Twenty personnel recommendations were approved, the new and reelected school board members sworn in, and officers elected by Sulphur Springs Independent School District Board of Trustees at their regular May board Monday evening.
Board of Trustees
Craig Roberts and incumbents Leesa Toliver and John Prickette were unopposed during candidate filing for three seats on the school board, thus no election was required for SSISD Board of Trustees. SSISD Election Officer Sandra Gibby administered the oath of office to the three to serve a three-year term on SSISD Board of Trustees during Monday’s meeting.
Roberts will serve in the seat most recently held by Clay Johnson, appointed in 2016 to serve out an unexpired term when a board member resigned, opted not to file for election to another term on the board. He had served nine years on the board and attained certification as a Texas Association of School Boards Master Trustee.
Toliver begins her third term on the school board and Prickette will begin his first full term on the school board. Prickette also served an unexpired term; he was first appointed in 2012 to serve the final year of Foy Williams’ term on the board. Toliver also is a TASB Master Trustee.
The seven trustees then voted which among them will serve as officers on the school board.
Toliver made the nomination, which was seconded by board member Kerry Wright, for Robbin Vaughn to continue serving as president of the school board. Vaughn was unanimously reelected by the trustees to the president’s seat on the school board.
A motion was made by Toliver and seconded by Prickette for Robert Cody to continue serving as vice president of the school board. Unanimous approval was given for Cody to serve as board vice president.
Toliver again made a nomination, seconded by Cody, for Jason Dietze to serve as secretary of SSISD Board of Trustees. The motion received unanimous approval as well. Johnson served as secretary of the school board until his term on the board ended this month.
Personnel Decisions
At the end of the night, following an executive session, SSISD trustees approved 20 personnel matters: accepting resignations tendered by seven district employees, hiring of 11 new employees and two job swaps at middle school.
Among the seven resignations were those of a district bus driver, two high school teachers, two special aides at the lower grades, a special services administrative staff member and an administrative technology specialist.
Leaving Sulphur Springs High School will be world history teacher Amber Perry and English teacher Cindy Graham.
Special education aide Ruth Fernandez will be leaving Douglass Early Childhood Learning Center and special education aide Jessica Hendricks is leaving Sulphur Springs Elementary.
At the district level, Larry Mahand’s resignation as technology specialist, Jeff Oppenheim’s resignation as bus driver were accepted. Tonda Bryant’s resignation as special services administrative assistant was also accepted.
Among the 11 new hires impacting four campuses are five teachers, three aides, a counselor, teacher/coach and a receptionist.
Approved as new staff members at Barbara Bush Primary are Valorie Frazier as a teacher and Cassidy Green as an aide in the special education self-contained classroom, Linzi Phillips as an instructional aide and Megan Postlewhait as a special education aide.
Shara Roden was approved to become the counselor at Bowie Primary School.
At Sulphur Springs Middle School, LaCrisha Shimp is to become the receptionist and Kylie Singleton will be a special education co-teacher.
At high school, Heath Gammill will teach the construction class, Melissa Peugh will teach English, Reginald Thomas will teach culinary arts, and Katelyn Webster will serve double duty as a math teacher and coach.
Two teachers will be switching job titles at SSMS. Science teacher Bryan Cole will be a STEAM teacher. Angie McCrary will be switching from special education teacher to Read 180 teacher.
