By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Hesston sixth-grade teacher Jenna Fanshier will be principal of Marion Elementary School next school year.

Fanshier, a teacher at Hesston for eight years, was hired to replace principal Justin Wasmuth, who will be superintendent.

Board members also decided Monday to donate a strip of land to a non-profit organization working to develop a child care center in a building in Florence that formerly housed a special education program.

Flint Hills Child Care Corp. approached the school district about the land.

School board members also voted Monday to participate in a teacher-recruitment program developed by Technology Excellence in Education Network in cooperation with Centre, Herington, Hillsboro, Marion, and Peabody-Burns schools.

The five districts will pay stipends of up to $10,000 to graduates who return to teach in local schools. The amount of the stipend would depend on whether they return to the district where they graduated or another district in the TEEN service area.

Interim superintendent Lee Leiker also told board members Monday that he wanted to arrange a public meeting in April to talk about a $3.26 million bond election scheduled for May 9.

Leiker also said he had been approached by the county health department about putting a drive-through exit through the district office parking lot if the department builds a new building at the former site of Marion County Food Bank.