More administrative adjustments are coming for USD 253 Emporia.
On Wednesday, the Board of Education filled one administrative position, leaving another one vacant in the process. John Martin, currently the principal at Village Elementary, will move to Emporia Middle School. He will replace Steven Bazan, who submitted his resignation earlier this month.
Martin returns to Emporia Middle School, where he had served as assistant principal and athletics director during the 2016-17 school year before becoming principal at Village. In total, he has over 20 years of experience at the middle school level, including his time at EMS and at Topeka Seaman.
The board also accepted the resignations of Emporia Middle School Assistant Principal Keith Glotzbach and Timmerman Elementary Principal Allyson Lyman.
Glotzbach becomes the third Middle School administrator to either resign or transfer over the past two months. Besides Bazan, current Assistant Principal Emily Baker is moving to Riverside, where she will replace the outgoing Katie Adams Kennedy as principal. Allyson Waddle remains as assistant principal and Brad Jones, currently the principal at Oskaloosa Junior-Senior High, was named as an assistant principal two weeks ago.
Board members also authorized a public hearing June 8 for the upcoming sale of district property at 19 Constitution, the longstanding home of Maynard Early Childhood Center, as USD 253 looks to move preschool students to the new Jones Early Childhood Center. District administrators say it’s best to reinvest the money from a sale instead of spending funds to maintain the facility.
Board members also fielded updates on the nearly $80 million Building for the Future bond initiative currently paying for districtwide renovations to schools.
For expenses, the board voted to approve $106,000 out of capital outlay to resurface three tennis courts at Emporia High after recent vandalism and resurface nine others for consistency purposes. Board members also approved over $21,000 to Johnson Controls for fire alarm monitoring and inspections as well as almost $530,000 to buy over 1,500 Chromebooks from Computer Technology Link Corporation. The district expects close to $200,000 of that amount will be reimbursed through the Emergency Connectivity Fund.
Board members also got an update on the Emporia High AVID program and Timmerman Elementary’s education redesign process.
