Eight More Teachers to Retire

More changes are taking place in Port Washington-Saukville schools as the School Board hired a new elementary teacher and gave the green light to eight more teacher retirements at a special meeting Monday night.

Michael Thomley, currently director of instruction at QSI International School of Chengdu in China, will join the district July 1 as principal of .

The Lincoln Elementary principal position opened up as the current principal,  The district's high school prinicipal position opened up as the current principal,  will take the job of the district's retiring director of special services, .

The board also approved eight of 11 retirement requests that came in after the board . The deadline was extended to allow for up to eight additional retirements that would trim $200,000 from the district's 2011-12 budget.

Sixteen teachers and staff already opted to retire as of the initial Feb. 1 deadline. The board extended the deadline earlier this month as an extra measure to help balance the district's budget, a task made more difficult this year due to the controversial state budget and the related poperty tax freeze that prevents the district from increasing its tax levy.

The eight approved retirees include: Marti Christiansen, a business education teacher at ; Deb Dassow, a high school social studies teacher; Steve Farnsworth, who works in special education at the high school; Bob Kaczmarczik, a high school German teacher; Kathy LeMahieu, a kindergarten and special education teacher at ; Catherine Pinchott, a teacher in special education at Lincoln Elementary; Mary Wozny, a first-grade teacher at Dunwiddie Elementary; and Mary Ann Zuber, a special education teacher for the district.

“We’re losing some really top-notch people. We’ve got some great leaders (retiring) — and we’re going to miss them a lot,” Superintendent Michael Weber said. “Others are just going to have to step up.”

Lincoln Elmentary's new principal was born in Georgia and raised in Wisconsin.  Thomley began his education career as a teacher in Hudson, Wis., according to the China school's website. He has a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and a master's degree in teaching and learning from St. Mary's University of Minnesota as well as a master's degree in adminstration from UW-River Falls.