The Washington Court House City Schools (WCHCS) Board of Education appointed Ken Upthegrove as president of the board for 2019 during its re-organizational meeting Monday evening at the WCHCS District Office.
Nominated by board member Jennifer Lynch and unanimously approved, Upthegrove entered his sixth non-consecutive term as president since he started work for the board of education about 24 years ago. Upthegrove said Monday he was excited to continue working with the board as president.
Also nominated and appointed on Monday was Lynch, who was named the vice president following a nomination from board member Jim Teeters. Lynch has been a member of the board for 10 years and has served as both president and vice president in the past. Following both appointments, each took the oath of office as WCHCS Treasurer Becky Mullins administered.
WCHCS Superintendent Tom Bailey also took time to recognize each board member for School Board Appreciation Month on Monday. Each member was called up and received a certificate for their work in the district.
WCHCS Director of Marketing and Communications Trevor Patton then began a presentation of a recent survey concerning the failed general election earned income tax levy. Patton — who recently circulated a survey both physically and online — received several hundred responses and relayed this information to the board Monday night.
“We put out a survey to try and figure out what people thought about the recent levy,” Patton said. “The survey ran for two weeks, we had it out over break. Survey Monkey said the online ones took about a minute to complete, and we got 300 anonymous responses between those and paper copies circulated around the schools to go home.”
The main points from the presentation, Patton said, were that most people knew how they were going to vote before the election, some people did not even know that a levy was being put on the ballot, and some said they were confused by the information presented. Additionally, a good number of individuals stated they did not vote due to not being registered.
The presentation prompted a lengthy discussion about how to approach another levy in the future. Lynch and board member Craig Copas suggested they may want to try smaller groups to circulate more accurate information. Also, the group discussed sending more information home with students, how to help register voters in the district and what type of levy they may seek next election season.
Finally, the board approved 15 items as part of the superintendent’s report and six items as part of the treasurer’s report. These include employments, resignations, meeting dates for the board for 2019, advancement of tax monies due, rental and facility use requests, donation acceptance, and a change of resignation date for Brenda Mossbarger — current secretary to the treasurer/accounts receivable — from March 8 to Jan. 18.
Stay with the Record-Herald each month for more from the Washington Court House City Schools Board of Education.
Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.
