TROY — Concord Elementary School students shared their artwork with members of the Troy City School District Board of Education during their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Jan. 9, as part of a presentation led by Concord Elementary School Art teacher Justine Bledsoe.

“I love to challenge my kids,” Bledsoe said. “I think having a foundation of art, being able to solve problems creatively , and learn to think outside of the box are good life skills.”

A group of third, fourth and fifth-grade students from Concord presented their artwork to the board, and announced Concord’s participation on the upcoming City-Wide Art Show at the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center.

“I’m very proud of the students who are here today, and also very proud of our art teacher Mrs. Bledsoe,” Concord Elementary School Principal Dan Hake said. “She does an amazing job supporting our kids in many different ways.”

“We have a mini-art museum at Concord Elementary,” Hake said. “Our kids’ work is displayed throughout the building. If you walk down the hallways at Concord, you will see student artwork dating back to 2000.”

In other business, board members also recognized Troy City Schools’ City-Wide Spelling Bee champion Charlie Byrer, and held a moment of silence to honor the passing of former Troy High School Language Arts Teacher Marcella Howard and former Hook Elementary School Principal Shirley Sheffer.

Board members also voted to adopt the 2023-2024 School Year Calendar, and discussed the possibility of the district moving to a two-year calendar in the future. Board members also discussed the possibility of using a one-and-a-half year calendar.

“We try to minimize disruptions for families,” district Superintendent Chris Piper said of the 2023-2024 calendar. “We’re very aware that days off of school and early releases are somewhat disruptive for families; we try to balance that, because we need to find time to get staff together.”

Board member Levi Fox moved to table the calendar vote for one month, to give parents and students time to offer feedback. The motion died due to a lack of second, but board members did agree to move the release of board meeting agendas from Fridays to Wednesdays, in order to allow more time for board members and others to prepare for meetings.

“We’re now going to have the agenda available earlier, so there is more time to react,” Board President Sue Borchers said. “I think allowing us to have the agenda available on Wednesdays makes anything proposed to the board available at an earlier date.”

Board members also held their annual organizational meeting for 2023, setting the schedule for board meetings and electing officers. Sue Borchers will serve as board president for 2023, and Michael Ham will serve as the board’s vice-president.

Board members also discussed the district’s search for a new transportation supervisor. The current transportation supervisor is leaving for another position at the end of January.

“We’re open to all options,” Director of Human Resources Mark Barhorst said. “We’d like to get somebody as soon as possible; maybe a short-term to get us through the end of the school year.”

“I don’t really want to discuss it in open session,” he said. “It’s a difficult job; it’s a lot of interfacing with a lot of different people. It takes the absolute right personality for that job, and they just don’t exist everywhere.”