News

Blechle approved as new CHS AD

Posted February 16, 2017 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Editor@heraldtrib.com

Chester High School has its next athletic director.

On Thursday, the Chester District 139 Board of Education approved - pending proper certification and at a salary to be determined - promoting current CHS dean of students and teacher Jeremy Blechle to the combined role of administrative assistant (also known as assistant principal) and AD for the 2017-18 school year.

As a result of that decision, CHS is now officially looking for its 20th football coach and 17th baseball coach in school history as the district has a policy that personnel in administrative roles cannot coach.

“I think he’ll do great and I’m very comfortable with that choice,” said District Superintendent Rick Goodman. “He’s from the community, he knows the kids, he knows baseball and football like the back of his hand, he’s familiar with officials - so he’ll know which ones we want to call and which ones we might want to forget to call.

“I have total confidence he’s going to do a good job. It’s a learning process for him.”

Blechle, 34, will take over for retiring athletic director Mike Coffey, now in his 12th year in the position, at the conclusion of the current academic year. Blechle will coach the baseball Yellow Jackets for perhaps the final time this spring.

Goodman noted that Blechle, as the future AD, will have input on the selection process for the Yellow Jackets’ next football and baseball coaches, whom Goodman said he hopes to have finalized at the March meeting of the board.

“He will have definite input as the AD,” Goodman said. “I will rely on him to be part of the process.”

In other news, the board approved the resignation of CHS volleyball coach Chad Koenegstein, who moved to Colorado after the 2016 season.

Koenegstein led the Lady Yellow Jackets to a 45-17 record in his two seasons as coach, including a school record-breaking 28-3 campaign last season.

But Chester failed to win a game at its own regional - losing to eventual regional champion Red Bud in three sets - extending the Lady Yellow Jackets’ streak to six seasons without a postseason victory.

A search for Koenegstein’s replacement began immediately. Goodman told media after the meeting that Koenegstein submitted his resignation via text message to Coffey.

“He basically sent him a text and said that he wouldn’t be back,” Goodman said. “We just found that out, might have been the first part of last week or the week before.

“So we’ve been kinda waiting around, otherwise we were trying to get ahold of him to see what he’s gonna do.”

During public comment, the board heard from two individuals - Tammy Brockhouse and Lucy Phillips - who have a combined 35 years of experience in food services and other roles in the district.

Both ladies stated they felt their qualifications were overlooked during consideration for the head cook role at CHS, and asked the board to reconsider their applications.

In the end, the board approved Elisha Gaertner, who was listed on the meeting’s agenda for possible approval, as the new head cook for six hours per day/180 days per year beginning with the 2017-18 school year.

Goodman was asked after the meeting if the pair’s concerns were brought up during consideration of Gaertner for the role.

“Basically, we just reviewed the process,” Goodman said. “And (the board) supported the administration as far as what they felt was the best.

“Those are hard nuts to crack. It’s never, never good when you have to do that.”

During his report to the board, Goodman brought up the state’s school construction list as part of a discussion on possible future replacement of the 1925 wing of CHS.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, Chester District 139 was included on the fiscal year 2004 list of pending applications.

“Schools could sign up for new construction,” Goodman said. “Back when the state was throwing some money in for new construction.

“But you had to qualify for it. Your building had to be so old or had to, through an inspection by the (Regional Office of Education), be unsafe in some areas.”

Goodman said schools that met the criteria would get on a list and the state would go down the list and select projects based upon need.

“We’re getting close to the top of that list,” he said. “I don’t know the exact date we got on the list, I might be able to research that and find out, but along with that, there’s a lot of decisions if it comes up.

“Are you gonna work on a new school? Are you gonna just replace half of it or whatever. Those are all things we would have to meet, get the architect involved, then there’s normally a 25 percent match you had to have with it.”

Goodman also gave an update on other building projects, including the proposed bathrooms/concession stand building at W.O. Smith Field.

He stated that after discussions with Earl Kleidon of Baysinger Architects, it was determined that the 2011 blueprints previously brought to the board were “doable,” but would need some tweaks.

