Marietta City Schools Board of Education members Eric Reed, left, and Sam Tuten reflect on their experience as board members at their final board meeting Monday evening. Reed and Tuten were on the board for four years. (Photo by Amber Phipps)
Marietta City Schools Board of Education members Eric Reed and Sam Tuten thanked the school system and the community for the opportunity to serve on the board for four years during their final regular meeting Monday.
Reed thanked his wife and kids as well as the employees of the district.
“I sit here with immense gratitude to the people of Marietta for one of the most gut-wrenching and rewarding opportunities of my life,” he said. “In the last four years, this work has moved me to tears, sent my blood pressure through the roof, made me feel defeated and also given me great hope.”
Tuten also thanked his family for their support during his term. He said he’s grateful for the experience and the hard work that goes into public education.
“It’s definitely changed me a little bit, but I do think it’s changed me for the better,” he said. “The one thing I’m glad it didn’t change is my support and viewpoint on public education.”
Board President Cody Parman said it was a pleasure working alongside Reed and Tuten and he appreciated their hard work over the years.
Chris Fennell and Steven Huffman, the newly elected board members that will replace Reed and Tuten, were present for Monday’s meeting.
Superintendent Mary Schaeffer provided an overview about her first 100 days in office which included meeting with Marietta city officials, establishing connections within the community and attending as many school functions as possible.
“There were a couple of places (in the plan) where I initially intended to send a survey, but I changed that because I felt like it was really important to meet people,” she said. “I wanted to go out and meet people face to face and hear their stories in person rather than through a survey.”
Schaeffer had a list of goals she would pursue during her first 100 days in office, and she said her focus was on building relationships and establishing a better connection with various aspects of the community. She reached out to officials at Marietta College, Washington State College of Ohio, Marietta Main Street, Building Bridges to Careers and many others.
Schaeffer described the importance of establishing connections with local businesses with the intention to involve the students in everything the community has to offer.
“I offered some next steps, so continuing to build on those partnerships and learn more about student opportunities,” said Schaeffer. “I also feel like I’m learning a lot, which is wonderful, and continuing to use our board meetings to bring our students in and celebrate the accomplishments of what these partnerships look like and how that strengthened our district as a whole.”
Schaeffer talked about her experience attending basketball games, cross country events and school concerts.
“I had opportunities to meet the families and parents that were in the crowd,” she said.
Board members said they were impressed by everything Schaeffer was able to accomplish in her first 100 days.
“Communicative, positive, proactive – those are words that have not, I don’t believe, been associated with the school district on a general basis, and certainly not from the head of the school district, in a long time,” said board member Jeff Hollister.
Parman said Schaeffer has been encouraging effective communication and positivity within the district and they’re all benefitting from it.
Schaeffer took a moment to recognize Marietta High School’s girls head soccer coach Bill Mannix and assistant coach Ben Schenkel for receiving the top honors from the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association. They were named Division 3 coach and assistant coach of the year.
“They (the students) could leave our program and feel better about themselves, and we felt like we were able to do that a lot,” said Mannix. “Every year we’ve got a couple of kids who we know we need to help them.”
Schenkel said it’s been a great opportunity and they love working with the kids and seeing all the great things happening in the district.
Director of Student Services Alison Woods provided insight about what the district will do in the event that Ewing School is unable to continue services. Since the Washington County Board of Developmental Disabilities tax levy failed in the November election, the district is looking into options moving forward.
Woods said Ewing provides services to 62 preschoolers and 24 school-age students in Washington County, with 56 of those preschoolers and seven school-age students from the Marietta district. Out of the 56 students, 32 of them are on an IEP (Individualized Education Program).
“We have to make sure that we are providing services for those 32 students,” she said. “We would love to be able to provide for all 56 but we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to do that.”
Woods said she’s been in discussion with WCBDD Superintendent Tiffany Neill about potential plans. Woods said the district is waiting on the developmental disabilities board to make final decisions before Marietta City Schools is able to move forward with anything final.
Hollister asked who is paying for the students to have those services at Ewing. Woods said the district receives a bill for their students at Ewing for services such as speech therapy.
“We’re looking at ways they can do services at our buildings,” said Woods.
The board had questions about where the funding would come from in order for the district to continue those services. Treasurer Frank Antill said there are too many variables right now for them to determine any plan or actions.
After an overview about the district’s finances, in which Antill said everything looks as expected, the board met for executive session with no actions taken afterwards.
The next regular meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. on Jan. 26.
Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com.