Ridge board hires 6 new teachers

By Mary Smith

MINERAL RIDGE — Weathersfield school board hired six teachers to replace eight who retired at the end of the 2007-08 school year.

At its meeting Monday, the board hired Denise Stevens as kindergarten teacher at Seaborn Elementary at $28,727 a year; Bryan Durig, physical education teacher at Seaborn, at $27,204; Nicholas Spanos, language arts teacher at the middle school, at $28,727; Holly Sloban-Fisher, seventh- and eighth-grade integrated math teacher at the middle school, at $28,727; Alex Anderson, integrated language arts teacher at the high school, at $27,204; and Jessica Krumpak, intervention specialist at the high school, at $38,086. Each has a one-year limited contract for the 2008-09 school year, effective Aug. 21.

The eight teachers who retired under an early-retirement incentive program will receive $15,000 paid over two years. They had to notify the board they would be taking retirement at the end of the 2007-08 school year by Feb. 1.

They are Patty Blascak, Jan Crawford, Janice Mounier, James Pappada, Susan Eliser, Jeanette Ciancetta, Mary Wilson and Tom Carroll.

The board also accepted the resignation of Terri Cameron as superintendent’s secretary and Educational Management Information System coordinator as of July 11.

Cameron was hired as EMIS specialist at Niles City Schools on June 26. She has been the superintendent’s secretary in Weathersfield for nine years.

Her job has been posted, treasurer Laurena Rouan said. The EMIS supervisor works in student services overseeing transmission of data on students and staff to the state.

The board also approved final estimated receipts for the 2008 fiscal year of $13,024,589 and final appropriations of $10,317,301.

Rouan said the district is doing everything it can to be “fiscally responsible” and cut costs, as it projects expenditures will begin to exceed revenues in fiscal year 2009. The district is forecasting it will be in the red in 2011, the treasurer said.