Published: July 06, 2009 10:44 pm      

Teachers, support personnel rehired

DUNCAN — There are several teachers who’ll be happy to know they’ll be returning to Duncan Public Schools.

During Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Duncan Board of Education, board members approved hiring and rehiring several teachers and support staff for the 2009-10 school year.

The school board entered into a 15-minute executive session to discuss a list of teachers to hire for the district. Superintendent Sherry Labyer made the recommendation to hire all of the people up for discussion. While some contracts were renewed, several teachers are additions to the school district this year.

Those rehired on regular contracts include Kimberly Sluder at Mark Twain, Michelle Spurgin at Mark Twain, Nicki Brant at Mark Twain, Tara Davies at Mark Twain, Megan Taylor at Horace Mann and Angela Golloher at Horace Mann. Support employee contracts approved include those for Jeanette Pruitt as elementary financial clerk at Plato, Melani Spencer as special-education teacher assistant, Beverly Hanson as special-education paraprofessional and Lori Dorrough as special-education teacher assistant.

Dawn Carman, who was a teaching assistant at Mark Twain for the 2008-09 school year, was hired as a teacher at the school on a temporary contract. Janice Bethany was hired to the Duncan Middle School on a temporary contract, too.

New teachers and support staff, hired on temporary contracts, include Debra Taylor as special-education teacher at the Duncan High School, Philip Beard as special-education teacher at DMS, Abby Leonard as a teacher at Mark Twain, Marcus Williams as elementary physical education teacher and high school head boys’ soccer coach, Jamie Allen as family and consumer science teacher at DMS, Lisa Yancy as elementary clerk at Emerson, Diane Ledford as elementary financial clerk at Mark Twain, and Erin Jimenez as high school color guard instructor.

Another item Labyer talked about with the board members was the construction of the administration building.

She said construction meetings are held once a month to look at any problem or delays in the project and to see how they will affect the outcome. The meetings are held in the basement of the building to allow those in attendance to check out any concerns.

So far, those in charge of construction have held solid for a Sept. 16 move-in date.

“I have genuinely enjoyed this process,” Labyer said. “It’s going to be so nice.”

She said this has been an easy process to go through because she has been kept abreast of what’s going on. The meetings have also taught her quite a bit about the construction of the building.

“It sure has helped me learn, too,” Labyer said.