Mansfield school board re-appoints Forney

MANSFIELD — The Mansfield City Schools Board of Education welcomed back former board member Judy Forney at Tuesday night’s meeting. 

Forney resigned on May 31 after realizing the need to sever employment with all public schools districts to collect her pension compensation. Forney was in line for that benefit after retirement from her job as treasurer at Mount Vernon City Schools.

After formally retiring, she immediately re-applied and was re-appointed by her fellow board members Tuesday. 

“I feel like I actually haven’t left because I resigned at the last meeting, but I’m really glad my colleagues on the board invited me back,” Forney said. “I feel like we have a really good team working here together, and we’re very excited about our new leadership.”

Forney and six other candidates interviewed for the position, and although the interviews went “very well,” board president Renda Cline said Forney was the right person to fill the position.

Other candidates included Barbara Kern, Linda Golden, Pamel’la Jones-Rembert, Wenda Burnom, Walter Butts and Victoria-Norris Diez.

“We conducted a search for a new board member — Judy Forney had to resign due to retiring from another district — so at this time, the board did do interviews, and we thought that Ms. Forney should continue at this point. So we’re happy to have her back,” Cline said. 

Forney will serve as a board member from June 18 to Dec. 31, completing the second year of a four-year term. She will have to seek election on the November ballot to serve any further time on the board. Forney said she hasn’t yet decided if she’ll run for another term. 

She joined the board to fill a vacant seat in February of 2017 when Monica Hubbard left the position. Forney served as president of the board in 2018.

“I’m very proud product of Mansfield City Schools. I’ve lived here my whole life, graduated from Malabar in 1967,” Forney said. “I have a heart for Mansfield, my daughter is the director of Downtown Mansfield Inc., I live downtown, I grew up on Third Street, so this town and this city, and this school district mean a lot to me.

“It feels like I belong here. I love any contribution that I can make in this district.”