Plum School Board Notebook: May Voting Meeting

The Plum School Board voted on various issues at its regular board meeting on Tuesday. Here is a roundup:

YMCA Program

The East Suburban YMCA in Plum will have a before- and after-school program at Adalai Stevenson Elementary School next school year.

Officials agreed to allow the YMCA to use the cafeteria at the school between the hours of 7 and 8:30 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. during the school year at no cost.

The program will be the third YMCA-run program in the Plum School District. For more information about the program, see .

Retirements

The board accepted several retirements in accordance with the early retirement incentive program, effective the day after the last teacher work day of the 2010-11 school year. They are:

Jeanne Dixon, English teacher at Plum Senior High School; Laura Hendricks, intervention teacher at Holiday Park Elementary; Pamela Kinzler, special education teacher at Oblock Junior High School; Patricia Krepley, art teacher at Adlai and Regency Park elementary schools; Laura Maginness, math teacher at the high school; Arleen Smigielski, special education teacher at Holiday Park Elementary School.

The following retirements, in accordance with the early retirement incentive program, will be effective after the last teacher work day of the 2011-12 school year:  

Dennis DiSilvio, biology teacher at the high school; Joseph Ionta, math teacher at Oblock Junior High; Phillip Miller, math teacher at the high school; Elizabeth Petrovich, computer teacher at Center and Holiday Park elementary schools; Evelyn Pferdehirt, speech teacher at the high school, Center and Pivik; Susan McCluskey, music teacher at Center and Holiday Park.    

The retirement of Steve Krisnosky, Technology Education teacher at the high school, will be conditional upon clearance from the Public School Employees' Retirement System. It would be effective after the first semester of the 2011-12 school year as part of the early retirement incentive.

Teachers who took the incentive will be paid an extra $1,000 per month for 2.5 years in addition to their pension and benefits packages.

Another retirement approved was Donna Hanning's. A food service worker, her retirement was effective on May 15.

Employment

• Tim Cardinale was hired as a bus driver. His employment was effective Wednesday. 
• Diane Colella was hired as the cook manager at Oblock Junior High School. She begins work on the first day of the 2011-12 school year.

Summer School

The board hired  several summer school instructors for the year at a rate of $27 per hour. They will work 3.5 hours per day for 13 days. The instructors are:

Michelle Colder, Kerrie Cressler, Janet DeMarco, Kristen Gestrich, Mike McIntyre, Lisa Munzek, Nathan Pfeiffer, David Pucka, Dayna Savko, Colleen Spears, James Szejk and Kelly Wickersty.

Tutor

The board hired Amber Soxman as an extended school year tutor for summer 2011 at a rate of $21 per hour.

Computer Curriculum

The board approved a new curriculum for computer learning in grades kindergarten through eight.

The curriculum focuses on introducing students to basic computer skills and computer operations in kindergarten and teaching them about keyboarding, slideshows, presentation software, blogs, mapping, content management, programming and more by the time they are in eighth grade.