By L. Parsons Dr. James Donner, principal at Winslow High School submitted his resignation to the district governing board last week. In an emergency meeting of the board, the resignation was accepted as part of the consent agenda with no discussion and no executive session. When asked of the details of Donner’s resignation, Superintendent Kathryn Zanin only replied, “Dr. Donner resigned from his position.” In the wake of his sudden departure, WUSD opted to transfer Washington Elementary School principal Sal Hernandez to the position of principal at WHS and Amanda Leonard, a district academic coach, to principal at Washington. It is unknown whether the move is permanent. The governing board also heard the annual financial report from business manager Shirley Lomeli. In her report, Lomeli explained that the district is in a solid financial position as approximately $896,000 was carried over from the previous school year. Lomeli said, “That is helpful because of the way the funding is going this year with not all of our kids coming back to the classroom.” Two accounts did reflect negative balances, however. The first, according to Lomeli was the food service account contracted through Chartwell’s. She explained, “Because we provide nutrition service totally free in our district, our costs are not fully reimbursed by ADE (Arizona Department of Education). The district is going to be working really close with the food service this year to prevent this from happening again.” The second account with a negative balance is buildings and facilities. Lomeli said, “This is a renewal grant that needs to be caught up by the School Facilities Board. We had about $318,000 in projects paid for by them last year and we have about $4,800 we need to get covered by our grant.” In other business, the governing board: * Accepted donations of $500 from the APS (Arizona Public Service) Supply My Classroom program to Billie Avelar, fourth grade teacher at Bonnie Brennan; Kimberlee Kenling, fourth grade teacher at Bonnie Brennan; Marjorie Coolidge, second grade teacher at Jefferson School; Samantha Kerr, ELA teacher at Winslow Junior High School; and Terri Kolomitz, paraprofessional at WHS. * Accepted a donation of $90 to Jefferson Elementary School from Stephanie and Vince Lugo. * Accepted a donation of $235 to Jefferson Elementary School from the School Store Program. * Accepted the resignation of Elizabeth Grimes as a social studies teacher at WHS and Fallon Howard as a substitute teacher. * Approved the hiring of Addie James as a media technician at WJHS; Natasha Shelton as a paraprofessional at WHS; and Shernise Ward as a paraprofessional at WJHS. The district is currently on fall break and will resume in-person learning on Oct. 12. The next meeting of the district governing board will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in the district board room, located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
