By Matt Clevenger
For the Miami Valley Today
CASSTOWN — The Miami East Local School District is looking for a new treasurer, following the recent announcement of longtime treasurer Lisa Fahncke’s upcoming retirement in March 2022.
“After a long tenure, Lisa is retiring in March of this year,” Board of Education President Mark Iiames said during the board’s regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Nov. 15. “We’re going to be searching for a new treasurer to replace her.”
Board members also saw a presentation by Cindy Ritter of K-12 Business Consulting, Inc, a private company that specializes in helping local school districts find candidates for treasurer and superintendent positions. “To be a treasurer you have to have a treasurer’s license,” Ritter said. “It takes a while to get a license.”
“You’ll need somebody in place by April 1,” she said. “By the first week of January, we’d be ready to start posting. We post the month of January, interview the month of February, and that would give that person the month of March to get ready to come here,”
“That would give you plenty of time,” Ritter said.
In other business, board members also heard an update on the district’s new mask-to-stay policy. “It’s been very well received by parents, staff and students,” Superintendent Dr. Todd Rappold said. “If a student comes into close contact on-campus, they’re given an option to be able to stay on-campus and in school as long as they continue to mask while they’re in school.”
“I think one of the biggest confusions is that in order to take advantage of the mask-to-stay, the close contact has to be here on our campus,” Rappold said. “It can’t be a close contact over the weekend, on Friday or Saturday night at somebody’s home.”
“We’re continuing to space kids as much as possible,” Rappold said. “Pretty much everything that occurred last year is occurring this year, with the exception of the kids wearing masks.”
Board members also voted to accept elementary art and physical education teacher Denise Gibson’s letter of resignation; Gibson’s last day will be May 31, 2022. Board members also voted to renew a 24-month lease for farm land rental for the 2022-2024 season with Brian Francis.
The board also heard a report on the district’s upcoming order of 200 new Chromebooks and discussed a new facilities survey that will be sent out to parents. “That will go out here in about two weeks,” Rappold said. “The survey has approximately 11 different facilities upgrades across the district; we’d like to solicit some input from our parents as to what facility upgrades they would like to see.”
Board members also heard updates on VikingFest and the senior citizens dinner and recognized FFA members who attended the National FFA convention in Indianapolis. “VikingFest is tentatively scheduled for February,” Rappold said. “The Senior Citizens’ Dinner, I believe right now, is going to be a drive-through on Dec. 6; we’re working out the final details with the caterer.”
“We’d like to recognize our Miami East FFA,” he said. “In late October, we had 26 members of the FFA attend the 94th annual National FFA Convention. Miami East was awarded the Three-Star National Chapter Award.”
“We had six individuals who received their American FFA degrees,” Rappold said. “It was very nice to go back over to the national convention, versus doing it remotely from the gym like we did last year.”
Board members also heard a report on new trails and other improvements to the district’s land lab. “I would like to recognize the efforts from our elementary PTO, Mrs. Irick at the elementary, Mrs. Weldy here at the high school, the Trailblazers and all of their efforts working on our land lab,” Rappold said.
“This group has really done a nice job,” he said. “We’ve got two or three really nice trails through the land lab. All of the kids have now gone through the trails; we’d like to find an opportunity to get our parents an opportunity to go out.”
“It’s a nice asset for the district,” Rappold said. “Our hope is that the more people we get through the land lab, the more individuals we’ll have from out in the community who can chip in and help out and provide some more assistance.”
While working to clean up the area, volunteers also discovered a previously unknown historic site located within the land lab. “In the northeastern corner of our land lab, we have one of the oldest cemeteries in Lostcreek that is back there, in that corner,” Rappold said. “There are probably about twelve tombstones; we’re working with the Lostcreek Trustees to see if maybe they could provide some assistance to keep that trail clean.”
The board of education’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 20, in the board meeting room at Miami East High School.
