The District #18 Board of Education formally accepted three resignations and filled four positions during a meeting last week.
Meeting Wednesday night, the board accepted with “regret and appreciation” the resignations of two long-time instructors.
Retiring from Elgin Public Schools are music instructor Deb Jones and social studies teacher Doug Jones.
Mrs. Jones has taught music at the school for 22 years. Jones not only taught in the classroom, he also served as wrestling coach.
The other resignation came from Carlie Wells who announced last month he had accepted a position with Perkins County Schools. Superintendent Dan Polk said the search continues for Wells’ replacement and he hopes to hire a person in the near future.
Hired to fill the music position was Eric Heithoff, currently a music teacher at Sutton Public Schools. “He was the best candidate for the position,” Polk said about Heithoff who has one year of experience as a teacher at Sutton.
A new social studies instructor will have a familiar name and face. Wes Prater, an EPS graduate, was hired to fill the position. This will be Prater’s first teaching assignment.
Two other hires were announced at the meeting. As reported last week in The Elgin Review, Greg Wemhoff who currently is a teacher/coach/athletic director at Battle Creek Public Schools, was hired as K-12 principal.
Wemhoff will replace Adam Patrick who, after two years at EPS, has submitted his resignation and accepted a position as principal at Pierce Public Schools.
The last hiring approved by the board was Eric Mlinar of St. Paul to teach business. He will fill the position created by the resignation last month of Amy Selting.
All hirings were approved on 5-0 motions (board member Ryan Reestman was absent from the meeting).
Altogether this spring, Polk said he has conducted 28 teacher interviews and the process has yet to be completed. He later said current open coaching assignments will be filled at a later date.
