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Board approves personnel moves, hires special-education director and OKs policy first readings
Summary
The Winthrop School Board approved personnel recommendations — including promotion of probationary teachers and hiring Kim Gurney as special-education director — and voted to approve first readings of updated internet-use and staff-gift policies; routine approvals also included a high-school cross-country trip.
The Winthrop School Board approved several routine personnel and policy items in a meeting that also featured extended public comment on unrelated policy drafting.
The board approved the superintendent's recommendations to advance first-year probationary teachers to first- and second-year probationary status and to move second-year probationary teachers to continuing contract status. Both motions were moved, seconded and carried by voice vote; the chair recorded the motions as carried (one by majority and the other unanimous), but no roll-call tallies were read into the record.
On an appointment, the board voted to employ Kim Gurney as the district's special education director for the 2026–27 school year following a hiring-committee recommendation. Dr. Foley described Gurney as bringing 12 years of educational experience, including the past three years in Winthrop as a behavior interventionist; Gurney told the board she was "excited and honored" for the opportunity.
The board also approved first readings of updated policies IJNDB (to be renamed Student Computer and Internet Use), IJNDB-R (rules aligned to that policy) and GBI (Staff Gifts and Solicitations). Megan White, the director of teaching and learning, said the internet-use policy is a substantive overhaul of a 2012 policy, shifts emphasis from definitions and a 2012-era "internet safety" approach to expectations and rules for district-issued laptops, adds enforcement language including possible law-enforcement referral in some cases, clarifies that final decisions about device access rest with building principals, and moves network-etiquette guidance into handbooks rather than policy. GBI would raise the nominal value limit for staff gifts from $50 to $100.
The board approved an overnight field trip for the high-school cross-country team to Camp Kawanhee in Weld, Maine for Aug. 20–21, 2026; coach Mr. Van Tassel described the trip as a team-building opportunity and noted a long tradition of an annual camp trip.
What the votes mean None of the personnel or policy items adopted at the meeting were contingent on further outside approvals; the policy approvals were for first reading, meaning the board and policy committee will continue to refine language before final adoption. The special-education director's appointment is scheduled to take effect for the 2026–27 school year and the district will begin onboarding.
Ending The board entered executive session later in the meeting to review the superintendent's evaluation; no public action followed that session.
