Two assistant principals hired
School board members voted to hire Brittany Haden Chomphosy as high school assistant principal and Dennis Yochum as middle school assistant principal for the 2020-2021 school year during Thursday’s meeting.
The meeting was conducted entirely online for the first time, with school administrators and board members meeting through the Zoom video conference app and the meeting live streamed on YouTube. The past two meetings have been conducted both online and in-person.
Haden Chomphosy has eight years of experience in public education in Arkansas and a master’s degree plus 30 hours, according to the recommendation for hire form submitted to the school board. She most recently worked in the Bentonville School District as an English as a second language teacher at Lincoln Junior High School. She will be replacing Jerrie Price, who was named principal of Northside Elementary School last month.
Yochum is listed as an eighth and ninth grade science teacher at Southwest Junior High in Springdale on the school’s website. He has an education specialist degree from Arkansas State University and 20 years of experience in education, according to the recommendation for hire form submitted to the school board. He was hired to replace Justin Blanchard who was named intermediate school principal
last month.
School board members also voted to hire Rachel Harp, Southside Elementary School special education teacher, and Annalise Mozzoni, eighth grade English language arts teacher during the meeting.
In other business, school board members approved a list of 251 classified personnel contracts for the upcoming school year. Classified staff members represent a broad range of categories, including transportation department employees, nurses, food service employees, maintenance and custodial personnel, and office workers, according to Superintendent Jody Wiggins.
“I greatly appreciate them,” he said. “Throughout this pandemic and through the situations that have come up over the past couple months, they have been feeding our kids, transporting our meals and disinfecting our buildings. I appreciate them so much. They are team members of our school district and we could not do what we do without them.”
School board members took the following additional actions:
• Approved a list of employees to be hired for the summer, including transportation, food service and maintenance positions.
• Approved a low bid of $355,000 a year for overnight custodial services from High Class Maintenance.
• Approved a low bid of $98,660 each for two 77-passenger route International buses from Summit Bus Sales. The buses will be equipped with air conditioning and cargo storage.
• Approved agreements with therapy providers for the 2020-2021 school year with Brandi Perkins, speech language; Vanessa McNair, physical therapy;
Sarratt Therapy Services Inc., occupational therapy; Tabitha Radford, speech language; Alliance Ventures LLC, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology; and Doris Henderson, testing.
• Approved state-required special education assurances.
• Accepted the resignations of Joleen Nutter, high school counselor; Morgan Carlson, kindergarten teacher; and Emily Laney, fifth grade language arts and social studies teacher.
• Elected school board officers for the 2020-21 school year, naming Brian Lamb president, Audra Farrell vice president, Connie Matchell secretary, and Travis Jackson legislative liaison.
• Approved financial resolution for the 2020-21 school year naming Connie Matchell primary disbursing officer and Grant Lloyd secondary disbursing officer for both the first and second half of the 20202021 school year.