Kingfisher Public Schools had 20 open positions entering the month of June.

The Monday meeting of the school district’s board of education took a big bite out of that.

Two principals, an agriculture education teacher and a new boys basketball coach were among the hires approved by the board during the June regular meeting.

Those hired were:

• Lisa Meier to replace Shane Hood as the Heritage Elementary (second and third grades) principal;

• Chris Farris to replace Stuart Purintun as junior high (seventh and eighth grades) principal;

• Colby Connel as the new boys basketball coach and assistant principal at the high school;

• Stefanie Wolf as the new agriculture education teacher to replace Megan Mueggenborg, who early Monday morning was approved by the Lomega Board of Education to take on that same role there;

• Becki Meuten as a high school history teacher;

• Melody Wilfong as a high school art teacher;

• Hannah Wittrock as a high school math teacher;

• Lanie Lovelace as an upper elementary special education teacher;

• Jennifer Leal as a junior high English language teacher.

The moves were made after a 90-minute executive session, which was part of a meeting that lasted more than two hours and 20 minutes overall.

Part of the executive session was to discuss the personnel moves by members of the board along with Superintendent David Glover.

The executive session - closed to the public also saw Glover and board members speak with the school district’s attorneys regarding the civil suit filed by Mason Mecklenburg.

There was no action item on the agenda regarding the lawsuit.

Some of the new hires were made to fill spots that have been open for several weeks while others filled positions that were recently made open.

On top of Mueggenborg’s resignation, others made public at Monday’s meeting were those of Chris Combs, high school history and coach; Carol Craven, driver’s education and coach; Janet Pennington, high school math; T.J. Harris, high school English IV, AP literature and composition and drama; Jill Haub, junior high English language arts; Emma Wood, upper elementary teacher; and Mariah Storrs, teacher’s aide.

Although there are still multiple positions to fill, Glover said he felt good about the hires made by the district.

“There were a lot of quality applicants for a lot of jobs,” Glover told the Times & Free Press.

Glover said the district was “very fortunate” to land the two new principals in Meier and Farris.

Meier comes to Kingfisher from Lomega. She’s spent 24 years in education, both as a teacher and special education director.

“I hope to bring a new perspective and energy to Heritage,” Meier said. “Mr. Hood left big shoes to fill, but I am up to the challenge. Heritage has a great staff that I’m excited to lead. I look forward to a great future at Kingfisher.”

Glover said, through the interview process, Meier was “the clear choice to replace Mr. Hood.”

Meanwhile, Glover said Farris “came out of nowhere” in the search for a principal and that, after the interview, he knew “this is our guy.”

A 28-year veteran in public education, Harris is the eighth grade principal at Wheeler Middle School in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system.

“We’ve got a great staff which has really helped me and prepared me for this move to Kingfisher as far as curriculum and instruction,” he said.

An Oklahoma City native, he also spent three years at Weatherford as a middle school assistant principal and 15 years at Bethany.

During those stops, he made multiple trips to Kingfi sher.

“I was always impressed when we’d come to Kingfi sher and play,” he said. “I was impressed with the community and the support that they got. I knew that’s where I wanted to be.

“There’s so much potential here.”

Among the other hires, both Wittrock and Wilfong graduated from KHS. (Ed. note: More on Kingfisher’s classroom hires will be included in the annual “Back to School” edition.)

In all, half of Kingfisher’s openings were filled and Glover said he expected more positions to be wrapped up prior to the board’s June 26 meeting (Ed. note: There is no July meeting, so the board annually meets twice in June, the second time near the end of the month to wrap up the end of the fiscal year.)

“We lost some good people, but some good people wanted to come here,” Glover said to the board. “I’m fired up about it.”