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MOUNT VERNON — More than 100 employees began new roles across Knox County’s school districts this school year.
Knox County’s largest district in terms of student population, Mount Vernon City Schools with 3,756 students enrolled last year including its digital academy, hired 47 employees.
Comparatively, Danville, the county’s smallest district with 630 enrolled last year including those learning online, hired 18 employees for the current school year.
The 2020-21 school year saw increased resignations and retirements overall compared with previous years, leaving more vacancies to fill.
Some positions were more difficult to fill than others, specifically math teacher applicants were scarce while applications for administrative positions were abundant, said both principal of Mount Vernon High School Cory Caughlan and Danville High School principal Will Humphrey.
“Statewide we’re feeling a teacher shortage,” Humphrey said. “That trickled into this.”
The teacher shortage is not exclusive to Knox County, or Ohio. There have been reports of teacher shortages nationwide since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and even before.
Knox County districts also added several new positions this school year, most commonly through funding gained via Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief.
Danville funded a few roles through ESSER grant money, including special education teacher Olivia Carter, third grade teacher Courtney Lewis and reading specialist Christan Sears.
These three positions in the elementary school are contracted with the Knox Educational Service Center for two years using ESSER funds for reading recovery and smaller class sizes for teachers to work with smaller groups, treasurer Tonya Mickley wrote in an email to Knox Pages.
Overall, Danville’s hires mainly filled positions vacant from resignations, with a few from retirements.
“To my knowledge, we have not hired this many people in a good while, like decades,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey began his second year as principal this year, after serving as middle school principal and curriculum director at nearby Centerburg schools.
Prior to this year, Humphrey said there had not been a need for Danville to have an orientation for new hires.
“It was a really nice opportunity to formalize teacher orientation,” Humphrey said. “I think typically here in Danville, every few years, we’ll hire one person. So having a full class set of new folks to work through orientation with was a really great opportunity to dig into welcoming them and helping them get acclimated.”
The majority of Danville’s hires were teachers — junior/senior high school history teacher Josiah Dunn, agriculture education/Future Farmers of America teacher Rebecca McCarty, sixth grade math Stephanie Gribble, high school math teacher Carrie Weikel, fifth grade teacher Ami Workman, junior/senior high school Tierany Lyons, third grade teacher Courtney Lewis and second grade teacher Emma Brewer (who is currently being paid as a substitute because she will not have her education complete to obtain full licensure until December).
The district also hired two paraprofessionals, Casey Cook for the high school and special education paraprofessional Shanna Mickley, both contracted through the ESC for services.
Paraprofessionals provide support, which can be instructional or behavioral, to students in and outside of the classroom. These roles are also often referred to as teacher’s aides.
One new hire filled an administrative role, special education director/elementary assistant principal Ed Rezny. The district hired Rich Miller as a school resource officer, a position formerly contracted with the Village of Danville.
Guidance counselor Hailey Kreinbrink is new this year as well.
Classified staff hires at Danville included custodian Jenny St. John, Roma Carpenter in food service and bus driver Steve Lauderbaugh.
Similar to Danville, over half of Mount Vernon City School’s new hires filled roles of people who resigned.
ESSER funds were used to create three new reading specialist positions. Five new positions were created overall, the other two being a behavior specialist and a social worker.
Also similar to Humphrey, Caughlan assumed the role of principal at Mount Vernon High School last year. Previously, Caughlan served as assistant principal.
He has now begun his sixth year working in the district and said he has never seen this many new hires at once.
“We had more rollover and change than we’ve had my entire five years,” Caughlan said.
The majority of Mount Vernon’s hires were teachers: fifth grade teacher Miranda Brenneman, art teacher Lisa Bunsey, kindergarten teacher Kevia Calkins, history teacher Brianna Chenevey, science teacher Ben Durbin, vocal music teacher Trevor Garrabrant, math teacher Tyler Guilliams, orchestra teacher Christopher Japikse, English language arts teacher Isabelle Maurer, third grade teacher Mary “Frankie” Pumphrey, kindergarten teacher Lindsay Sanders, kindergarten teacher Holly Smith, music teacher Suzanne Springer, kindergarten teacher Natalie Swanson, fourth grade teacher Kara Wegmiller, English language arts teacher Derek Wells and elementary physical education teacher Heather Barbour.
Specialist hires included intervention specialists Amy (Kachline) Miller, Tyler Branham, Megan Russell and year long substitute Anne Johnson; reading specialists Deanna Severns, Cheryl Gibbs and Madison Vipperman; behavior specialist Rebecca Ross; speech language pathologists Meghan Noonan and Dayna Stelzer. The district hired two aides, Kathryn Blair and Leslie Hammond (specifically as a time out room aide).
The district also hired psychologist Ayden Howell and social worker Cynthia Truex.
Caughlan said the district added the social worker position to focus more on meeting students’ social and emotional needs.
