LIMA — The Lima City Board of Education on Monday approved a recommendation to terminate the contract of a teacher who failed to appear on her first day of work.
During its regular meeting, the board unanimously voted in favor of ending its contract with Amanda Holler, who is employed as a special-education teacher at West Middle School.
Superintendent Jill Ackerman said Holler was a new hire who was under a one-year contract with the district. According to Ackerman, Holler had sent an email indicating she does not intend to fulfill her contractual obligation with the district. Holler did not provide a reason why she was refusing to report for work, Ackerman said.
“We told her she is under contract and that she needed to come and at least let us try to seek a replacement, but she just didn’t show up,” Ackerman said.
A substitute teacher has been called in to temporarily replace Holler, and Ackerman said the board is “actively looking to fill the position.”
Holler had previously signed a letter of intent with the district, and her contract was approved by the board in early August. If Holler decides to fight her termination, she has 15 days to request a hearing before the board. If no hearing is scheduled, the board is expected to proceed with a formal action to terminate her contract on Sept. 22.
Monday’s board meeting also featured a presentation from the district’s special-education director, Brian Wischmeyer, who provided an update regarding his department.
Wischmeyer said he lost a “good chunk” of his department after the 2014-15 school year, but was able to fill all 30 open positions except for two special services case managers. These are new positions the district created because of the lack of school psychologists applying for jobs.
Case managers will support the school psychologist, performing classroom observations, clerical work and more. Ackerman said there seems to be a “high level of interest” in the position based on the number of phone calls and emails she has received from potential applicants.
Lima schools employs one school psychologist who represents the entire district.
