PENDLETON — The South Madison Community School Corp. board used its final meeting of the year to thank one of its own for her long-time service to the community, while the district leader called attention to a “pretty good job” done by all during the challenges brought on by COVID-19.
The December meeting was the final one for veteran board member Amy McGinnis, who served four terms (16 years).
“She’s been an outstanding board member for the last 16 years,” Superintendent Mark Hall said of McGinnis. “We’ve been pretty fortunate, we’ve had a lot of stability on our board. She did a great job during that time.”
McGinnis did not run for reelection in November; Angie Brown was elected to the fill the to the District 1 at-large spot.
Brown, a Pendleton resident who spent 16 years working in education, defeated Jeanne Fredericks and Tom Jewell for the position.
Brown will be sworn in at the Jan. 7 meeting along with three other current school board members who won elections unopposed, including President Chris Boots (Green Township, District 3), Vice President Buck Evans (Adams Township, District 1) and Mike Hanna (Fall Creek Township, District 2).
The board is set to establish officers and committees during that meeting.
Hall also told the board he has been pleased with how everyone has adapted to the constant changes during the school year, with a little extra credit to how students have adjusted.
“If we stay on track — and day-to-day you just don’t know that — by (Dec. 22), our elementary kids will have been in-person 97% of the time and our secondary kids will have been in-person 76% of the time,” Hall said. “We’re trying to do everything as safely as possible. That could change if we go into red and those percentages would go down a little bit.
“From school board to the kindergarten students, everybody has been involved with this and the community has embraced the changes and we’ve appeared to do a pretty good job.”
In a related move, Hall made a change to the corporation’s COVID-19 Operation Plan.
The change involved crowd capacities at extra-curricular events and made it so South Madison’s plan automatically aligned with executive orders from Gov. Eric Holcomb.
“It appears to be changing every month, and I don’t want to redo the plan every month,” Hall added. “We put that sentence in there to follow the directive of the governor.”
Personnel
Certified staff recommendations were approved for Lindsey Bubalo, as a long-term substitute teacher at Pendleton Elementary Primary School and William Whitehair as WEEM radio station manager and Radio I and II instructor at Pendleton Heights High School.
Support staff resignations were accepted for Kaley Swallows, an instructional assistant at Pendleton Heights Middle School, and Marcia Albers, an instructional assistant at East Elementary School.
Support staff recommendations were made official for Pendleton Heights Middle School instructional assistants Tina Mahaney and Isaac Gardner; East Elementary School instructional assistant Londa Bennett and Pendleton Heights High School full-time custodian Holly Robbins.
The extracurricular resignation of Pendleton Heights Middle School boys soccer coach David Beck was approved.
Trip requests were accepted for the Pendleton Heights High School Marching Band to go to Disney from Jan. 6 to 9, 2022; and for the Pendleton Heights Middle School Junior Beta Club to visit Washington, D.C., from Oct. 20 to 22, 2021.
Leave request was granted to Brittany Howard, a teacher at Pendleton Elementary Intermediate School.
