As we begin a new school year, the Paton-Churdan School District returns almost their entire staff.

Superintendent Kreg Lensch tells Raccoon Valley Radio, they only had to fill a social studies teacher position, with Chris Peterson resigning at the end of last year to be the high school principal at AR-WE-VA. He will be succeeded by P-C Alumni Makayla Sparr. The District also changed Shannon Hobbs’ position from part-time vocal music to a full-time position with instrumental music, after Greene County School District chose to end a sharing agreement for that position. Last school year, there was no staff turnover for P-C.

As far as updates to the school building, Lensch says they installed new energy efficient exterior windows on the south side, along with adding new carpet and a fresh coat of paint to some of the classrooms. Lensch points out the biggest change was adding a new secure entrance. He says while people should feel safe in small communities, there’s no question that schools should be as secure as possible.

“We really upgraded our security system. For the first time Paton-Churdan is going to have a buzz-in system to make sure that we know at all times who is in our building, who’s coming into our building, and make sure that we can control all of the entrances and exits of our building. So I think that’s a great update for us too.”

To hear more from Lensch, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County Program.