{"id":135400,"date":"2020-09-24T00:43:52","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T05:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=135400"},"modified":"2020-09-25T00:49:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T05:49:51","slug":"blackmore-joins-vwcs-board-covid-19-update-given","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/09\/24\/blackmore-joins-vwcs-board-covid-19-update-given\/","title":{"rendered":"Former DARE officer joins VWCS board"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Van Wert DARE officer Greg Blackmore is the newest member of the Van Wert City Board of Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Retired Van Wert police officer Greg Blackmore was sworn in Wednesday evening as the newest member of the Van Wert City Board of Education. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Blackmore, who retired from the Van Wert Police Department in April, was sworn in during Wednesday night\u2019s school board meeting. He\u2019s replacing Tom Losh, who resigned last month, and his term will expire December 31, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with the school system through my job as a police officer for 24 years, working with the staff and everyone else out here, I feel with my background and training I can be an asset to the Van Wert city school system,\u201d Blackmore said. \u201cI\u2019m a little nervous, but at the same time I feel I can step in and help the school system and hopefully help keep everything going the way we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis years of experience certainly speak for themselves and we\u2019re certainly happy to have him here as a board member,\u201d Board President Anthony Adams said. \u201cI do want to thank all the others who did apply. We had several quality candidates and we had wonderful conversations with each one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his monthly report, Superintendent Mark Bagley addressed COVID-19 in the Van Wert City Schools, saying a staff member and a student have tested positive for the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very transparent with that and we have to be,\u201d Bagley told the board. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked closely with the health department … as recently as last (Tuesday) night, it was great to see people working together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we thought this wasn\u2019t going to happen we were fooling ourselves with this virus and it\u2019s been an exhausting process, but a good process, to know that we\u2019re doing everything we can to keep students and staff safe,\u201d Bagley added. \u201cThe first thing we did this morning was communicate with our entire staff. From there, all high school parents were emailed and (Marketing & Public Relations Specialist) Kristi (Fuerst) and I worked together to put the information on our website.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagley also noted names can\u2019t be released, due to HIPPA regulations, adding that the district earned praise from the health department. He also said a state-mandated dashboard is now on the district website and will be updated each Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a simple chart that shows the number of staff and students that have COVID-19,\u201d Bagley explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very evident that we\u2019re doing everything we can in the schools today to try to keep our doors open and our kids in school,\u201d Assistant Superintendent Bill Clifton said. \u201cWe need to commend our staff, both certified and classified personnel — they\u2019ve taken on the task of being essential employees and they are challenging themselves right on the front line of this pandemic and they\u2019re doing a great job with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clifton also told the board that interviews will begin soon for a new maintenance director. Longtime Director of Maintenance Randy Stemen is retiring at the end of the year and Clifton said his replacement will likely be named at the October board meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasurer Michelle Mawer told the board that the State Auditor\u2019s Office is auditing fiscal year 2020 and she said information she\u2019s received so far indicates future state funding will be flatlined or cut. She also said she hopes grant funding is extended for things like food and hot spots for Internet access. Those grants are currently scheduled to end in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board approved several supplemental contracts, including Tim Brown, head boys soccer coach; Joseph Foster, assistant boys soccer coach; and Ryan Parrish and Keith Recker, middle school site managers. The board also hired Kelsey Snider as an Early Childhood Center paraprofessional and approved a continuing contract for Lori Gunderman as payroll\/benefits specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supplemental resignations from Chamber Choir director Julia Reichert and middle school site managers Tom Baer and Josie Luthman were accepted by the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donations accepted by the board included $120 from Jack L. Frysinger to the Van Wert Athletic Department; $100 from Barbara and Carl Meeks to the Early Childhood Center; $500 from Statewide Ford Lincoln to the High School Robotics Club; $100 from Miller Precision Manufacturing to the High School Robotics Club, and $75,000 from the Athletic Booster Club for track resurfacing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board also heard a brief presentation from Curriculum Director Chris Covey about the school report card and current status of testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday, October 28, in the First Federal Lecture Hall of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent writer Former Van Wert DARE officer Greg Blackmore is the newest member of the Van Wert City Board of Education. Blackmore, who retired from the Van Wert Police Department in April, was sworn in during Wednesday night\u2019s school board meeting. He\u2019s replacing Tom Losh, who resigned last month, and his term will expire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 07:36:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}