Article submitted by James Master, Managing Editor of The Pilot News
WALKERTON — The John Glenn School Corporation Board kicked off the new year with its first meeting on Tuesday. The board welcomed three new members: Christine Carson, Todd McGaughey, and Carissa Smith. Returning members of the board included: Christian Mattix, Robert Borlik, Ryan Knowlton, and Jared Egger.
The first official business of the board was to reorganize by appointing board president, vice-president, and secretary.
Board Member Jared Egger nominated Mattix as president, himself as vice-president, and Borlik as secretary. The board voted to unanimously appoint those board members to those offices.
The board then voted to appoint Tom Bendy as treasurer and Carol Kuzmicz as deputy treasurer.
Superintendent Christopher Winchell commented on the appointment of Bendy and Kuzmicz. “It might just be good to note that Mr. Bendy’s employed as the business manager by the school and Ms. Kuzmicz is employed by the assistant business manager and by the board taking action to approve them as treasurer and deputy treasurer basically give them legal authority to spend the school corporation’s money which is the taxpayer’s money and money from the State General Assembly. So that’s why we do that formality.”
Following that, Knowlton was appointed as the legislative liaison, Mattix and Smith were appointed to the corporation’s Technology Committee, Egger was appointed to the John Glenn High School Athletic Council, and Carson was appointed to the High Abilities Committee.
The board approved the regular meeting date and time for the board meetings. In the past, the board held its meetings on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the John Glenn Administration Building. The board voted to keep the date, time, and location the same.
The salary for the board members was voted on. The options were: board members were paid $2,000 for the year or they were paid per meeting. Board President Mattix stated that historically, the board was compensated with the $2,000 option.
“Our practice has been to use the $2,000 maximum per year and that’s what’s been budgeted for,” Winchell explained.
The board unanimously voted to go ahead with the $2,000 maximum per year option.
Newby, Lewis, Kaminski & Jones, LLP was appointed to continue as attorney for the corporation. The board also designated The Pilot News and the South Bend Tribune as newspapers for publishing legal notices for the corporation.
The last thing that the board voted on for the reorganization portion of Tuesday’s meeting was to authorize the superintendent to hire and maintain substitute personnel without having to bring each individual to the board on a case-by-case basis.
“The pool of substitute employees goes through the same background check process as full-time, part-time, permanent employees that are approved by the board,” said Superintendent Winchell.
