Three new school board members sworn in
An oath of office ceremony was held prior to the Lee County School Board action meeting Tuesday night for the three new school board members.
Lee County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Gerald Jr. swore in newly elected board members Mary Fischer, Don Armstrong and Thomas Scott one at a time in front of a good size crowd in the board room.
After the ceremony concluded, Interim Superintendent Dr. Larry Tihen said he was glad to see families present in the audience because he knew they were a huge support system for them.
The first piece of business conducted after the regular action meeting began was the nomination of a new chairman and vice chairman of the board. Scott was named the new chairman after Armstrong made the first and only nomination, and Fischer was elected as the vice chairman after Scott made the only nomination.
At the conclusion of the meeting Fischer said she looks forward to joining her colleagues, along with moving forward.
“Let’s get to work,” she said.
Board Member Jeanne Dozier said she looks forward to working with the three new school board members and said she feels that they can establish a collaborative relationship. She then went on to address the various tasks the board is currently faced with.
“One of the toughest jobs as a school board is to select a permanent superintendent,” Dozier told her fellow board members. “I know we already have a workshop set up for that … I look forward to setting up the process.”
Armstrong said the task of looking for a new superintendent should be a collaborative effort of teachers, parents, children, students and adults. He also shared other issues he wants to address now that he is an active board member. Those issues include finding out more about the health care and dental care problems the district is facing, along with doing a district forensic audit to discover more ways to cut money from the budget without cutting positions.
Board Member Jane Kuckel also took the time to welcome the new board members, along with telling them about the major budget issues they will have to address due to the failure of the class size amendment during the November election.
“It’s good to be at the table together,” she told the new board members.
Scott took the time to thank the staff for its cooperation during the transition period between the old board and the new board. He said he thinks the board has already hit the ground running because it has set dates for two workshops to take place in December concerning the transportation audit and another to organize the action plan in searching for a new superintendent.
Tihen said he looks forward to working with all five board members and believes that the district will have a very good team working together.