Four resignations, three new hires for McCook Public Schools

McCOOK, Neb. – The McCook School Board of Education accepted the resignations of four educators and approved contracts with three new hires at Monday’s board meeting. The challenge of hiring teachers is causing administrators to spend more time at college campuses recruiting newly certified teachers. Administrators attended seven hiring fairs this year, which is a record number.

Teachers resigning from the district include a husband-and-wife teaching team, Dalton and Rachel Pettera. Dalton teaches elementary physical education and Rachel teaches kindergarten. The Pettera’s are relocating as Dalton has accepted a position as 7-12 Principal at Perkins County School in Grant, Neb.

Stephanie Gaulke, 2nd-grade teacher, has also resigned. Gaulke has taught at MPS for twelve years and stated in her resignation letter that she wants to focus her attention on her family’s needs.

High school math teacher Benjamin Weyeneth has also resigned after completing two years of teaching at MPS. Superintendent Grant Norgaard told the board that Weyeneth plans to focus on farming.

Two MHS alums will be joining the staff of MPS in the Fall.

Laurel Schmidt will graduate from UNK with a Bachelor of Arts in Education - Early Childhood Inclusion this May. Schmidt will be teaching kindergarten and will start at BA+0, Step 1 with a salary of $39,300. Norgaard told the board that the certification that Schmidt has earned will allow her to work with the primary grade levels and also with special education needs.

Alexis Goodenberger is also a graduate of MPS and earned her Bachelor of Science in Education and Human Sciences from UNL in December. She will be teaching third grade in the Fall and will also start at BA+0, Step1 with a salary of $39,300. She has been a substitute for the district over the past year. She did her student teaching at Southwest High School.

Lorri Grafel will be teaching second grade. She is an experienced teacher and has been substituting for McCook Public Schools and Hitchcock County Schools since 2021. Before that, she taught at Hitchcock County for nine years. Norgaard told the board that they were really excited to have Grafel join the staff. She was hired at BA+9, Step 8 with a salary of $53,448.

McCook Elementary Principal Greg Borland commented that Grafel had multiple offers from area districts. He said she chose McCook in part because of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) processes. PLCs allow educators opportunities to directly improve teaching and learning by building strong relationships between team members and reflecting on ideas, new research, and technology tools for the classroom. “It’s something [the PLC process] that got us a very high-quality teacher,” Borland said.