Board election set to bring more new faces to Mount Vernon schools

More than a month before the polls open, the outcome of the Mount Vernon Community School District's school board race has essentially been decided.

By the time filing for the election closed on Aug. 1, three candidates – Tara Brokovich, Lori Merlak and Sherry Grunder – had submitted paperwork to run for the board's three vacancies. Board members Tom Wieseler, Paul Morf and John Cochrane all declined to defend their seats.

Pending any candidate reversals or other unforeseen events, voters will elect three new individuals to the Mount Vernon school board on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The four board members whose seats are not up for election next month – President Darrin Gage, Vice President Mark Weldon, Shannon Amundson and Virginia Roudabush – joined the board in 2011.

“I think that we are going to miss the experience that they bring to the board,” said Roudabush of her departing colleagues. “It's not like they're leaving the community. They're still available as new things come about … I don't think we'll be lacking in ability to go back to that historical knowledge.”

The board will have completely turned over. It's another change for the Mount Vernon district, which welcomed Superintendent Gary O'Malley on July 1 and Washington Elementary School Principal Kate Jones on Aug. 1.

Morf and Cochrane were the only board members to vote against accepting former Superintendent Pam Ewell's resignation in April, following rumors that the board – including its four newest members, in their first contract negotiation with Ewell – would vote against renewing the agreement.

Cochrane said that his decision not to run for re-election was made in 2012 – long before the controversy around Ewell's employment.

“I think it's time for someone with a renewed level of energy to fill that slot,” he said, citing the time commitment of a campaign and subsequent four-year term on the board.

Cochrane declined to comment about specific events that happened in Mount Vernon during his time on the board, such as community members accusing a former elementary school principal of physical misconduct towards students and the suicides of three district students in 2010, but acknowledged that there have been trying times.

“Certainly there were more challenging issues over the course of the last year or two years, but again, that's to be expected,” he said. “When you enter into service in that type of board, I think it's unrealistic to expect everything to be harmonious all the time.”

Morf did not respond to inquiries from The Gazette, but Wieseler also said that he decided in fall 2012 that now would be the right time to leave the board in part because of the time commitment the office requires.

“I felt it was time to take a break from it,” he said, noting the ways the education system has changed since he joined the board 27 years ago. “All educational issues have gotten more intense and challenging. We went through five construction projects, three superintendent searches, a bunch of principal searches. Administrators don't stay in their jobs forever anymore. They're not superintendents for life like they used to be.”

Sheila Pollock, a Mount Vernon resident and mother of two district students, expressed concern at what the board turnover indicates about the district and also how it will weather the changes.

“It makes you question what's going on,” said Pollock. “There's always a learning curve and what falls through the cracks during that learning curve … Some disappointing things happened over the last year that created that learning curve.”