Principal gets 5-year contract

The high school principal will get raises under the new pact.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- The Weathersfield Board of Education has approved a new five-year contract for high school principal Lew Lowery.
The contract, which the board approved at its Wednesday meeting, runs from Aug. 1 this year to July 31, 2012.
A voluntary wage freeze is included in the pact for the 2007-08 school year at Lowery's current salary of 66,755. Lowery had been a teacher at the high school since 1988 before becoming high school principal three years ago.
After the first year of the contract, Lowery will receive raises in 2 percent increments: 2008 to 2009, 68,090; 2009 to 2010, wage freeze; 2010 to 2011, 69,451; and 2011 to 2012, 71,340.
Negotiations began Wednesday with the district's 70 teachers represented by the Mineral Ridge Education Association, whose current two-year contract expires July 15, Superintendent Michael Hanshaw said.
In other business, the board approved the 2007-08 school year calendar. Classes will begin Monday, Aug. 27, with the last day of school to be June 4.
Kindergarten roundup will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at Seaborn Elementary School. Other roundup days at Seaborn will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 3 and 17.
The board also approved supplemental contracts for the current school year for Barb Kucera to serve as assistant varsity girls track coach and Mark Mollohan as seventh- and eighth-grade boys track coach.