New London School superintendent will retire following 2015-16 school year

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

NEW LONDON ? The New London Community School District (NLCSD) will have to say goodbye to current superintendent, Steve McAllister, at the end of the 2015-2016 school year, according to an announcement made at Monday?s regular school board meeting.

Although he was unable to attend Monday night?s meeting, McAllister?s letter of intent to retire was read aloud by board president, Laurie Hempen. In the letter, McAllister stated that he desired to announce his retirement early in order to give the board plenty of time to conduct a comprehensive search for his replacement.

?I am so very blessed to have had the opportunity to end my career in education at New London,? Hempen read from his letter. ?New London has, hands down, some of the greatest students I have ever worked with. They are a close-knit group of students that take pride in their school and community...I would like to thank the New London School Board of Education for the opportunity to lead our school district and I, along with many others, am very proud of our accomplishments.?

McAllister?s announcement comes after a nearly 40-year stint in working in the field of education. Before coming to the New London Community School District, McAllister had worked at other school districts in various capacities in states that included Maine, Alaska, Arizona and Iowa.

On June 30, 2016, McAllister will officially hand over leadership to a new full-time superintendent, assuming one has been chosen and hired by the board at that time.

With McAllister?s announcement, the board will be tasked with not only finding his replacement in the near future, but also a replacement for current school board member, Dennis Carter, who will not be running for re-election. Already in the running to replace him are Melissa Anderson, Erica Pickle, Jesse Howard and Skye Wellington.

Those wishing to add their name to the pool of nominations for a seat on the New London School Board must have their nominations papers filed with the board secretary by Thursday, July 30, at 5 p.m. The school board elections will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Besides talk of board vacancies and elections, Jon Munford, NLCSD director of technology, presented two quotes for new school computers that he was looking to have approved for purchase.

?The first quote I have is for 16, 13-inch MacBook Air laptops, which will replace all of the high school and middle school staff computers, and that total comes to $23,654. It was the cheapest price I could get,? said Munford. ?The other is for a single iMac that would be used in the high school library. At some point we will have to replace another iMac computer in Clark Elementary, but it might not be something we want to do right now.?

The board approved both the purchase of 16, 13-inch MacBook Air laptops as well as a single iMac for the high school library at a price of $1,249.

Also approved during the meeting was a resolution to consider continuing in the instructional support levy program. The board did approve this resolution, but will hold a public hearing on the subject to discuss it further at the next board meeting in August.

A long list of resignations and appointments were also approved during the meeting. They are as follows: Jennifer Heald, special education associate; David Streeter, MS volleyball coach; and Aaron Brown, assistant high school football coach were all approved as resignations.

Appointments included Laura Schumacker, preschool teacher; Maria Mellado, Spanish teacher; Maureen Heath head high school volleyball coach; Brad Helmerson, head high school football coach; Jon Brown, assistant high school football coach; Ridge Hobbs, assistant high school football coach; Brian Swafford, head middle school football coach; Joseph Garvey, assistant middle school football coach; Mark McSorley, volunteer football coach; Kyle Helmerson, volunteer football coach; Duane Blint, head high school girls? basketball coach; Joel Prottsman, assistant high school girls? basketball coach; Bryant Porter, head high school boys? basketball coach; Jess Swanson, middle school boys? basketball coach; Brian Swafford, assistant high school wrestling coach and co-middle school wrestling coach; and Ben Bence, Paula Bliven, Marci Denney, Tina Garrett, Joe Garvey, Tori Kenel and Heather Sharp as PLC leaders.

In other board business, the board:

? Approved a driver education contract

? Approved a 28E food service agreement with Burlington Community School District for bakery goods

? Approved minor changes to the 2015-2016 student and faculty handbooks

? Discussed 2016 legislative action priorities

? Briefly discussed the Back to School Picnic, but no official action was taken

The next regular New London School Board meeting will be on Monday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m.