ALPENA – Students and parents will see lots of new faces around Alpena Public Schools this school year because the Board of Education approved new hires on Monday.

Associate Superintendent for Human Resources and Labor Relations Justin Gluesing said it’s been a busy hiring cycle for the district.

“Since our last meeting, we did have four teachers accept positions in other communities or within our own community, so we had four additional vacancies with some as recent as the last 10 days,” Gluesing said. “It has and will continue to be a busy time as we move forward right into the start of the school year.”

At Besser Elementary School, Kristi LeMonds was hired as a third grade teacher and Kayla Setcoski was hired as a second grade teacher.

At Ella White Elementary School, Rogue McElveen was hired as a third grade teacher, Heather Martin was hired as a fourth grade teacher, and Amy Konieczny was hired as a junior kindergarten teacher.

Timothy Hoggard was hired as a fourth grade teacher at Hinks Elementary School.

Lincoln Elementary School will have Jennifer Phifer as a third grade teacher and Mindy Shultz as a second grade teacher.

At Sanborn Elementary School, Allison Warren was hired as a fourth grade teacher and Amanda Nielsen Whaley was hired as a fifth grade teacher.

Grant Fiedler was hired as an elementary physical education teacher who will work at Lincoln, Sanborn, and Wilson elementary schools.

At Alpena High School, Katie Lee was hired as the F-House assistant principal, Jesse Pattison was hired as the dean of students, and Jason Patterson was hired as a science teacher.

Austin Wordell was hired as a social studies teacher at Alternative Choices for Educational Success (ACES) Academy.

Jeana Bellanger was hired as secretary to the director of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and state/federal programs office.

Mary Lyon was hired as the district’s new associate superintendent for business and operations. Diane Block is retiring from the associate superintendent position in December, so a transition period will be taking place the next few months.

The new dispatcher and communications liaison for the transportation department is Paul Denstaedt.

There will be two student teachers this fall: Joe Mercer and Abbie Kowalski from Central Michigan University.

Gluesing said there will be a new hire reception before the next board meeting on Sept.17, during which board members can meet the new hires and get to know them.

“Each has a unique story,” he said. “Some are familiar to us, but I’ve really gotten to know each of them a little bit over these last weeks and months.”

The new hires are conditional upon background checks and reference checks.

In other business:

The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on Monday also:

∫ approved 37 non-traditional online courses,

∫ approved a new phone system from Millennia Technologies for $169,643.56.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5688.