BELLVILLE — There was an audible sigh of disappointment Thursday night after the Clear Fork board of education voted to hire one person as both Bellville Elementary principal and district special education director.
The board voted 3-2 to approve a three-year contract with Jonathon Burras, the current director of special education for Mansfield City Schools. Board members Carl Gonzalez and Koti Epperson voted against the motion.
About 50 teachers and community members attended Thursday’s board meeting, as well as a separate meeting an hour before.
Board vice president Ryan Knuckles led that meeting, which was supposed to be about the district’s search for its next superintendent. Instead, talk of Burras’ hiring dominated much of the conversation.
Some staff members told Knuckles they’d heard negative things about Burras from colleagues in other school districts. Knuckles, who works as an intervention specialist for Lexington Local Schools, vouched for the new hire.
“I have known (Burras) for a long time,” Knuckles said. “He has done an amazing job at Mansfield Senior of keeping them compliant and out of litigation.”
Knuckles said he also spoke with administrators at other districts, who called Burras “a wealth of knowledge.”
Teachers and community members also spoke out against combining the two roles, alleging the district’s special education program has struggled to properly serve families in recent years.
Alison Burkhart, a speech therapist who worked in the district for 10 years, said Clear Fork has combined the special education head with other administrative positions in the past and it hasn’t gone well.
“Any teacher in here will tell you, it is not a good idea to combine those two jobs,” another teacher said. “I have been in this district for five years and our special education department is broken and hurting. We’ve had parents call (the Ohio Department of Education) last year. We’re on their radar.”
“Yeah, I know we are,” Knuckles responded.
School board president Lori McKee said she feels confident Burras will have the support he needs to take on both roles, thanks in part to a newly-hired school psychologist.
The board also voted not to fill four vacant positions at the high school, citing the financial status of the district.
The board will not replace a high school science teacher, English teacher and social studies teacher. The board voted to accept resignations from high school science teacher Melissa Kodger, English teacher Faith Lutz, social studies teacher Gabriel Kennedy and science teacher Greg Seiter, as well as elementary principal Stacey Swank and special education director Tracy McDaniel.
McKee said Swank submitted her letter of resignation on June 30 and McDaniel on July 9.
According to Knuckles, Burras was one of six candidates who applied for the Bellville principal position. The special education director job was never posted. Instead, the district offered the combined role to Burras on July 10.
Board members said finances, Burras’ experience in special education and the limited time to fill both positions factored into the their decision.
In a five year forecast released in May, treasurer Jon Mason predicted the district would be operating at an annual deficit of $892,865 by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.
Mason was hired a year ago to replace outgoing treasurer Bradd Stevens. He said the district was not in a good financial position prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but federal relief funds helped Clear Fork stave off deficit spending for a few years.
In his view, the resignation of several high school teachers allowed the district an opportunity to downsize without cutting staff. He added that many of the outgoing teachers had classes on their roster with fewer than 10 students.
McKee said district enrollment has dropped 17 percent in the last 20 years and that the board doesn’t intend to put a levy on the ballot soon.
“We’re going to try to bring the district where it needs to be through changes, through attrition and things like that versus going after a levy,” she said. “We need to be good stewards of the money that we have and that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re looking at class sizes. We’re looking at ways that we can better use the dollars that we currently have.
“I know that there are decisions that are made that are not popular, but they still have to be made to move this district forward.”
The board also:
- Voted to set a minimum class size of ten students at Clear Fork High School, excluding special education, college credit plus and credit recovery.
- Voted to pay Butler Elementary Principal Libby Nickoli a $5,000 stipend to be the district’s curriculum director.
- Voted to employ Joanna Greenwalt as school psychologist on a three year contract
- Voted to not to fill a high school fitness trainer position and a gifted teacher position. that are vacant. McKee noted the district will still have one remaining gifted teacher.
- Approved a resolution with the Clear Fork Athletic Boosters (CFAB), allowing the CFAB to Approved an agreement with the Clear Fork Athletic Boosters (CFAB), allowing the CFAB to temporarily lease the district’s baseball and softball field and to install synthetic turf and permanent foul lines, purchase and install a new scoreboard for both fields and demolish and reconstruct the batting cages with a concrete base, new turf, a pavilion and electricity. The estimated project cost is $665,000 and will be funded entirely by the CFAB. The district will not assume any financial responsibility for the project.
