The Gillingham Charter School board is looking for new members after accepting two letters of resignation Thursday at the board meeting.
Board president Marsha Chwastiak announced that Rick Werkheiser and Sherrilyn Chiu will resign.
She said the board was sad to see them go. Werkheiser resigned after accepting a job position out of the county and Chiu resigned for personal reasons, she said.
Those interested in serving on the board may call Dawn Housel at the school at 570-955-3830.
In other news, the board voted to hire six teachers for the 2014-15 school year: Taia Bachman, upper school science teacher at a salary of $32,000; Matt Kercher, elementary teacher for $33,800; Staci Luck, middle school math and science teacher $33,000; Megan Piasecki, special education teacher, $37,000; Brent Potteiger, Latin teacher, $39,000; and Peter Sanfilippo, physical education and health teacher at $40,000, with an additional $2,000 for maintaining his position as athletic director.
Also regarding employees, two employees will get more money in their paychecks after the board approved one-time stipends for them.
Tara Cromis and Dawn Housel, both administrative assistants, each will receive an additional amount of $2,500 for the extra work they are doing after Christie L. Werkheiser, the former director of organizational development, resigned previously.
In other action, the board took steps to upgrade security at its buildings, which were all approved unanimously by the board.
The first was for an office building security alarm with Dynamark Security Inc. not to exceed $545, including a monthly monitoring of $49.95. The second security upgrade proposal was for the school building not to exceed a cost of $1,420 with a monitoring fee of $49.95.
The board also voted to approve a fire alarm monitoring system proposal from Dynamark not to exceed $500. However, the monthly monitoring cost was not approved and will be further discussed at a later time.
Other upgrades approved were two contracts for art room renovations: one for the room’s sink not to exceed $2,000 and a second for the room’s door and window for the reception area in the administration building not to exceed $2,880.
During the meeting, the board announced changes students will experience during the upcoming school year, starting Aug. 25. The first regarded the cue to change classes. Instead of a spoken announcement over the loudspeaker, classical music will be played.
Ken Kilpatrick, communications spokesman for the school, donated four guitars to the school to allow more students access to the instruments for practice. At the meeting, three Gillingham students showcased their musical talent by playing the guitars for the board.
“The board obviously wants to thank Mr. Kilpatrick for his donation. We are very grateful,” Chwastiak said.