Prairie View board confirms new football coach, accepts retirement of math teacher

LA CYGNE – The Prairie View USD Board of Education on Tuesday, Oct. 21, made the change in the head football coaching job official, accepted the retirement of a teacher who has been with the district a quarter century, and approved the half million dollar replacement of a section of roof.

The board in a unanimous vote changed the status of middle school science teacher Joe Cullor from interim head high school football coach to the head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season. Cullor, previously an assistant coach, took over the head coach job when Jason Spradling was fired by the board on Oct. 6. The district has not released the reason for terminating all of Spradling’s contracts.

Board member Brad Heide hesitated before making a motion to accept the retirement of high school math teacher Tamala Snyder. He seemed apologetic as he made the motion, one he said he was reluctant to make, to accept Snyder’s retirement at the end of the 2025-26 school year next May.

Snyder has been a key member of the faculty and has taught at Prairie View for 29 years of the 35 years she has been teaching. Snyder, who usually attends board meetings as a representative of the district’s teacher association was absent at the meeting.

Superintendent Chris Johnson read a written statement from Snyder. In it Snyder said she had enjoyed working for the district.

“I’m proud to have been a part of such a fine school system,” a portion of Snyder’s statement said.

The Prairie View district is being chosen as one of only six sites across the state to be included in a move by the state to create new offerings for its Healthier Kansas Menu. The district was visited by Kelley Cheney, state director of Child Nutrition and Wellness, during School Lunch Week in October and she asked that the district join the pilot program, according to a written report by district food service director Todd Willard.

Wollard also reported that in the first 50 days of the 2025-26 school year, more than 39,400 meals had been served, including almost 24,600 lunches and nearly 14,900 breakfasts. He said that was an increase over last year and indicated a trend of more students eating meals prepared at the schools across the district.

Wollard also reported that the district had received its first delivery of beef under the district’s farm-to-plate program. The district this year is purchasing beef from three sources – Matthew Stolle’s FFA project, James and Vickie Brownback and Jingo Beef.

The district continues to receive weekly deliveries of produce from Rocky Suns Farm near Cadmus and Courage Farms near Beagle. Wollard is looking at applying for a U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm-to-Plate grant due in December.

He also said that two hydroponic towers for growing lettuce are in the high school cafeteria and should be operational soon.

The board also accepted a bid of more than $505,000 by J.B. Turner & Sons, a commercial roofing company based in Topeka. That company’s bid was not the lowest, however.

Darrel Kohlman with CDS, the school district’s construction management company, said that the lowest bid came from a company that didn’t have the experience or references that Turner & Sons had.

The district also has plans to replace the roof over two more sections – sections C and B – soon.

In other business:

• The board also approved a bid from Allegiant for more than $196,000 to upgrade the phone system.

• Heard a report by Assistant Superintendent Joseph Hornback, who said that for the first time an online portal was being set up for parents to be able to log in and see student’s test scores. He said he hoped to have that in place before parent conferences.

• The board also approved a resolution thanking Linn County News reporter Tony Furse for his coverage of Prairie View board meetings and events over the past decade. Furse, a former teacher at Burlington and substitute teacher at Prairie View, began working part-time for the newspaper in 2015.