PV board to interview six; student service director to be Missouri superintendent

Beth Sandness, Prairie View's director of student services, talks about the attendance program she developed for the district at a recent board meeting. Sandness is leaving at the end of this school year to be superintendent of the Bronaugh R-VII school district in Missouri.

LA CYGNE – Six candidates have been chosen to be interviewed by the Prairie View USD 362 Board of Education members as they seek to fill the superintendent’s post.

Current Superintendent Rex Bollinger, who is taking retirement at the end of this school year in June, said on Monday, Feb. 13, that interviews of the candidates will take place on Feb. 21 and Feb. 23. Three candidates will be interviewed each night.

In related news, the Prairie View board during its meeting on Monday also voted to accept the resignation of Beth Sandness effective at the end of June. Sandness is the director of student services for the district.

She said after the meeting that she has been hired to be the superintendent of the Bronaugh R-VII school district in Bronaugh, Mo. A Prescott resident, Sandness said that the commute to her new job will be only nominally further than her commute to the Prairie View central office now.

Sandness came to Prairie View nine years ago as a curriculum director for the district. Before that she was a teacher at Jayhawk-Linn Junior and Senior high schools. She earned her master’s degree in educational leadership from Pittsburg State University in 2012.

Three years ago, Sandness became student services director and high school principal Joe Hornbeck added curriculum director to his list of duties.

As student services director Sandness has duties have included working with student test scores, oversight of foodservice and other state and federal programs. This year at Prairie View she has also been working on reducing student absenteeism by rewarding students with good attendance records.

In other personnel news from the district, the board accepted the resignation of eighth-grade math teacher Kara Speer effective at the end of the school year.

The board approved hiring Allen Ewald as a middle school math teacher and Brock Huber as a La Cygne Elementary teacher, both beginning Aug. 1. However, Huber was also hired as an assistant baseball coach effective Feb. 27.

Bonnie Kubacka and Breonna Goodwin were hired as substitute teachers and Marissa Brownback was hired as a substitute para/aide.