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GCSC board bids adieu to attorney Rund
Greencastle Community Schools have changed a lot in the years Bob Rund has served as corporation attorney.
In his last meeting as corporation attorney on Monday, the retiring Rund recalled that his first project, back in the mid-1980s, was negotiating on the site for Greencastle Middle School.
That means that in the time Rund has served the corporation, GMS, Deer Meadow Primary and a new transportation center have all been built and GCSC has ceased to occupy the old junior high, Jones School, Miller School and the old bus barn.
Northeast Elementary also became Tzouanakis Intermediate as the corporation transition from its old system of neighborhood elementary schools to the current use of two primary schools and one intermediate school.
Additionally, the corporation office has moved multiple times in that period.
And that’s just the buildings.
Rund has served with multiple superintendents and dozens of school board members in three-and-a-half decades.
“We’d like to say thank you for many, many years of service,” Superintendent Jeff Hubble said. “I think it’s been either 35 or 36 years.”
Rund recalled that negotiating for the GMS site involved moving the property line with Cash Concrete 200 feet to the west.
The veteran attorney also remembered that the president of the school building corporation back then was current board member Dale Pierce, then in the first of his two multi-term stints as the Madison Township appointee on the school board.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with Greencastle over many, many years,” Rund said. “We’ve had a lot of great things happen, some challenges, but I’ve really appreciated it.”
An attorney for the Indianapolis-based practice Lewis Kappes, Rund is not retiring entirely, but will be based more out of his office.
In his place, the board has appointed Emma Jay, also of Lewis Kappes. Jay has already been working with Rund in representing GCSC, having attended meetings with him for more than a year.
“Thank you for the opportunity,” Jay said. “I really appreciate everything you guys have done and I look forward to continuing to work with Bob, just at the office, continuing to learn from him.”
“You won’t regret your decision,” Rund said of appointing Jay.
Besides appointing Jay, the board had a number of other matters to attend to in reorganizing for the next year.
Chief among these was appointing officers. Mike White will serve as president, Brian Cox as vice president and Bill Tobin as secretary.
White and Tobin have previously served in these roles, while Cox is new to the vice president position.
All three appointments passed with little discussion and no opposition.
Pierce and newly-appointed Russell Harvey are the other two board members.
Prior to the meeting, Harvey was sworn in for his first term, while White took the oath of office for this third four-year term.
Additionally, the board appointed Finance Director Kellie Romer as corporation treasurer, Shelley Gardner as deputy corporation treasurer and Ashley Downing as extra-curricular activities treasurer.
The board will also continue to meet at 7 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month at the corporation central office, 1002 Mill Pond Lane, Greencastle.
Three exceptions will be meeting on the third Monday in December, March and May.
In other business:
• Cox, who has two children in school, asked about a recent email parents received regarding rescoring of the ILEARN test students took in the 2018-19 school year.
Although the scores have not officially been released, the email noted that parents could have requested an ILEARN rescore by July 31.
The process would have involved meeting with the building principal, learning the student’s score and then deciding whether or not to request a rescore on open-ended questions.
One change over previous years was a rescore could actually make a students’ grade worse.
Curriculum Director Jennifer French noted that the difficulty of the process is by design, as the Department of Education is trying to phase out rescoring.
“It’s not friendly and it’s intended to be that way,” French said. “So the process, they’re making a little more difficult.”
“Obviously, the state doesn’t want you to ask for a rescore because that makes the process a lot slower,” superintendent Jeff Hubble said.
• Hubble also noted that, with school starting next week, vacancies remain in the instructional staff
“It’s usually my report to say that we’re fully staffed and ready to go,” Hubble said.
That is not the case this year, as three teaching vacancies remained on the corporation website as of Thursday afternoon.
“Hopefully Monday, we’ll be ready,” Hubble said. “And if not, we have great substitutes until we get it filled.”
• The board did, however, approve a number of personnel items.
- New hires: Kara Jedele as GHS business and social studies teacher, Jared Bruner as McAnally custodian, Mellisa Maginity as instructional assistant at Tzouanakis, Tabatha Briones as maintenance painter.
- Resignations: Caitlin Downing as Tzouanakis fourth-grade teacher, Andrea Stout as seventh-grade language arts teacher, Wesly Stone as GHS custodian, Kelly Wetterman as maintenance painter, Michelle Reece as cafeteria assistant.
- Retirement: Don McCammack as GHS maintenance.
- Transfer: David Klopfer from McAnally custodian to GHS custodian.
- Substitutes: Holland Kline as GMS substitute guidance counselor for Helen Dunn’s maternity leave (Aug. 5-Oct. 21), Nicole Bartels as substitute teacher, James York and Randy Stewart as substitute bus drivers.
- Extra-curricular activities: Brittany Welker resigned as GMS girls’ cross country head coach; Joy Pershing hired as GMS girls’ cross country head coach; Lisa Duggan hired as GMS seventh-grade volleyball coach; Elizabeth Timberman hired as GMS eighth-grade volleyball coach; Tom Hamilton and Mark Hernandez hired as GMS assistant football coaches; Jed Fajt approved as GHS volunteer assistant boys’ tennis coach; Jeff Kirkhoff approved as GHS volunteer assistant girls’ varsity basketball coach.
• In one lingering personnel matter, the board also addressed last month’s hiring of French as the curriculum director. French is the first person to hold this position at GCSC, but the position was never technically created.
“I’m sorry that in the six months of discussion we had, we forgot to create the position,” Hubble said.
Consulting with Rund and Jay, the board learned that the oversight was not a violation of the Open Door Law, but did violate its own policy.
So on Monday, they tried to make up for it.
“May I recommend that we create a position called curriculum director,” Hubble said.
The measure passed unanimously.
• The board approved the sale, through a bid process, of two corporation vehicles.
For sale will be a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe with attached plow and a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with attached plow.
• The board also approved a pair of donations to Greencastle High School Athletics.
HBG Insurance and Bonds donated $1,250 to the athletic department. The donation will make HBG a platinum sponsor again this year.
The All-Sports Booster Club donated $602.97, which covers the cost of patches for athletes’ letter jackets for the last year.