A replacement for longtime Alliance Public Schools Band Director Dick Rischling has been found.
The Alliance School Board Monday night approved the hiring of Laura Mangas of Giltner, Nebraska as an instrumental music instructor.
To be precise, both Ms. Mangas and Middle School Band Director Dave Rischling will work with both the high school and middle school bands.
Supt. of Schools Dan Hoesing told the board that Dave Rischling agree to step in and become the director of bands for the Alliance Public Schools and serve as a mentor to Mangas as she gains experience working with a band program the size of Alliance, which tops 250 band students each year. The total enrollment in grades 7-12 at Giltner is 105 students.
Mangas has served as the music coordinator of the Giltner Public Schools the past three years, teaching choir to K-12 students and band at both the junior high and senior high level.
Giltner is located about 20 southeast of Grand Island.
Prior to that, Mangas worked for a year-and-a-half as the director of the music program in the Paxton Public Schools in west-central Nebraska. She also has experience serving as an assistant band director in two Ohio high schools.
Hoesing says both Dick and Dave Rischling recommended Mangas be hired to teach instrumental music in Alliance.
Mangas is a graduate of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, with a degree in music education. She also took graduate classes at Chadron State and the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
She is a native of Ohio.
Also during Monday's meeting, it was announced that high school principal Dick Zarkowski has been named the Region Five Principal of the Year. The board celebrated Zarkowski's accomplishment with cake and ice cream following the meeting.
