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Board acts on administrative contracts
Wacker resigns as Operation Advisor, Walters not renewed as Elementary Principal
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A few significant changes in administration came out of a fairly short special meeting of the Boscobel School Board Monday night to discuss contracts.

Chiefly, the board accepted the resignation of Operations Advisor Steve Wacker and issued a preliminary non-renewal for the contract of Elementary School Principal Rick Walters.

“They asked for my resignation for contract reasons and gave me back my teaching contract,” explained Wacker, formerly a third grade teacher at the school before assuming the Operations Advisor position.

Wacker will continue to work with the school as they search for a new superintendent.

“We have 13 applications for a new administrator,” explained board vice-president Chuck Owens. “At the same time, we do have an option with Steve to extend his current contract, which ends June 30, short-term in the event that we do not find somebody. Once we do, then he will go back to teaching for us.”

The board conducted a survey recently on the pending referenda. Noted on a number of those surveys where comments saying that the respondents would support a referendum if the district were to hire a licensed administrator and bookkeeper, Owens noted.

“I don’t know what they plan to do with me, but when they are done with me for operations, I may resume teaching at the school or go back and finish my (leadership) degree then look for employment,” Wacker added.

The decision to not renew Walters is due to a failure to reach an agreement in contract negotiations, according to Owens.

“We have to have signed contracts by the end of January by state law,” Owens said. “We met with Rick and laid out of a plan of things we would like him to address, but did not come to a conclusion. Since we won’t meet again before the end of the month, we made the decision to issue a nonrenewal notice. This gives him 10 days to respond. He can issue a rebuttal and still choose to sign.”

Calls to Walters for comment were not returned as of press time Wednesday morning.

In other business, the Boscobel School Board:

• approved the administrative contracts for special education director Amy Mezera and high school principal Rod Lewis; and

• approved hiring Cindy Albrecht as a high school half-time English teacher.