By Andrew Harrington
ELLSWORTH — The Ellsworth School Board approved an athletic generalist job description and a staffing and membership fee proposal to help open the doors for community members to use some of the new athletic pieces from the referendum project during the Nov. 12 meeting.
The athletic generalist position was split into three categories: fitness center, golf simulator and athletic generalist.
In the fitness center piece, the generalist would work with teams to make the area only open to the public when there is space to avoid conflicting with students and sports teams. They would also clean and maintain equipment and coordinate the supervision process. For the golf simulator, the generalist would have similar tasks as the district weighs the potential for simulator leagues and other fundraising options. Lastly, the athletic generalist portion includes managing the district Hall of Fame, maintaining and laundering athletic equipment and maintaining the locker rooms.
The timeline for hiring is still up in the air, according to Superintendent Brian Nadeau, who said they want to take time to find the right fit, but said they would prefer “sooner rather than later.”
The staffing and membership proposal was broken down by Nadeau, mentioning that teams and students have priority for availability, and the hours open to the community are built around that. A pitch was for evening hours on weekdays and daytime hours on weekends during the school year. Upon hiring an athletic generalist, they could adjust times based on the traffic. Nadeau also mentioned the membership prices will not be undercutting other local businesses like SNAP Fitness.
Board Member Steve Mark was the lone voter against both measures, speaking at both the November and October meetings about the board not being included enough into the conversations of what would happen with the facilities when they were constructed as well as he felt there was not enough planning done on the facilities for what their uses would be upon completion.
“Based on public comment that I have received, this has been an extremely luxurious expense that was undertaken,” Mark said.
Other business
- The board heard the rundown for the April 7 election which will bring Jay Acker, Kurt Buckner and Gary Kressin up for reelection in addition to any outside candidates. There are two three-year seats up for grabs to the top two vote getters, and the third will be a one-year seat, as Acker joined in the middle of the term due to a board vacancy.
- Acknowledged the Vet Science FFA team competing at Nationals, Lexi Marks for competing at golf State, the boys cross country team qualifying for State and Board Member Michael Petersen for moving up a level in the state’s board member recognition program.
- Reached an agreement with the village and Hubbers for Summit Park facilities projects.
Personnel
The board approved the following personnel changes:
Hires: Emma Brost, seventh grade social studies intern; Jessica Tessier, high school math teacher; Courtney Vien, high school special education teaching assistant.
Resignations: Kevin Bruesewitz, long term substitute teacher; James Neu, middle school social studies teacher.
Retirement: Krista Lesiecki, high school math teacher.
Transfer: Seth Maina, from seventh grade social studies teacher to eighth grade social studies teacher.
Extra/Co-Curricular: Austin Peterson, assistant varsity wrestling coach.
Keywords
Ellsworth School Board,
athletic generalist,
fitness center,
golf simulator,
Ellsworth High School,
Ellsworth,
Wisconsin
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