Board approves two teacher resignations

    Resignations from two teachers at Chase County Schools, Alecia Einspahr and Kaylee Gill, both in their first years here, were approved Tuesday at the board of education’s monthly meeting.
    Both resignations are effective the end of the current school year.
    According to Supt. Lambert, both Einspahr and Gill indicated they resigned to be closer to family.
    Einspahr, who taught English Language Learners, lives in Grant and drove to and from Imperial each school day. A position opened at Perkins County Schools, and she accepted it, according to Lambert. She came into CCS with six years experience teaching ELL students.
    “We’ll miss her. She did a good job for us,” he said.
    Gill is a middle school art teacher and junior class sponsor. She will be moving to Arizona to be closer to her mother, Lambert said. Gill graduated in 2021 from Peru State College.
    Gill was one of two new art teachers hired this year after the board approved the addition of a third art teacher on staff. The other new art teacher hired filled an open position due to a resignation.
    At this time, CCS has four positions for 2022-23 to fill.
    Also open next year is the grade 7-12 family and consumer science teaching position now held by Sheryl Curtis. Board members approved Curtis’ resignation late last year. She plans to retire.
    Lambert said this week administration would like to expand CCS’s early childhood services, so is also looking for a full-time Title I teacher.
    Lindsey Teply is the current Title teacher and also serves as early childhood ed. teacher, he said. Adding another teacher to take Title I would free her up for that, he added.    
    “This position may be filled internally, but like any open position, time will tell,” he said.
    Lambert said CCS receives full funding from the federal government for a full-time Title teacher and is also reimbursed 50% of special education costs through the IDEA grant from the federal government.
    In a related area, the board approved an Early Resignation Program for teachers leaving their 2021-22 positions.
    A teacher who resigns or retires, and signs the ERP contract by Jan. 31, will receive a $1,000 severance benefit to be paid before March 20.
    Started several years ago, the CCS board has continued to offer the Early Resignation Program. The original reasoning for the program was if CCS administration is aware earlier of what positions will be open the following year, advertising can start earlier and potentially they’ll have a larger pool of candidates.
    Supt. Lambert said the sooner they know about teachers leaving the district, the better chance administration has of finding a high quality candidate.
    “In the state of Nebraska, April 15 is the automatic roll-over date for teacher contracts, so once you get past that date it becomes harder to find teachers as they are locked into their next year’s contract,” he said.
Housekeeping
    Since Tuesday’s meeting was the first of a new year, the board acted on a number of housekeeping items including election of officers, committee assignments, naming the official newspaper for legal notices and more.
    All the past year’s board officers were re-elected: Karl Meeske, president; Willy O’Neil, vice president; Carrie Terryberry, secretary; and Steve Wallin, treasurer.
    KSB School Law of Lincoln will serve another year as CCS’s legal counsel for 2022. Supt. Lambert said KSB charges by the hour, and that rate depends on what lawyer is working on the specific item. KSB has different rates based on the lawyer’s experience levels and time at the law firm.
    Imperial’s three banks, Adams Bank & Trust, Pinnacle Bank and Waypoint Bank, were approved as primary custodians for 12 different CCS funds for 2022.
    The Imperial Republican was approved as the official district newspaper for legal notices, with the McCook Daily Gazette as an emergency backup if the local newspaper’s deadlines cannot be met.
    In other action, Supt. Lambert was appointed as the school’s non-discrimination compliance coordinator and its Title IX coordinator.
    Next week: More from the Jan. 11 school board meeting.