With three more hirings, school nears point of all positions filled

    Board members approved hirings of three teachers Tuesday night, moving Chase County Schools to the point of filling all but one open position.
    Teachers for English/language arts, art and science were hired on unanimous votes in a two-hour meeting.
    Erin Konecky, who has taught in the Waverly School District 145 since September 2010 and is the English Department chair, was hired for grade 9-12 English and language arts.
    She also taught English part-time at Doane University from 2012-2020 and was a grade 7-12 English, grade 10-12 speech and creative writing teacher and speech coach at Prague Public Schools from 2008-10.
    A high school graduate of South Platte in Big Springs, Konecky earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from Doane University in 2004. She gained teacher certification in 2008 and completed graduate studies during 2006-10, all at Doane.
    Konecky also has ties to this area. Her mother, Sheila Johsnon, is a former band teacher at Perkins County Schools in Grant.
    CCS 7-12 Principal Mike Sorensen said Konecky and her husband will be moving here with their three children.
    Hired for one of the open high school science positions was Matthew Lagerstrom of White, South Dakota.
    He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with minors in botany, business and math in May 2010 from South Dakota State University in Brookings. He gained a teaching certificate in 2012.
    He received a Master’s of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University in Seward in 2016.
    He spent 2012-18 as a middle and high school science teacher in Wilmot and Grant-Deuel schools in South Dakota, but much of his experience has been with the military.
    As a military student from 1998-2000, Lagerstrom was trained  as a Korean Voice Signal Interceptor.  He was stationed at Camp Humphries in Korea from 2002-03 as a Signals Intelligence Operator, and held several posts at Fort Hood, Texas from 2002-06.
    He retired from military service n September 2018 as Unit Movement Coordinator in Brookings, South Dakota.
    He is currently employed as facility manager at the South Dakota Dept. of the Military in Brookings, where he is responsible for management of daily maintenance and construction at three military facilities.
    Newly-graduated Kaylee Gill of Lincoln was hired for an art teaching position at CCS, and will teach grade 7-8 art classes and possibly a high school ceramics class, Sorensen said.
    She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art and Early Childhood this month from Peru State College.  
    She has done some substitute teaching in Lincoln and Nebraska City schools in art (various grades), kindergarten and preschool.
    She also has experience as a Girl Scouts camp director.
    More on Tuesday’s school board meeting will follow in a story next week.