School District 166 held a special meeting on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 to approve the hiring of a new industrial arts instructor.
Superintendent Beth Schwarz asked the board to accept the recommendation of the people who conducted interviews—High School Principal Adam Nelson, School Board Member Deb White, Superintendent Schwarz and community member Bob Pranis—to hire Peter Johnson.
Johnson currently lives and teaches in Janesville, Wisconsin. Schwarz said Johnson will have to obtain his Minnesota teaching licensure, but said with his master’s degree and his teaching background, Johnson should be able to do that easily.
Schwarz said she was confident that the Minnesota Department of Education would approve Johnson’s licensure transfer quickly. She said Johnson planned to start and finish his doctorate at CCHS with the dissertation topic of college or Vo-Tech credit for high school career and technical education (CTE).
School Board Member Ed Bolstad asked when Johnson could start, noting that the industrial tech instructor needed to be on board soon to oversee the renovation and expansion of the industrial tech area. The school board approved the industrial arts expansion in January 2014 and on February 6, 2014 hired Architectural Resources Inc. (ARI) to oversee the project. The estimated cost to build the 2,250-foot addition onto the existing space is $750,000, with $200,000 of that dedicated to purchasing new equipment and $450,000 dedicated to the construction. The remaining $100,000 will be used to pay architect fees and for any possible overruns in other areas.
Funding for the project will come from the $38,000,000 bonding bill passed by the legislature for schools in taconite districts. Of that $38,000,000, Cook County was awarded $1,000,000 as a grant for projects related to technology infrastructure, academic improvements, facility improvements and safety. Work should begin this spring, said Superintendent Beth Schwarz.
Schwarz said Johnson probably can’t begin before the end of the year, but she hopes to get him on staff as soon as possible.
“Worst case scenario, we could request a variance if we wanted to hire him before the licensure transfer was completed,” said Schwarz.
Board Member Deb White, who participated in the interviews for the industrial tech position, said, “In the interview, he said it’s important to build relationships with the kids. That is what we are looking for.”
Johnson will be paid a salary of $56,384 with a stipend of $2,002.94 for working with the CCHS Robotics team.
The board passed a unanimous motion to hire Peter Johnson.
The school board accepted the resignation of Sam West, who has been the industrial arts instructor for four years, at its March 20, 2014 board meeting. West also served on the CCHS Career Readiness/ Vocational Education Planning Team and worked with CCHS students in the Robotics Program.
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