By HOLLY GASKILL
The Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan Schools board of trustees met briefly Monday evening to approve the 2024-25 Master Teacher Contract.
The new contract increases the base salary for all eligible teachers by 2%, from $45,000 to $45,900, the board’s contribution to health insurance by 2%, and the board’s contribution to 401a by 0.25%. It also added a one-time conditional stipend of $750 for eligible teachers. Board members Angie Sheets, Trent White, Julie Thompson, Preston Kaehr and Mike Murray unanimously approved the changes.
Additionally, the board approved supplemental pay to eligible teachers for “academic need areas” and attaining a master’s degree.
During the meeting’s time for public comment, Nick Krinn addressed the board regarding his termination as a middle school assistant wrestling coach and a volunteer assistant wrestling coach in the high school. Krinn claimed he had been terminated after he had called Superintendent Brad Yates “as a concerned parent.”
Krinn said he requested the written reason for his termination and was told he would not receive that information in writing.
“It seems Mr. Yates and his administration made a knee-jerk decision based solely on emotion and anger,” Krinn said. “This makes me sad for our community, our faculty and our students.”
After his prepared comment, Krinn questioned if the board would give a reason for the termination; Sheets stated it was not an agenda item for discussion. Krinn then asked how to get onto the agenda, and Yates replied that Krinn had been on the agenda as public comment. Yates offered to talk more after the meeting or schedule a meeting.
The board also approved the following personnel items: recommendations to hire Karen Newton as a special purpose bus driver, Amy Cook for full-time food service, Allison Harter as a middle school student council sponsor, Hailey Lapierre as a band assistant, and Estefania Rangel as a substitute teacher and transfer Amber Williamson from food service to a high school intense intervention instructional assistant, Jill Goodspeed from part-time to full-time food service, and Bob Dahl from high school cross country volunteer coach to assistant coach.
holly@news-banner.com
