COAL TOWNSHIP - Forty-eight teachers and staff, including approximately 25 who will be assigned to provide education to students at Northwestern Academy, were unanimously hired Tuesday night by Shamokin Area School Board during a brief special meeting.
The 2013-2014 school year will mark the first time the school district will provide regular and special education classes at Northwestern.
Voting to approve all the personnel were board president Brian Persing, Ronald McElwee, Treina Mariano, Jeff Kashner, Charles Shuey, Tracey Witmer, Robert Getchey, Edward Griffiths and Bernie Sosnoskie.
The following is a list of personnel hired for Northwestern and their salaries:
Todd Hockenbroch Jr., head teacher, $51,000; Lisa Firing, Local Education Agency representative/transition coordinator, $54,000; Heather Fernandez, clerk/secretary, $11 per hour; Shaun Campbell, physical education, $30,000; Sarah Liendo, science, $30,000; Brett Snyder, science, $30,000; Kyle Pheasant, guidance counselor, $31,000; Christine Shearn, reading, $31,000; Melodee Lesher, social studies, $30,000; Cristen James, business technology, $31,000; Brandy Weaver, math, $30,000; Kathy Dugan, math, $30,000; Marlene Landau, social studies, $30,000; Carol Carduff, social studies, $31,000; Matthew Ridner, science, $30,000; Melissa Amato, business technology, $31,000; Tara Owens, business technology, $31,000; Lindsey Williams, English, $30,000; Jerome Manley, social studies and English, $32,200; Bridget Smink, English and business technology, $30,000; Kendra Petro, English, $30,000; Luther Haupt, math and science, $31,000; Cathy Pancher, math, $30,000; Chris Olson, social studies, $30,000, and Katerina Scicchitano, daily substitute, $90 per day.
Shawn Zalinski, who was furloughed last year as an elementary school physical education teacher, was recalled as a middle/high school physical education at a salary of $39,403. He will replace Hockenbroch.
The following special education teachers were hired by the district at salaries of $30,000:
John Becker, Maricia Buhl, Tad Kalcich, Sierra Miller, Abigail Malloy, Amy Kauffman, Angela Rock, Malika Romine, Alexandria Reed and Jordan Zande.
Kristin Patton was hired as a special education teacher at a salary of $32,200.
Also hired to teach in the district were Andrew Derr, business, $30,000; Patrick McDevitt, English, $30,000; Joanne Risso, English, $32,200; Amanda Machey, math, $30,000; Kayla Shiko, elementary, $30,000; Amber Slodysko, elementary, $30,000; Ken Schetroma, elementary, $30,000; Kandy Krebs, elementary, $30,000; Taryn Gilger, elementary, $31,000; Kristina Bolick, elementary, $30,000, and Marisa Labosky, elementary, $31,000.
All the teachers will receive benefits.
Robert Eby, Taylor Donahue, Caitlin Schlachter, Jenessa Zack and Jennifer Herb were hired as daily substitute teachers in the district at $90 per day.
Katherine Stroh and Ashley Tressler were hired as short-term substitute teachers at $80 per day.
Amanda Elliott, Danielle Miller, Sandy Wells, Emily Lehman and Brooke Dudeck were hired as teacher aides for the special education program at $7.25 per hour.
The board accepted the resignations of math teacher Elizabeth Corcoran, fifth-grade teacher Lindsey Davies, special education teacher Nicole Erdman, third-grade teacher Jennifer Leffler, speech and language pathologist assistant Amy Robsock, learning support teacher Ashley Talisesky and special education teacher Sarah Gaugler.
Coaches hired
The following coaches were hired:
Travis Sobotor, assistant boys' soccer, $1,275; Tammy Scandle, head junior varsity football cheerleading adviser, $510; Carla McKinney, volunteer football cheerleading adviser; Cheryl Hoffman, volunteer junior high football cheerleading adviser; Rick Kashner, head softball coach, $1,604.20; Jim Campbell and Kayla Shiko, junior high softball co-head coaches, $1,302; Marcus Pensyl, volunteer wrestling coach; Thomas Annis Jr., junior varsity boys' basketball, $1,530; Richard Scandle, seventh grade boys' basketball, $1,020; Brad Nahodil, eighth grade boys' basketball, $1,020; Justin Rickert, volunteer junior high boys' basketball; Joseph Tarr, volunteer boys' basketball, and Matt Spears, volunteer boys' basketball.
The board granted permission to special education coordinator Sherry Glosek and elementary school principal Mary Teresa Komara to participate in a state grant initiative called Project Max in partnership with the CSIU and attend the Project Max Summer Institute at Penn State University on Aug. 5-8.
Anthony Carnuccio, of 1770 W. Spruce St., Coal Township, thanked members of the buildings and grounds committee, other school board members and supervisor of buildings and grounds Dave Petrovich for rectifying a water runoff problem that created flooding at his home at the bottom of a road leading to the high school.
At the end of the meeting, Getchey, who serves as chairman of the buildings and grounds committee, recommended that the board consider having custodians work swing shifts.
At the beginning of the session, a moment of silence was held in memory of Charles L. Carpenter, who served as president of Shamokin Area School Board from 2007 until 2011. Carpenter recently passed away.