Jensen resigns at GMS

by nathan osterThe Big Horn County School District No. 3 board of trustees made several personnel moves, including accepting the resignation of one of its longest-tenured teachers.Kathy Jensen, who has spent 34 ½ years at Greybull Middle School, submitted her letter of resignation, effective at the end of the current school year. Supt. Barry Bryant told the board that one factor that influenced Jensen’s decision was her desire to make all the activities of her youngest son Logan, who will be a senior at GHS next year.Among the board comments voiced in accepting the resignation, trustee Steve Hoblit thanked Jensen “for her many year of helping kids by being a mentor and friend to them,” while trustee Eddie Johnson, a former GMS teacher, said he saw first-hand the “the number of hours (she and her husband Ken) spent at the school.”After accepting her resignation, the board made two hires, adding Nicole Greene and Michelle McColloch as special education paraprofessionals at Greybull Elementary School.  In both cases, the hirings cover the remainder of the current school year as well as the 2013-14 school year.The board’s final personnel moves came after it emerged from a nearly one-hour executive session.The board voted to “follow the superintendent’s recommendation” regarding the rehiring of the district’s classified personnel for 2013-14.  In an interview after the meeting, Supt. Barry Bryant said the three building principals each made recommendations to rehire all classified staff — and that also ended up being his recommendation to the board.Board members also accepted the superintendent’s recommended changes to the salaries and benefits of the district’s certified and classified staff for 2013-14.  For certified staffers, the board allowed movement along the steps and lanes while agreeing to keep insurance and retirement contributions the same. Classified personnel also moves one step — in addition to getting a 30-cent-per-hour wage increase.As for the administrators, pay raises ranged from a low of $1,000 to a high of $2,500, depending upon where each administrator currently falls within the salary range for his or her position with the district.