News
School board re-elects Cuthbert
By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:11 PM EDT
At its organizational meeting Monday night at Dowagiac Middle School cafeteria, the Board of Education re-elected its top two officers.
Randy Cuthbert, president since 1998, joined the board in 1995.
The Eau Claire High School graduate has been farming since 1973.
He and his wife, Debbie, have three grown children.
The school board also re-elected Vice President Sheryl File.
Last year's Secretary Faye Edwards and Treasurer Jane Laing retired from the board.
Michelle Helmuth becomes board secretary.
Larry Seurynck becomes board treasurer.
Trustees include William Lawrence and new members Mark Dobberstein and Stacy Leversen, elected in May and attending their first meeting.
Their four-year terms run through June 30, 2012.
The board accepted the retirements of Ester Stanley from Dowagiac Middle School and Dianne Shirrell from Justus Gage.
The school board hired CJ Brooks as high school band director.
He spent two years as New Buffalo High School band and choir director, so will start at step three on the bachelor's pay scale, $37,360.
Brooks, of Sawyer, has a bachelor's degree in music from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
In 2005, he was drum major of the 250-member WMU Bronco Marching Band.
Shannon Hatch will teach fifth grade at Sister Lakes Elementary School.
She is a graduate of St. Mary's College and WMU. She has worked as a long-term substitute in Dowagiac and as a teacher in Dowagiac's summer migrant program. She worked in a fifth grade position at Patrick Hamilton Middle School last year. Her salary will be step two, $35,663.
Joseph V. Sylvester will be Title I teacher at Patrick Hamilton. During the past three years the St. Joseph resident taught fifth grade in Marcellus.
Sylvester graduated from Grand Valley State in 2005 with a history major and minor in elementary education. His salary will be step four, $39,060.
In Marcellus, he coached seventh grade boys basketball and eighth grade football.
Bryan Henry is succeeding Andy Kruger as varsity baseball coach after many seasons as junior varsity coach. His salary will be $4,687.
Dick O'Day is following Greg Blomgren as varsity girls basketball coach. He most recently served as head coach at Trinity School at Greenlawn in South Bend, Ind., winning back-to-back Indiana Christian School state championships the past two seasons. His salary will be $6,521.
Brent Hatch will be varsity football assistant coach. He served as a volunteer freshman football coach for the past two seasons. He will be paid $3,566.
Depositories for the 2008-2009 school year will be Huntington National Bank, Fifth-Third Bank, Michigan Liquid Asset Fund, 1st Source Bank, Berrien Teachers Credit Union, Bank of America, Flagstar Bank and Citizens Bank.
Legal counsel include Tom Fette of St. Joseph, Thrun Law Firm of Lansing and Clark-Hill of Grand Rapids.
The Mondays at 7 p.m. meeting schedule for the coming year sees the board returning to the road occasionally: Aug. 18 at DMS; Sept. 15 at DMS; Oct. 6 work session at Pathfinders; Oct. 20 at Sister Lakes; Nov. 3 work session with school improvement team at DMS; Nov. 17 at Kincheloe; Dec. 15 at Justus Gage; Jan. 26 at Patrick Hamilton; Feb. 23 at Union High School; March 2 work session at DMS; March 23 at DMS; April 20 at DMS; May 18 at DMS; and June 15 at DMS.
Meeting in closed session at 5:30, the board expelled for the coming 2008-2009 school year a Union High School junior, 16, who pointed a pellet gun at a school bus as a prank on the last day of school, June 6.
The teen wore dark clothing, covered his face and pointed the pellet gun, which looked like an automatic weapon, while the bus picked up students near the intersection of Amerihost Drive and Pokagon Street.
The board finished the evening in a second closed session updating it on negotiations.
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