“It comes down to money for me,” Goodman said.

Goodman noted that the low range cost for the project is $500,000, with the high range at $750,000.

“Unless we want to restructure something, that’s a lot of money,” he said.

After the meeting, he was asked about the scoreboard project for the football field, which would replace the current 20-year-old model.

“We are making progress,” Goodman said. “We are working on funding for it, so we’re trying to come up with some ideas.

“So, it’s definitely in the works.”

Goodman added that he felt “confident” there will be a new scoreboard for the football Yellow Jackets.

Roundup

• Board member Dan Colvis requested a breakdown, at the start of each fiscal year, of projected income per line item in the district’s budget and what the projected sales tax would be. Goodman stated the district receives roughly $47,000 per month from the county’s 1 percent sales tax.

• District Curriculum Director Shirley Stegmann noted that CHS sophomores were taking the pre-ACT test on March 1, with the PARCC test for CGS students in grades 3 through 8 occurring in early March.

CHS juniors are scheduled to take the SAT test on April 5.

Stegmann also highlighted CGS special education teacher Rosie Tindall’s traveling coffee bar, which launched in October 2016 and is now offered every Friday. The program teaches her students functional job skills in a real-life situation.

• CGS Principal Tim Lochhead noted McTeacher’s Night is scheduled for March 7 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. He also reported on professional development surveys from the regional office of education on strategies to help struggling students.

• CHS Principal Sarah Gass reported on bell schedule changes for the 2017-18 school year. She noted the school would add an additional lunch period next year due to overcrowding.

Lunch periods would be A, B and C, with the majority of the students in the A and C lunches. The advisory period would also move to the end of the day.

Gass also stated that adding an agriculture program, which the board has previously discussed, was a possibility.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “But there’s a lot of promising features to that program.”

Gass also announced the fall registration dates as July 31 (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and Aug. 1-2 (1 p.m. to 7 p.m.). Freshman Academy will occur Aug. 7-9.

• Superintendent Rick Goodman noted that the district finally received the remaining $650,000 from the Capital Development Board that was left over from the state’s portion of the CGS gymnasium project.

That money will go back into the district’s building fund.

“I’m very pleased to get that,” Goodman said. “It was very frustrating.”

• The board approved the following CHS volunteer softball coaches for 2016-17: Dan Colvis, Ryan Petrowske and Mark Surman.

• The board approved the following CHS volunteer baseball coaches for 2016-17: Trevor Kelkhoff, Boyd Miles, Mike Heffernan and Glenn Long.

• The board approved Jim West and Stan Myers as CHS volunteer track coaches for 2016-17.

• The board approved Daniel Boone, Jason Korando and Donald Brockmeyer ad CHS volunteer bass fishing coaches for 2016-17.

• The board authorized Goodman to begin interviewing for auditing services for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

• The board approved employing the following coaches: Daniel Dunn (7th grade girls basketball), Shannon McDonough (CGS head track), Jade Jolley (CGS track assistant), Craig Mitchell (CHS softball assistant), Billy Belton (CHS baseball assistant), Curt Gilpin (CHS girls track assistant) and Steve Spears (CHS boys track assistant).

• The board approved employing Brian Berkbuegler as a 12 month/8 hour per day CGS night custodian at $9.25 per hour beginning Feb. 17.

• The board approved reassigning Rebecca Stueve from 3-hour CHS cafeteria aide to 6-hour CHS cook beginning with the 2017-18 school year.

• The board approved reassigning Brian McMath for one year as a 8-hour CHS head custodian for the 2017-18 school year at $15.38 per hour for a total of $32,000.

• The board approved employing Shirley Stegmann as half-time district curriculum director (10 months) and half-time CHS science teacher for 2017-18 school year. Board member Troy Clendenin grudgingly voted “yes,” while stating he despised giving up a full-time curriculum position.

• The board approved extending a two-year contract to current CHS Principal Sarah Gass for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years at a salary to be determined.

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