At Butler County’s largest school system, the Lakota Board of Education saw members vote in veteran school board member Julie Shaffer for a one-year term as president and fellow veteran Kelley Casper as vice president.
Shaffer replaces former Lakota board president Lynda O’Connor, who did not win voter re-election in November.
“I’m looking forward to this opportunity to serve our district in this role and am thankful for the support of my fellow board members,” said Shaffer, according to an announcement by district officials.
“There is a lot of work to be done, including accelerating work to support student progress, starting the superintendent search and moving the master facilities plan forward,” said Shaffer, who was sworn in along with first-time board member Doug Horton.
Among the changes with the new board, members agreed that work on the master facilities plan should be brought to the regular, monthly board meetings instead of meeting quarterly to allow such work to be accelerated.
Butler County’s second largest district, the 10,000-student Fairfield Schools, saw its board vote to retain 2023′s Fairfield Board of Education President Brian Begley to serve another year as top officer.
Members also voted Scott Clark as vice president and new board member Mike Napier was also sworn in to begin his four-year term at the Jan. 8 meeting.
The leadership of the Hamilton Board of Education, which oversees the operations of the 9,000-student city schools, saw no change as President Mag Baker and Vice President Shaquila Mathews were voted during a Jan. 11 meeting to repeat their leadership roles from last year.
And Middletown Board of Education voted to continue one of the county’s longest-running tenures at board president by again choosing veteran member and multi-year president Chris Urso to retain that title for the 6,000-student city schools.
Fellow veteran member Anita Scheibert was chosen by her colleagues to serve this year as board vice president, and newly elected member Holly Snow was also sworn into office at the board’s organizational meeting earlier this month.
Check with your local public school district’s website to learn more about board officers, committee appointments and any changes to public school board meeting schedules in 2024.
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