Wednesday, July 15, 2020

 

Mercer School Board Acts

KOPKA IS IN AS ADMINISTRATOR

 

The Mercer School District has a new administrator – Sheri Lynn Kopka.  She was given the position at a July 13 special Mercer School Board meeting.

 

Kopka was named interim administrator shortly after former administrator Erik Torkelson was placed on medical leave in June 2019.  Torkelson remained on medical leave until this last June 22 when he resigned “for purposes of retirement”.  He probably would have been fired anyway because the new board appeared to be looking for ways to terminate him.

 

Kopka’s contract will run through June 30, 2022, with an annual salary of $90,000 plus benefits.

 

Since taking over in 2019, Ms. Kopka has had the difficult task working with the new school board to clean up the administrative and misspending mess left behind by Torkelson.  Also, she had the difficult responsibility of planning and implementing a virtual educational program for Mercer’s 145 students after the school closed in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

The four school board members at the July 13 meeting were unanimous in their praise for the job Kopka has been doing.   Board President Bob Davis and board member Jim Hannemann noted that the board had looked at potential candidates when Torkelson was placed on medical leave and that board was fortunate to find someone (Kopka) well qualified within the district.

 

Board member Sue Loth described Kopka as “an extremely qualified, hardworking, nose-to-the-ground type of person”.  “We are very lucky to have her,” Loth said.  Board member Jeff Nehring added, “Her performance has been good.”

 

Before being named interim administrator Kopka was the school’s science teacher.  When given the interim position she already had a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction license as an administrator.   

 

Kopka’s predecessor Torkelson was hired in July 2011, with no experience as an administrator and at a starting salary of $98,000 plus about $30,000 in benefits, by his then future mother-in-law and School Board President Kelly Kohegyi and her cronies, Deanna Pierpont, and Denise Thompson.  As the school’s academic performance plummeted to the very bottom position of the state’s 422 school districts, his minions raised his pay to $113,500.   Nevertheless, Torkelson somehow managed to pay himself more than $150,000 in most years.

 

Kopka has a tough job ahead of her, but the school cannot go anywhere by up.