L&T staff report
After barely half of his first school year was complete, Superintendent Stephen Linkous resigned, and his resignation was accepted by the USD No. 480 School Board Wednesday during a specially called meeting. The vote to accept the resignation was unanimous.
The board also gave Board President Alan Brown authority to negotiate an “Employment Separation Agreement and Mutual Release” between the district and Linkous, according to the approved resolution.
Monday, the board hosted a public meeting to receive input on Liberal High School’s class schedule which is currently the FlexMod system, and Linkous was not present at that meeting.
Just one week ago, the district also received the resignation of Bryan Luetters as the head coach of the Redskin football program and personal finance instructor.
Luetters pointed out multiple commitments made to his assistant coaches, several of which were interim instructors, which were not kept, and without being able to offer a competitive salary as a first-year teacher, Luetters said he would not be able to provide the type of staff he would need to produce a successful program.
Linkous made proposals to address the lack of certified instructors which included recruiting teachers from the Philippines. The plan was to bring 20 instructors considered to be certified to Liberal to help fill the gap between certified and interim instructors. About one-third of the district’s educators are not certified.
As public concern grew over the changes, the district’s workshop was filled to capacity even though the topic for the evening was to address the high school schedule.
It was not clear whether these events were related to Linkous’ resignation.
Currently, the district has two assistant superintendents, Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque and Ruben Cano.
The board did not designate an interim superintendent at the special meeting Wednesday but will be meeting Monday. At Monday’s meeting the board will receive the vote results from the high school instructional staff on whether they support a schedule change and more than likely will share who will be leading the district while a search for a new superintendent will begin. That meeting will take place in the LHS East Annex.
