School board approves Lowery’s resignation
The Tea Area School Board met Feb. 10.
Superintendent Jennifer Lowery submitted her resignation as superintendent effective June 30. Board president Jason Bennett thanked her for her 13 years of service to the district and wished her well with her new position as the Harrisburg School District superintendent. The board approved the resignation.
They also approved the resignations of Amanda Graff as life skills teacher and Jill Michaelson as special education teacher effective at the end of the year.
The board approved the new hires of Cassie Altwine as sixth/seventh grade ELA and seventh-grade assistant volleyball, Jennifer Bertsch as eighth-grade assistant volleyball, Jordan Biehn as head middle school wrestling, Cari Hansen as high school head volleyball, Shawn Kennedy as assistant seventh-grade track and assistant football, Bailey Nelson as speech language pathologist, Brooke Piper as junior varsity girls soccer, Carson Quigley as 10th-grade volleyball, Kade Russell for middle school science, Gretchen Schwartz as Frontier Elementary special education teacher, Jasmin Sumic as head girls soccer, Josh Sundall as assistant high school wrestling and Allie Blaha as middle school agriculture instructor for fiscal year 2026.
Blaha was also hired for high school agriculture for this semester while current high school ag teacher Clayton Sorum teaches the welding classes this semester.
The board approved the hiring of Wonder Marczak as custodian and Kaylee Munson as second-grade teacher.
The district also had two transfers of Jennifer Deibert from fifth-grade at Venture to fourth-grade and Matt Wegener from third-grade at Legacy to fourth-grade.
Business manager Chris Esping noted the foodservice co-op agreement is a buying co-op with Lennox, West Central and Tri-Valley. The board approved participating in that co-op for the 2025-26 school year.
The board accepted the bid for maintenance shop/bus barn from Colman Building Center for building system at $205,893.52.
The board also accepted the bids from Red Rock Construction for utility work at $17,600, from JJ Electric for electrical at $31,806, plumbing from Hander at $29,455 and from Pro Contracting for concrete at $36,183.74. They rejected the low bid for concrete from Elevated Companies LLC because it did not meet the bid specifications. Construction could start in April south of the existing building.
Operations manager Wayne Larsen gave the update on the high school expansion project. The structural crews have installed all the stairways, but they still need the handrails. Roofers finished installing all the caps. Concrete crews have poured the main floor of the PAC almost up to the front of the stage. The cold weather is holding up the concrete work. HVAC crews are running duct work throughout the building. Carpenters are installing cabinetry. Siding installers are on their last portion on the east end of the building. The painters have painted all areas that have sheetrock.
The board approved creating the position of performing arts center coordinator under support services.
Bennett appointed Jay Ryan and himself as negotiators who will meet March 19 and March 26. He appointed Kristen Daggett and Chad Myers to Teacher of the Year Committee that will meet in April. He appointed Daggett and Tara Johanneson to the Standards of Excellence Committee that will meet in May.
The board approved setting a special board meeting for negotiations and contracts for March 31 at 5:30 p.m.
In her administrative report, Lowery talked about legislation. There was a cracker barrel in Tea last weekend. She has been paying attention HB1093 that would only allow districts to vote on bound referendums in June and November of primary and general elections. She feels that could negatively affect how prices could end up on construction projects. Lowery noted there are a lot of bills in Pierre dealing with education this year and encouraged everyone to get involved.
The board went into executive session for personnel at 6:25 p.m.