Salem Grade School has 10 new teachers

Rate of turnover higher than normal, administrator says

By Gail Peckler-Dziki

Correspondent

Ten teachers either resigned positions for other jobs or retired from Salem Grade School prior to the start of classes last month.

At the Sept. 15 School Board meeting, Salem District Administrator Dave Milz told the board that despite the challenges, school started strong.

“We had changes in the building and changes in staff,” he said, “but things are flowing so smoothly its like school has been in session for more than two weeks.”

Some of the hiring occurred close to the school start date and Milz said that the administration team did a good job of following the usual hiring practices and still had things ready on time.

In a later telephone interview, Milz explained that, historically, a high number of resignations and retirements was not the norm.

“When ACT 10 first was introduced,” he said, “I think that a number of retirements occurred because some feared a loss of benefits.”

Milz said that Salem is currently working on a new model for compensation and incentive packages. The district now uses the Consumer Price Index for wage increases.

This replaces the steps and lanes that were previously used to determine rate of pay.

The only incentive package currently in use is one to award raises to teacher who have earned a master’s degree and implemented innovations in the classroom linked to the degree.

“We want to attract and retain the best teachers to work with our students,” Milz said.

While employment is increasing in Wisconsin, property values are also on the rise and that affects the amount of state aid each district receives.

They have an affect on each other,” Milz said. “When the property values rise, the state assumes that the property taxes will also rise and the need for state aid decreases.”

Property tax freezes make that a bit of a challenge and districts then turn to the voters with referenda to exceed revenue limits.

School districts across the state have responded with improvements to the facilities to make energy usage more efficient and less costly while adding to building safety.

Salem is no exception and the building has undergone nearly $5.4 million in improvements including traffic flow for student drop-off and pick-up.

Milz also said that Salem led the way in changing insurance carriers to decrease costs and requiring staff members to increase their contributions to insurance and retirement funds.

This year, nine teachers resigned to take positions elsewhere and one teacher retired.

Those 10 were replaced with eight new staff members while two current staff members were moved to fill positions.

The nine who resigned were eighth grade teacher Corrine Herreid, who was replaced with Dan Galubinski who moved from another spot in the school; sixth grade teacher Diana Riechers, who was replaced by new hire Kathleen Margis; part-time art teacher Chanda Droske, who was replaced by a move of current staff member Sara Grabarec; seventh grade teacher Jennifer Lynch, who was replaced with new hire Ann Hughes; vocal music and chorus director Carly Kreuscher, who was replaced by Holly Dykstra; lower grade counselor Kimberly Hildreth, who was replaced by Virginia Vinson; special education teacher Dedra Strohkirch, who was replaced by Kelly Huhn; first-grade teacher Heather Hillstrom, who was replaced by Ashley Juslin; and fourth-grade teacher Vicky Freak, who retired and was replaced by Pamela Luellen.

Part-time nurse Kathy Trecker has left and the hours of current part-time nurse Lisa Fisher have been extended. The district also hired an aide to assist her.


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