Wabaunsee High School's Student Newspaper
USD 329 started streaming board meetings along with other school events in spring of 2020, following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this practice began because of COVID-19, we are very thankful that it has continued and hope that it stays that way into the future.
At the USD 329 board of education meeting Monday night, the board accepted the resignation of Alma Elementary School and Maple Hill Elementary School principal Galen Craghead.
USD 329 superintendent Brad Starnes announced his retirement in an email to district staff on Thursday morning.
The Wabaunsee school board will be unchanged after citizens voted on three open positions Tuesday, with Jerome Hess, Justin Frank and Tony Conrad retaining their seats.
This week the Charger interviewed each of the school board candidates about issues facing USD 329. Here's how students and faculty answered some of the same questions.
As Wabaunsee County prepares to vote for three spots on the USD 329 school board, the Charger asked each candidate about issues facing the district. Three candidates are vying for the district 4 seat, and one candidate is up for district 6.
USD 329 administration have set forward plans to try to help encourage substitute teachers and other classified staff ( food workers, bus drivers, etc,) to continue working at Wabaunsee. “We’ve been investigating what other schools in the area are paying substitutes to make sure that pay stays competitive. We’ve also implemented a salary schedule similar to that of the teachers to ensure that as substitutes and other classified workers gain more responsibilities their pay reflects that,” said superintendent Brad Starnes.
USD 329 has a new face this year with the addition of Charmin Miller to the staff as Covid Coordinator. Her duties this year as Covid Coordinator are to educate the students and staff on covid safety guidelines and to oversee testing of those who have been exposed to the virus.
The USD 329 board made changes that will affect next year’s elementary students at its meeting Monday night. The board voted to change the variance line between Alma and Maple Hill Elementary schools to send McFarland students to Maple Hill. The vote went 4-2 with Jim Vapita, Jerom Hess, Tony Conrad and Kelly Oliver voting to change the line whereas Justin Frank, and Callie Meinhart voted against it. At the start of next school year, McFarland students will be included in the Maple Hill Elementary classes. The board hopes this will help even out the class sizes between the two schools.
The USD 329 board received new information on lessening masks restrictions at its monthly meeting Monday night.
There was a discussion about masks due to Wabaunsee County lessening its restrictions. Wabaunsee Health Department administrator Ray Finley advised against making masks no longer necessary in USD 329 buildings for now and instead advised the board to wait thirty days and see how surrounding areas lessening their restrictions affect us. So far USD 329 has had very little transmission of the virus through school.
The Charger 