ROCHELLE — At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Rochelle Elementary School District Board of Education unanimously approved personnel measures including its yearly renewals of staff members. 

Re-employment of certificated first-year teachers for the 2024-2025 school year included: Vanessa Belmonte (Spanish social studies support at Rochelle Middle School), Aleigha Bialas (counselor at Central School), Jessica Kiesling (special education at Tilton School), Anna Kray (fifth grade at Tilton), Samantha Lower (special education at Tilton), Noah Mershon (seventh grade social studies at RMS), Justine Miller (eighth grade physical education at RMS), Megan Monfils (third grade at Central), Kate O’Neil (sixth grade English language arts at RMS), Elisa Rubeck (reading specialist at Lincoln School) and Betsie Swartz (third grade monolingual at Central).

Re-employment of certificated second-year teachers for the 2024-2025 school year included: Tracy Alford (second grade at Central), Lillian Andrew (art at RMS),  Katelyn Gabbard (first grade at Lincoln), Bryan Garcia Belmonte (bilingual special education at RMS), Alyssa Hansen (kindergarten at Lincoln), MiKayla Hussey (second grade at Central), Shannon McGraw (fourth grade English as a second language at Tilton), Katie Sullivan (second grade at Central), and  Stephanie Tepinski (ELA at RMS). 

Re-employment of certificated third-year teachers for the 2024-2025 school year included: Yensy Garcia (third grade at Central), Karen Hall (special education at Lincoln), Jessica Hickey (ELA seventh grade at RMS), Stacey Horstmeier (third grade at Central), Jeannette Mingus (fourth grade at Tilton), Julie Slack (first grade at Lincoln), and Amy Springmire (fourth grade bilingual at Tilton). 

Approval was also given to rehire Phoebe Hughes (special education at RMS), a third-year teacher, for tenure beginning 2024-2025. The board also rehired fourth-year teachers for tenure beginning in 2024-2025 including Jeannie Matura (ESL at RMS) and Jocelyn Ortiz (first grade bilingual at Lincoln). 

The rehiring of non-tenured, non-certified teachers was approved including: Christina Calvey (first grade at Lincoln), Jennifer Hernandez (fifth grade at Tilton), Peyton Lumzy (PE, music and art substitute teacher), Ale Tenorio (prekindergarten dual teacher at Stepping Stones Preschool), Alva Valle (district bilingual substitute), and Sam Volkert (substitute teacher at RMS). 

The board approved the resignations of certified staff members including: Yharosliv Cruz (third grade bilingual teacher), Aimee Hayes (special education teacher at Tilton), Cassandra Inman (art at Lincoln and Tilton), Heather Sandlin (paraprofessional/in-school suspension supervisor), and Alexandria Vanderkolk (fourth grade at Tilton). 

The board approved the non-renewal of certified staff for the 2024-2025 school year including: Summer Linboom (long-term substitute/math interventionist substitute at Lincoln) and Alexa Ochoa (bilingual interventionist at Lincoln).

In its regular monthly personnel item, the board unanimously approved changes to certificated staff including the hiring of Karissa Dobson (summer HUB Program teacher), the hiring for the 2024-2025 school year of Marisol Garcia (third grade bilingual teacher at Central) and Juanita Saldana (sixth grade bilingual math teacher at RMS), the transfers for the 2024-2025 school year of Jennifer Herrera (full-time substitute to first grade dual teacher at Lincoln), Christina Bogle (reading teacher to student growth coach at Central), Jackie Ramsey (district curriculum coach to RMS student growth coach), and Morgan Sarver (third grade teacher to math interventionist at Central), and the future retirements of Sara Daugherty (fourth grade teacher, end of 2026-2027 school year) and Karen Anderson sixth grade PE teacher, end of 2026-2027 school year). 

Bus contract

The board unanimously approved a new Illinois Central School Bus contract with a rate increase. Illinois Central School Bus contracts with the district for routes for students with special needs (Ogle County Educational Cooperative and early childhood). The contract is for fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026.