Athens hires technology education teacher
The Athens Board of Education unanimously voted to approve Shawn Steinke as the new middle/high school technology education teacher at its meeting on March 16.
Steinke, a native and resident of Athens, will replace Kevin Koehler in the position. The school board accepted Koehler’s resignation at the end of this school year at its February meeting.
School board members voted 6-0, with Steve Janke not in attendance, to hire Steinke. Jeff Mastin, Athens schools superintendent, participated in the meeting by telephone while under self quarantine because of the coronavirus.
Juli Gauerke Peter, Athens middle and high school principal, made a recommendation to the school board that it hire Steinke for the job beginning on July 1. She said a committee intereviewed Steinke and one other candidate on March 4.
Steinke has received some education at UW-Stout and he is currently studying at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau while working at Marathon Cheese Corp. in Marathon City. He would apply for a work experience based teaching license.
Mastin said via speaker phone the Athens School District was fortunate to have two candidates with hands on work experience interview for the job, considering it’s difficult for schools to find people who want to be a technology education teacher.
“Shawn comes to us not only as a sound community member but he also was a student in the Athens technology program when it was strong and now we are trying to rebuild it,” Mastin said.
In other news:
_ The school board accepted the first reading of a graduation requirements policy. It would allow the Athens Class of 2023 two-and-a-half more credits of electives as part of the 26 total credits high school students need to graduate.
The Class of 2023 would only need three credits of social studies, which is required by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, to graduate. Athens High School students are currently required to take three-and-a-half credits of social studies to graduate. The Class of 2023 also won’t be required to take two credits of career and technical education and/or world languages.
