GALION — Along with 700 other Ohio school districts, Galion City Schools is celebrating School Board Recognition month.
School board members are a link between the school and the community, and are important to how a school functions. They are responsible for a wide variety of things, such as authorizing the purchasing of classroom materials, to approving renovations or new buildings, to handling the budget for the school, to establishing policies that provide framework for the school, and hiring the employees who work in that district.
“I’ve said this to a lot of other superintendents around our area that I feel that I have the best board around because they really understand their role and I do not feel that any of them have a personal agenda,” said Galion superintendent Jim Grubbs. “I feel that all of them have the school district as a whole as their main interest. They’re not here to push their agenda. I think that having a school board that is like that is just awesome for a superintendent because I have talked to a lot of superintendents, and they feel that they have board members who they feel maybe are there to push them to do certain things in certain ways. Our board does not tend to do that.
“Also, their support in many of the ideas that we bring to them, for example, the ELA (English Language Arts) program at the primary is a lot of money. They approve those types of things. Without their support and approving programming like that — approving for us to have our teachers who teach CCP (college credit plus) classes; approving to have the joint venture with North Central State College to make the Galion Early College Academy (GECA) — without those school board members, none of that happens. Again, we are very fortunate to have a very supportive school board and I think that is part of what makes this job so nice.”
School board members include Grant Garverick, who has been on the board since 2016; Dennis Long, who has been on the board since 2008; Brian Owens, who has been on the board since 2012; Michael Mateer, who has been on the board since 2018; and Debra Donaldson, who has been on the board since 2018.
“I talk about the other superintendents because I hear them sometimes complain about something their school board did, and not once in five years have I ever had a reason to complain about our school board,” Grubbs added. “We have a very good one, and I appreciate all the work they do.”
At the January board meeting, board members received a goody bag from primary school students, a ‘thank you’ video from the intermediate staff and students, a signed ‘thank you’ poster from the middle school, and a card from the high school. At the Jan. 17 boys basketball game vs. Harding, school board members were recognized.
