Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The District 55 School Board Monday night appointed John Fassler to fill its Foster seat, vacated with the resignation of Scott Proctor last month.
Fassler was the only filed candidate for the position in the May 15 election. He faced opposition from write-in candidate Ryan Aiello.
Both candidates applied for the position, which will serve through June 30 when the winner of the May 15 election takes the office.
Ryan Aiello withdrew his name from the board’s consideration for appointment at the meeting, and the board appointed Fassler.
Present at the meeting were board members Ken Roberts, David Kem, David VanDerlip, Chairman Mike Reynolds, Lena Neuschwander, Diane Gerson and Jason Redick. Jeff Lynn was absent. After swearing in, Fassler joined the board.
In other business:
– District officials told the board that high school football Coach Rob Younger is putting together a committee to repair and remodel the grandstands at Husky Field.
“There’s dry rot in some of the timbers that we repaired probably three years ago with the understanding this summer we’d replace them,” Supt. Larry Horton said. The district set aside $100,000 for the work, but the price tag will be somewhere between $165,000 and $180,000.
Maintenance Supervisor Ron Andrews has been looking at different options, including replacement of only some parts of the grandstands to bring the cost down. The district also is weighing whether to use wood or aluminum to replace the support beams and seating.
As part of the project, the wooden landing, in front of the seating, and the stairs would be replaced by concrete, Horton said. The structure around the seating is sound and will not be replaced as part of the project.
In the meantime, Younger wanted to hold off and go through one more season with the grandstands, Andrews said.
During that time, Younger would put together a committee to raise community support for the project, Horton said. He has already made some contacts with Weyerhaeuser, and Karla Burcham is looking into grants.
He thinks the grandstands are safe to use one more season, Andrews told the board. “I don’t see any real danger.”
“If we can get by, I would support the decision,” Roberts said. “Knowing him (Younger) and how he is able to do things, I think we’ll come up with a much better product than if we do it without him.”
– The board accepted the resignations of Dana Simonson, basic life skills, high school; Greg Lyons, auto shop, high school; Jason Gorham, social studies and girls varsity basketball coach, high school; Chella Gehrett, English and school play director, high school; Jane Clark, language arts, high school; Jesse Chandler-Dreher, choir, high school; and Karl Schmidtman, social studies at the junior high and boys varsity soccer coach at the high school.
The board also accepted the resignation of Connie Gienger for her .3 full-time equivalent (FTE) position at Holley School in special education. She will remain working at Crawfordsville as a .7 FTE.
The board approved a leave of absence for 2007-08 for Melissa Severns, a teacher at Oak Heights. She will continue working on her master’s degree.
The board approved the retirement of Karen Bowman, Title I teacher at Hawthorne, and hired her back as a .4 FTE for 2007-08.
– The board hired Kimberly Gillis, speech and language specialist, at .8 FTE; Carol Cadwell, life skills, high school; and Bill Chandler, auto shop, high school.
– The board adopted a new wellness policy and revisions of its parental involvement policy and held the first reading of a policy that will allow the district to pay for group bonding instead of paying for individuals, such as the business manager and superintendent, which will save several hundred dollars, Horton said.