Deets, Mammel, and Thompson sworn in; Campbell reelected president
By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times
CALN – Newly-elected school board members Stuart Deets, Kim Mammel, and Deborah Thompson took their seats at their first meeting Tuesday night.
In addition, Neil Campbell was reelected school board president, and James Fox was elected vice president at a reorganization meeting that took place before the board’s regular monthly meeting.
“I’ll give it a 100% shot,” said Fox. “I’ll do anything for the school district.”
The new board members made their voices heard immediately, questioning multiple hiring and promotion decisions.
The board’s agenda contained items to offer contracts to Erika Zeigler as director of human resources, Ronald G. Kabonick as director of business administration, and Corey Sigle as athletic director. However, Deets and Thompson said that they have not had time to review the contracts, so the items were deleted.
“Since we already have an interim athletic director, I would say we keep that person in place until we have more information concerning if this is the right person or not,” said Thompson.
In addition, a motion to pass a resolution agreement failed. The resolution agreement would prevent former superintendent Richard Como from taking legal action against the district. School Board Solicitor James Ellison said that the district requested that Como sign the agreement in exchange for pay owed to him for vacation and sick days.
“Typically, retiring administrators get those days as a matter of right, but in Mr. Como’s case, the school district and the board insisted that he sign a release to receive those payments,” he said.
Though the district is required to pay Como either way, Ellison said that Como’s agreeing to these terms would be more convenient for both the former superintendent and the district.
Another contested item was the decision to appoint or reappoint a Chester County School Authority Representative. Current Representative Paul Johnson’s term expires in January, and Tuesday night’s motion proposed that the school board either re-appoint him or find someone to replace him. Thompson disagreed with the language of the motion. She was in favor of tabling it for rewording to show that Johnson would not regain the position by default, but her motion to table failed, and the motion was passed.
Another point of contention came up during the vote to change the position of Ryan West from custodian to labor pool worker. Thompson said that a former Graystone employee was promised the job. However, Ellison said that because of the district’s collective bargaining agreement, the job must be given to a current qualified employee of the district should one apply. The motion ended up being approved unanimously, but Deets requested that the Graystone employee be contacted if a similar position opens up.
“It does seem that Mr. Cheung — he got screwed,” said Deets.
In addition to the new board members, Tuesday night was the first meeting for Interim Superintendent Dr. Leonard Fitts. During his superintendent’s report, Fitts emphasized cooperation between himself, the district, and the community.
“I’m reaching out to the community to visit me or let me come visit you,” he said. “You can look for me to provide quality leadership that hopefully will help us to take a few steps forward. I don’t want to promise you quantum leaps, but I do want to promise you that I don’t want to have regression.”
During the public comment portion of the evening, some residents requested that the district look closely at the contracts it hands out, saying that taxes are high, and the district’s budget is tight.
Campbell agreed that the district must be careful with its money. He also said that residents should attend not just school board but also city council meetings and contact state representatives. Bringing businesses into the city could help lower taxes for residents.
