Three educators are returning to Kingfisher after brief stints away from the district.

Hired Monday were Kerri Lafferty, Madison (Schaefer) Andrews and Nicole Kippenberger.

They were approved during the Kingfisher Board of Education’s final regular meeting of the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Making the moves unanimous were board members Mike Copeland, Dana Golbek and Charles Walker. Members Brad Wittrock and Bill Reitz were absent from the meeting.

Lafferty will teach eighth grade English at Kingfisher Junior High.

She spent 15 years with KPS teaching a variety of subjects, most recently English, and was also a track and cross country coach for several years.

Lafferty resigned last July to coach those sports and teach eighth grade English at Dover.

The position at KJH opened up when Timmy Winans was moved from the junior high to high school English.

Kippenberger was hired on an adjunct contract to teach in the resource room, which is where students with learning differences can receive additional support and instruction.

A Fairview native, Kippenberger was originally hired at KPS prior to the 2022-23 school year.

She taught science at both the high school and junior high during her tenure and also coached a variety of sports at both the high school and junior high level.

However, Kippenberger was part of the reduction in force the district implemented last December. She accepted a position at Chisholm Public Schools in the interim.

Andrews was hired on an emergency contract to teach fifth grade English at the upper elementary.

She is a 2016 graduate of KHS and was hired in 2021 to teach special education at KUE, which she did for a year.

Superintendent Andy Evans said there is a possibility Kippenberger could do some coaching, but added “we really need her presence in the classroom as much as possible.”

Lafferty did not have any coaching duties assigned to her position.

Those hires were approved after an hour-long executive session.

Among the other moves in the meeting was the conversion of the Oklahoma minimum teacher salary scale to the current KPS salary scale.

House Bill 1087 required a minimum salary increase for teachers.

It ranged from a firstyear teacher with a bachelor’s degree ($39,601) all the way up to 35 years with a doctorate ($65,319).

However, KPS is already paying above those minimums. The amount ranges from $1,750 above minimum to $1,826, depending on the years of service and the degree.

Also approved by board members was an adjunct teacher (non-certified) salary schedule. That pays 88 percent of what a certifi ed teacher makes at each level.

Also attached to the additional funding from the state this year as part of HB 1087 was requiring schools to add an extra instructional day.

Evans said KPS had already taken steps to fall in line with that with the approved 2025-26 school year calendar.

Also, Evans told the KT&FP that the district is standardizing the school day across the district, which “has given more time in the day as well.”

Every school in the district with the exception of Gilmour Elementary will begin at 8 a.m. in 2025-26.

Gilmour will begin at 8:05 a.m. and will release at 3:10 p.m.

The KUE will release students at 3 p.m., Heritage at 3:05 p.m. and both KJH and KHS will dismiss students at 3:15 p.m.

“We added an extra 5.25 days of instructional time by standardizing the extra 15 minutes at the junior high and high school,” Evans said. “This should keep us from having to use virtual days like we did this past spring.”

( Ed. note: More moves from Monday’s meeting, including a financial report from Evans, will be included in our weekend edition.)