COFFEYVILLE — A retired school teacher and administrator from the Topeka school system will be the new head principal at Field Kindley High School for the 2010-11 school year.
USD 445 Board of Education members on Monday gave approval to the hiring of James Dodge of Topeka to be the Field Kindley principal, replacing Ben Smith, who resigned to accept a principal’s position in Abilene, Kan.
Dodge retired from the Topeka school system in 2009 after 31 years in the education field. He began teaching in 1978 at Eisenhower Middle School in Topeka. He also taught at Topeka’s Highland Park High School, then was head teacher/principal at the Topeka Alternative High School. He retired as assistant principal at Topeka West High School. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University.
Serving as assistant principal at Field Kindley High School will be Blake Vargis of El Dorado, Kan. Vargis was hired for the position at the board’s May meeting.
The board’s decision to hire Dodge as the head high school principal leaves one other administrative position open: the USD 445 superintendent. Superintendent Robert Morton retired from his post following the May board meeting. Craig Correll, director of curriculum, and Michael Speer, business manager, have been named as interim superintendents pending an announcement for the board at an upcoming meeting. Correll said after Monday’s board meeting that the school board is expected to discuss the vacant superintendent’s position when the board holds a special meeting at 7 p.m., Monday, June 28.
Also at the June 28 meeting, the board will conduct end-of-the-year fund transfers. The school district’s budget year ends on June 30, 2010.
In other business transacted at Monday’s meeting, the school board:
• agreed to pay raises and additional contributions to the health insurance packages for administrators and faculty. The total compensation increase for school administrators amounts to a 1.8 percent pay-benefit increase while school directors will receive a total 2.0 percent pay-benefit increase. Classified salaries, which includes paychecks for secretaries, aides, food service workers, transportation workers and custodial staff, will receive a combined 3.0 percent increase in pay and health benefits.
Correll said the pay increases alone were less than 1 percent for the administrators, directors and classified staff members.
• approved changes to the middle school and high school handbooks for the 2010-11 school year, except for the school district’s policy dealing with cell phone usage. The board agreed to allow students to maintain or hold their cell phones but not use them during the school day.
Toward the end of the 2009-10 school year, USD 445 experimented with the possibility of allowing cell phones as an educational tool. Correll said some teachers reported that the cell phones were used with great efficiency when they were utilized for classroom instruction.
• voted to accept the resignations of Sara Littrell, high school science teacher, and Jessica Engle, high school language arts teacher, and voted to terminate Matt Rinkenbaugh as high school wrestling coach.
