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Board hiring teacher from Australia |
2010-07-19 |
By |
A teacher from Australia has been hired to teach drama at McIntosh High School this year after the board of education voted to contract with an outside company for her services.
The presence of Lee Wright at Tuesday night's called meeting provided enough votes for the board to contract with Global Teaching Services to hire Tanya Gruber, a certified teacher who is not an American citizen. The vote was 3-1 with Bob Todd voting "no." Marion Key was absent. Wright was absent two weeks ago when the contract was first brought before the board, and the vote was tied with Janet Smola and Terri Smith voting for the hiring, and Key and Todd voting against.
At that meeting and again Tuesday, human services director Reanee Ellis explained that the school system had used outside companies in the past to help fill positions that were difficult to find good candidates for, such as speech therapists, occupational and physical therapists and teachers for advanced math and sciences.
Ellis said the McIntosh drama department has been through a tough time, with five teachers and long-term substitutes over the course of three years. Principal Lisa Fine was present at Tuesday's meeting to confirm that she had interviewed several candidates for the job, but had not been able to find anyone as qualified as Tanya Gruber, who has worked with several school systems and has volunteered in Fayette County as well. The Fayette School System cannot hire her since it does not hire employees on work visas.
Fine said her main consideration was to hire a teacher who is able to grow the drama program at McIntosh. The long-term sub who was hired to complete the last school year has no high school experience, only elementary school experience along with work in community theater, Ellis noted. "The students deserve a stable, consistent teacher," she said.
Global's fee for providing the teacher will be $8,000. The local school system will save about $6,000 by contracting with Global, Ellis pointed out, since the school system will not be paying for Gruber's benefits.
Todd said he had no problem with Gruber as an individual, but said he could not support the contract when he was sure there were unemployed teachers in the metro area.
Smola clarified with Fine and Ellis that Gruber was the best qualified person they had found after the position was advertised.
Acting Superintendent Fred Oliver recommended the board approve the contract with Global, but clarified that hiring an outside company would never be the school system's first option.
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Comments:
Brady Stonica writes: Tanya happens to be a former teacher and current friend of mine...she helped with my school's fine arts department throughout the past school year, WHITEWATER HIGH SCHOOL. She is excellent and teaches far beyond the common "Drama" teacher. There is NO ONE better suited for this job. I may be biases but only because I've been blessed to experienced her exemplary teaching on stage! She has helped me immensely, and I had a superior theater teacher, Susan Simich, to begin with! I thank god McIntosh was able to see then potential for an outstanding teacher/director in Tanya
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