Staffing Changes At Local Schools

By Gordon HopkinsStudents will be seeing some new faces at some local public schools, as well as missing some familiar faces.Fairbury Public SchoolsAt a meeting of the Fairbury Public Schools Board of Education, members voted to hire five new teachers: Tiffany Hall as elementary teacher; Jacob Johnson as secondary physical education teacher; Delainey Novotny for elementary SPED (Special Education); Makayla McCoy as elementary teacher and Jennifer Thomas as elementary teacher, all for the 2023-2024 school year.The board also accepted the resignations of Laura Mohr, Kindergarten teacher; Delaney Hamel, Family and Consumer Science Teacher; and Colby Hamel, high school physical education teacher.Diller-Odell Public SchoolAt a meeting of the Board of Education, Diller-Odell Public School hired a new art teacher, Robin Klaus. The board also accepted the resignation of teacher Brooke Linemann.Southern School DistrictThe hiring of two new teachers was approved by the Southern District Public Schools Board of Education at a meeting the evening of Monday, March 13, 2023.Jake Voorhis was hired as the K-12 Vocal Music Teacher for the 2023-2024 School Year.Voorhis is a music educator living in Beatrice. He is a guitarist, bassist, and vocalist primarily but has said he enjoys every time he gets to make music no matter the medium. Voorhis has studied vocal and instrumental music for the past 12 years and has been teaching music for the last four. He attended Chadron State College from 2014-2018 where he graduated with an Applied Music degree.In Chadron, Voorhis also met his wife Megan Voorhis, who is also a music educator and is now the Music K-12 teacher at Lewiston Consolidated School. He began his teaching career in Lincoln, teaching private guitar and bass lessons in 2019. After falling in love with teaching there, he went on to complete the Post Baccalaureate Music Teacher Certification program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in December, 2022.Shortly thereafter, Megan and Jake welcomed their first son, Bowen, into the world in February 2023.Ashley McConnell was hired to be the second grade teacher for the 2023-2024 school year.McConnell has been an elementary teacher for nine years. She graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) with an early education and special education unified degree.Before teaching, she received a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising and a minor in marketing from UNL.She currently lives in Pickrell with her husband Matt, daughter Linley and son Alden. She said in her biography that was presented to the school board, “In my free time I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, having barbecues, reading, and shopping.”

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