Member Resigns from North Clay School Board

Darrell McKnelly resigned as a member of the North Clay Board of Education at Thursday's meeting, saying the Board was wrong in voting earlier this month to overturn the discipline policy that had been in place.

McKnelly said he believes in high standards for himself and wants to see those expected of others.  He said he feels the Board has "opened a door to an endless list of future policy rules being challenged."

McKnelly said of the vote to get rid of the previous discipline policy, "Our policy that we previously established was put in place with very high standards and expectations because that's what makes our school and staff accountable to a level higher than any other.  I feel that as a Board we have to stand strong and must be consistent on the decisions we make.  I feel very strongly that we failed to do either."

McKnelly's resignation followed comments from District resident Athena Van Dyke criticizing the decision to not uphold the former discipline policy.  Van Dyke also spoke on developing a PTO Facebook page, field trips in general and the possibility of sharing the cost of trips with parents to allow for better trips, and the decision to eliminate senior class trips in future years.

Following McKnelly's resignation, it left just three board members on hand so the meeting had to be recessed for about 90 minutes until a board member who was officiating at a sports event arrived to again give them a quorum of members to transact business.

The Board then voted to ban parent Philip Thomas from school district property for one calendar year for conduct at the elementary school; awarded a bid to Peters Roofing of Toledo to do roof work on the bus barn and track shed; voted to seek bids on a propane-powered school bus; approved this year's senior class trip to Tampa and a high school band and chorus trip next March to Nashville; approved the District budget for the fiscal year; and took action on several personnel items.  Those include the resignation of Gina Hembree as a custodian; resignation of Jade Huber as junior high head volleyball coach; approval of Shawna Poe as student teacher in Special Education; accepting the resignation of Cheryl Kuhlig as she is retiring from the Unit office as of October 22 with the provision that she can work as a substitute; hiring Ben Farleigh as head high school boys basketball coach for the coming season; hiring KayLynn Beppler as assistant high school girls basketball coach; granting the Administration to hire a personal aide and bus aide; and accepting McKnelly's resignation from the school board.