . . An update on the process of getting immigration paperwork completed for Spanish instructor Gilberto Castreje was also give to the board. Some checking was being done on whether he could leave the country and still come back to teach next year.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2016