Hiring, department organization a priority for school board
By Steve Van Kooten
The Prairie du Chien Board of Education made a new hire at their special board meeting on June 30.
Madison Ehler will be a first-grade teacher at B.A. Kennedy. Ehler originally interviewed for a fifth-grade position, but a teacher already with the district moved into that role.
“B.A. Kennedy interviewed her for the first-grade position. The committee liked her and wanted to get her approved to move forward,” said District Administrator Andy Banasik.
Hiring continues to be a priority for the district, which is still organizing departments for the upcoming school year.
Banasik said the district posted the science and ELA positions for approximately four weeks, which did not attract many prospects.
The district is now looking at bringing in interns from UW-Platteville to work in the science and ELA departments.
“We’re interviewing interns for those positions,” Banasik said. “We have retired people to help with them, and then [the interns] would run that classroom after three or four weeks.”
Banasik said the district is considering using interns due to the lack of candidates for faculty positions.
“It’s difficult for rural communities,” he said. “It’s out there that we cut money, so the first question we get asked in an interview is, ‘Is my job safe?’ We just cut $1.5 million—that’s a great question to ask.”
If the school utilizes interns, applicants can still apply for open positions.
The intern arrangement could have other benefits, such as helping a department transition when staff members retire in the future. The district anticipates there will be some retirements in a “year or two.”
Earlier this month, the board considered three options for the district’s administrative staff. The scenarios used existing administrators to fill open positions in the middle and high schools.
In the first scenario, Eric Mumm, the 2024–25 assistant middle and high school principal, would be the high school principal, and the Dean of Students, Skyler Reynolds, would move to the middle school principal position.
The second scenario kept Mumm at the high school and assigned middle school duties to Bluff View Elementary Principal Tomi Gebhard-Nice. Reynolds would continue as the dean of students.
The last option had Mumm and Banasik each taking one of the principal positions. Banasik would then step away from his position as the athletic director. The board will reconvene in January to assess the results.
The board approved Mumm as the new middle school principal, Banasik as the high school principal and superintendent, and Sara Godfrey as the associate athletics director at their June 16 meeting.
Banasik confirmed that he will not receive a pay increase for taking on the responsibilities as the high school principal.
He added that the support staff, faculty and administration are not going to see a raise this coming school year. The only possible increase in pay would be for teachers that take on additional workload (e.g., additional classes).
The next regular board meeting is scheduled for July 21.
