Hussey Hired as New Middle School Principal

WATONGA – The Watonga Public Schools Board of Education made new hires and approved some big projects during its regular meeting this past Monday, March 7.

Ty Hussey, a longtime Watonga schoolteacher and former head basketball coach, was hired Monday as the new Watonga Middle School principal. He will take that position starting next school year and replace

Joel Zehr, who is retiring after a long career in public education.

“I really liked working under Mr. Zehr,” Hussey said Monday. “He’s done a lot of great things here, and he’s been a good mentor too all us guys who have been coaches.”

This is Hussey’s 16th year with the district, he said. He was the basketball coach for 14 years but left that position two seasons ago so he could watch his daughter, Landri, play basketball. That’s when he and his assistant coach, Shawn Gorman, both started working on a Master’s degree, he said.

“We just went slow and got it done,” Hussey said. “We thought, ‘Well, one of these days we might want to be the principal.’ It definitely worked out.”

Projects, purchases and a stipend

Monday’s meeting was attended by four of the five Watonga school board members. Aaron Clewell, Mayra Flynn, Shawn Cox and Dwight McGee were present, while Andy Wigington was absent. During the meeting, the board heard from Van Storm of Joe D. Hall General Contractors and approved bids for a parking lot project and new elementary school bleachers.

The parking lot, to be located on the southwest corner of the middle school and approved by the board in January, will be built by Weldon Construction. The elementary school bleachers will be retractable, Storm said, and installed by Heartland Seating.

The total cost of the two projects is about $299,000.

The board also approved the purchase of $60,000 worth of new band equipment, mostly instruments. “It’s a big barrier to kids to have to buy an instrument, so it’s always helpful for the program to have some of its own,” Clewell said. “There’s a lot of instruments that you would never expect a kid to purchase, instruments that we move kids to later on in high school so you can have fuller instrumentation. You’re not starting kids on … baritone sax. That one saxophone’s $3,000. You’re not asking a kid to buy that, but you need it in the band, so you have to buy it.”

Finally, the board approved a $1,000 employee retention stipend for staffers who return next year.

“Part of our deal was that we want to retain, rehire and recruit good teachers,” said Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran. “This is part of that. … The third Tuesday of June is the last time a teacher can get out of their contract before they’re locked in for the following year, so we would pay that on June 23.”