Wausa Public Schools Board hires new business teacher
Mark Mahoney
Wausa Gazette
WAUSA – Wausa Public Schools has found its replacement for retiring business education teacher Dawn Friedrich.
The school district’s board of education approved on Feb. 21 the hiring of Mariah Petersen as a business education teacher for the 2022-23 academic year.
Superintendent Brad Hoesing noted Petersen, a student at Wayne State College in Wayne, is currently a student teacher at Lyons-Decatur Northeast Schools.
“She got very high marks from her supervising teacher as well as the business professor at Wayne State,” he said.
Hoesing told board members Friedrich looked into Petersen’s educational background.
“She felt good about it, so I feel good about it,” he said.
Shane Anderson, Wausa’s principal for grades 5-12, had called around to various colleges about business education students who were going to soon enter the workforce and found out there were going to be 14 of them for 17 open teaching positions in the region.
“I feel very fortunate that we found someone,” he said. “Somebody’s not getting somebody. It’s just a competitive market, especially in areas like that.”
Anderson met Petersen at a teacher fair in January. She had expressed interest to him in applying for Wausa’s business education teacher position.
“She comes very highly recommended,” he said. “She’s sharp. She’s willing to be involved with some other things outside of just teaching.”
Anderson noted that Petersen participated in a wide variety of activities while she attended Bancroft-Rosalie High School in Bancroft.
He described her as a “small-town girl” who wants to stay in northeast Nebraska and believed that she would be a good fit for Wausa.
Part of the job Petersen will take over from Friedrich will be serving as the adviser for Wausa FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America).
Anderson told board members that he has talked with Petersen about potentially being Wausa’s National Honor Society adviser, which is another role Friedrich has held.
“She expressed interest in wanting to coach some things as well,” he said. “What we told her she had to do was just the teaching and the FBLA part.”
Hoesing noted that young teachers need time when they come into a new job to establish connections with students.
“People that have taught for a while, they adapt and change lesson plans year to year,” he said. “For a young teacher, that first year is always the worst because everything’s new to them.”
If Petersen does not end up taking over as Wausa’s National Honor Society adviser, Anderson noted that he is sure someone else would be willing to fill that role.
“What she currently is teaching at Lyons and what she feels her strengths are is basically exactly what Dawn is teaching right now,” he said.
Anderson recalled from his conversation with Petersen that she had been involved in FBLA when she was in high school and was also familiar with Wausa’s chapter under Friedrich’s leadership.
“What excited her about the job was just knowing Ms. Friedrich and the quality of the kids that she produces,” he said.
The 2022 Nebraska FBLA State Leadership Conference is set for April 11-13 in Kearney.
Anderson noted that Petersen has signed up for the conference and plans to attend with Lyons-Decatur Northeast students as well as communicate and work with Friedrich while they are both there.
Hoesing informed board members that Lyons-Decatur Northeast had been attempting to create a job opening in order to keep Petersen, which told him that she is a good hire for Wausa.
“She’s not bad if you’re trying to create a position for her,” he said.
OTHER BUSINESS:
In other agenda items on Feb. 21, the Wausa Public Schools Board of Education:
-Approved Houghton Mifflin Harcourt math curriculum for middle school students, which are grades 5-8.
“The ESSER III funds are a part of the COVID-19 moneys that the government sent us,” Superintendent Brad Hoesing said in a follow-up interview.
“It will cost approximately $23,000, but will cost the district $0 because it meets the federal government’s criteria for reimbursement,” he said.
The school district uses the same curriculum for prekindergarten-fourth grade, so it will also better align to what students are currently being taught in the lower elementary grades.
-Approved a Section 125 Flexible Fringe Benefits Plan with American Fidelity for the school district’s employees to be effective on Sept. 1 of this year.
“TASC – the current Section 125 cafeteria plan company we work with – kept increasing their fees, to the point where I felt it was costing us too much money,” Hoesing said.
“American Fidelity’s cafeteria plan is a free service,” he said. “They only ask that the school use them for the optional 403(b) investments that the school staff can take advantage of if they wish.”
Hoesing noted that both benefit plans will not cost the school district any money.
“No change to staff benefits will occur, and now we will streamline the paperwork for both entities into one seamless operation,” he said. “It’s a win-win for us, and we can reallocate the money that we would have spent on ‘fees’ to support for kids.”
-Approved a financial package for Shane Anderson, Wausa’s principal for grades 5-12, for the 2022-23 academic year.
His annual salary will rise by 3 percent from $91,717 to $94,554. This increase will take effect on Aug. 1.
The school board’s next regular meeting will occur at 8 p.m. Monday, March 21, in the Wausa Public Schools’ board/meeting room.
