SALAMANCA — The Salamanca school district has neared the end of its late “hiring blitz” for the 2015-16 school year with the addition of three teachers.
The long sought-after earth science teacher position has been filled by Kathleen Zakrzewski, who was approved by the Board of Education at their last meeting, Sept. 22. She will begin teaching Oct. 7.
“It took some time to fill these vacancies but the candidates we are bringing to you tonight, (Zakrzewski) included, are outstanding candidates and we’re very happy for them to be a part of our Salamanca family,” said Scott Cooper, Junior-Senior High School principal. “(Zakrzewski) separated herself from the crowd with her extensive background and experiences. She also has unique experience working with some special needs kids as well, so she’s going to work out really well for us and we can’t wait to get her started.”
Mindy John was hired as a reading teacher to begin Oct. 26, and was chosen for her years of experience with the Jamestown school district.
“As you’ve heard me mention at previous board meetings, we’ve had a great deal of difficulty finding some of our last vacant appointments, for reading in particular but also earth science, so we are fortunate to have those filled on the agenda,” said Superintendent Robert Breidenstein. “(John) is coming to us with a significant amount of secondary ELA experiences with about 20 years experience working in the Jamestown City School District. We are delighted to have her join us and we are looking forward to having her years of experience bearing fruit for our struggling secondary students.”
The district also hired Kari Kennedy-Hoag as the new Seneca Language teacher, starting Oct. 7, who currently works for the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum.
“The last 14 years (Kennedy-Hoag) has been working with the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum we had an opportunity to visit her today at work and it was nice to see all the things on display over there,” said Cooper. “She is going to be filling our vacancy teaching the Seneca language and what really separated her from the competition she was her ability to bring ideas not only supporting the language instruction but also things like cultural artifacts that we thought were important in supporting our middle level students.”
The board also approved three certified substitutes to their list at the Tuesday meeting. Breidenstein noted that the school will additionally be holding a substitute recruitment fair on Oct. 7 to help bolster their substitute levels.
Also during the meeting, the board accepted the resignation of Laura Van De Wall as the school nurse at Prospect. Breidenstein said the job has been posted and the school will be utilizing substitutes and redeploying existing nursing staff when possible in the meantime.
(This story appears in the Oct. 1, 2015 edition of The Salamanca Press.)
