VWCS board honors outgoing members

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert City Board of Education honored two outgoing board members, while also accepting the resignations of eight retiring staff members, effective the end of this school year.

Superintendent Ken Amstutz gave wooden school bell mementos to both Board President Ken Markward and Board member Linda Owens for their service to the board. Markward has been a board member for 20 years, while Owens has 12 years of board service.

Van Wert City Schools staff members leaving after the end of the year include teachers Karla Butler (VWMS, 28 years, 24 in VWCS), Jane Houg (elementary art teacher, 23 years, all in VWCS), Jane Jacob (second grade teacher, 35 years, all in VWCS), Diane Kill (preschool teacher, 23 years, 6 with VWCS), Amy Prichard (first grade teacher, 32 years, all with VWCS), Jay Prichard (VWMS teacher, 35 years, 34 with VWCS), and David Walker (fifth grade, 30 years, all with VWCS).

Also retiring will be Food Service Director Sherry Kitson after 27 years with Van Wert City Schools.

During his board report, Amstutz spent most of his time talking about House Bill 29, which changes the school requirement from days to hours.

The change, slated to be effective the 2014-2015 school year, would essentially do away with calamity days, since the 5½-hour daily classroom requirement under the new legislation is significantly less than what students are currently spending in class.

The superintendent said that the district would need to redefine what a calamity day is in future and to create a new policy that would measure quality classroom instruction in hours, rather than days, as is currently done.

“We will put in the hours needed, while still meeting expectations and standards of the district,” Amstutz told the board.

In addition to educational matters, the board heard from a delegation from Van Wert City Council and City Law Director John Hatcher about the possibility of a memorandum of understanding concerning the former Washington Elementary School site.

Third Ward Councilman Stuart Jewett spoke for his colleague, Councilman At-Large Jeff Agler, about their wishes to see the former elementary school site be used as a playing field for the Van Wert Youth Football program.

VWCS Board member Mike Morrow pointedly noted that the person who would have to negotiate such a memorandum for the city – Mayor Don Farmer – was not at the meeting and Morrow wondered out loud whether the mayor would agree with Jewett and Agler’s proposal.

Further complicating the proposal is the fact that three of the idea’s supporters on Council (Jewett, Jeff Agler and Pete Weir) will not be returning in January.

Later in the meeting, the school board held an executive session to discuss the issue and decide what criteria they would like to see in such an agreement.

In other news, the board:

• Hired Cory Hirschy as a high school paraprofessional for the remainder of the current school year.
• Accepted the following supplemental position resignations: George Scott as high school varsity boys’ soccer head coach; and RJ Coleman as a high school assistant track coach.
• Appointed Morrow as president pro tempore for the board’s organizational meeting, to be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday, January 8, 2014, in the First Federal Lecture Hall.
• Accepted, with thanks, two donations from the Cooper Family Foundation within the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund: $500 for the VH Cooper Scholarship, to be awarded to a 2013 VWHS graduate; and $5,000 for the Blessings in a Backpack senior project.