“Our guidance counselors have been doing that, but then they’re involved with trying to keep transcripts in order, scholarships information in order — they’re kind of doing two jobs in one,” Caughlan said.
Administrative hires included Twin Oaks Elementary principal Adam Mowery, assistant principals Robin Elliott, Ronald Foltz and Jonnah Hetzel, and head secretary Tanya Newell. Christy Grandstaff, who previously served as assistant principal at Mount Vernon Middle School, moved to principal of Wiggin Street Elementary this year.
The district hired seven bus drivers: Steven Auker, Gregory Carpenter, Jerry Clinger, Terrah Eaton, Donna Hochstetler, Thomas Keller and Christopher Peugh. The district also hired custodians Zechariah Sprayberry and Randall Brady, Jr. as well as cooks Ruth Myers and April Brady.
Fredericktown had 18 new hires this school year, who filled vacant roles after retirements and resignations. A handful of positions were filled internally by staff who assumed a new role within the district.
Similar to Mount Vernon and Danville, many of Fredericktown’s new hires were teachers.
At the elementary level, they included kindergarten teachers Ashlee Blanton and Nicole Harvey; fifth grade teacher Hannah Richardson; and special education teacher Brooke Wolfe. The district also hired Melissa White for elementary guidance.
At the middle school level, the district hired English teachers Michelle Vogelsang and Emma Saltsman as well as language arts teachers Margaret Sherman and Margaret Sherman.
At the high school level, the district hired English teacher Sarah Keller, guidance counselor Karen Barta and intervention specialist Rachel Ehret.
The district hired Ben McClay as the talented and gifted coordinator, working in all buildings.
Other new hires included bus driver Kimberly Fearn, six-hour cook Lori Briegel, four-hour cook Tashena Snow, two-hour cook Ashley Mull and custodian Linda Stout.
East Knox hired 22 employees across its two school buildings.
Out of East Knox’s new hires, six filled new positions. These new positions include Title I Reading, elementary intervention specialist, nurse, two ESSER Reading positions, and a special education secretary, East Knox treasurer Jessica Busenburg wrote to Knox Pages.
Elementary intervention specialist Montana Huvler and special education secretary Kathleen Herrmann are the only non-grant funded positions, Busenburg wrote. The remaining positions are replacements.
Those hired as teachers included first grade teacher Kaley Beam, fifth grade teachers Morgan Miles and Griffen Harder, sixth grade teacher Kelsey Walters, ninth grade math teacher Curtis Belcher, junior /senior high school English teacher Kayla Strathearn, high school history teacher Tristen Overly and high school special education teachers Daniel McCrary and Hannah Hawkins. The district also hired Sarah Schumacher as a long-term math teacher substitute for the junior/senior high school.
Other educator and administrative roles filled included Title I reading teacher Ashley Fowler, junior/senior high school intervention specialist Megan Bullock, elementary intervention specialists Montana Huvler and James Hanna, assistant principal/athletic director Scott Brickner, director of student services/elementary assistant principal Ben Snedeker, ESSER reading Kacie Royal and Khampraseuth Fetters, and special education secretary Kathleen Herrmann.
Additionally, East Knox hired nurse Rowan Rine, nurse aide Denise Opfer and five-hour cook Tiffany Davis.
Centerburg and Knox County Career Center Schools had the fewest new hires this school year, with the number of new employees under 10 in both districts.
Centerburg filled vacancies due to resignations, retirements or an opening from an internal position change, Centerburg treasurer Lori Houck wrote in an email to Knox Pages. Stephanie Pound’s Student Services Coordinator position is new and being paid through ESSER II funds, Houck wrote.
New staff members this year include middle school math teacher Sydney Bassett, middle school science teacher Jessica Jones, intervention specialist for grades six through 12 Carrie Kletrovetz, elementary intervention specialist Miranda Fairall and Chelsea Thomas for elementary technology.
Centerburg also hired an administrative assistant at the elementary office, Tiffany Hall.
Knox County Career Center Schools hired seven new employees, all of which were filled because of retirements or resignations, treasurer Tracy Elliot wrote to Knox Pages. KCCC did not create any new positions using federal COVID-19 funding.
The district’s hires included teachers Marissa Wilcox (English) and Wess McKown (history) as well as instructors Joseph LaFevre (precision machining) and Richard Primm (ROTC).
KCCCS also hired intervention specialist Kimberly Lifer, attendance administrative assistant Carla Bailey and Knox Technical Center marketing coordinator Katie Cannon.
Employee information was shared with Knox Pages by East Knox treasurer Jessica Busenburg, Mount Vernon treasurer Gary Hankins, Knox County Career Center treasurer Tracy Elliot, Centerburg treasurer Lori Houck, Fredericktown treasurer Heather Darnold, Danville treasurer/CFO Tonya Mickley, Danville high school principal Will Humphrey and cross referenced with staff directories and newsletters on the school districts’ websites.
