The ConVal School Board approved the hiring of eight teachers during a regular meeting on Tuesday evening.
Three of those positions were at the high school level. Diane Tandy was hired as a physics/ math teacher and will be paid $66,856. Daphne Logan was hired as a special education teacher and will earn $46,367. Ashley Jones was hired as the library media specialist and will be compensated $40,971.
Superintendent Kimberly Saunders said she was particularly pleased about hiring a physics teacher because they are so hard to come by.
“We are very excited,” Saunders said. “Physics teachers are very difficult to find.”
The board also OK’ed the hiring of two teachers at South Meadow School, one teacher at Great Brook School, one teacher at Antrim Elementary School, and a teacher at Peterborough Elementary School.
ConVal is seeing a small uptick in enrollment at the lower grade levels.
Greenfield Elementary School currently has 21 students signed up for kindergarten. The target class size is about 15 to 18 students. Saunders said it’s likely the district will have to take on another teacher at the school to accommodate for the incoming class.
Peterborough Elementary School currently has 18 to 19 students enrolled in kindergarten. Saunders asked the board for the time and flexibility to make a decision on whether hiring another teacher would be necessary for the incoming class.
She said certain classes at Great Brook School and South Meadow School are also bumping up against their 25 student cap. Saunders again asked the board for the time and flexibility to hire other teachers as necessary.
The board approved each of the requests.
“We’ll see a little bit of an increase the next few years,” Saunders said referring to demographic numbers.
She said the population at the high school will continue to decline as the decrease sweeps across the board.
After the slight increase at the lower grade levels, she said they are projected to remain flat for the next 10 years.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.