Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Eastwood School Board met March 17 and announced eight candidates in their search for a new superintendent to replace the retiring Brent Welker two days later.
School board president Randy Rothenbuhler and his board members have progressed to the initial interview stage and met with a representative of the Ohio School Boards Association on the day of their regular meeting March 17.
“The board of education is extremely pleased with the high quality of the candidates that the board reviewed,” Rothenbuhler said. “The applicants are from the local area, as well as from around the state and region.”
Thus, the board of education has chosen the following eight candidates, in alphabetical order, for first interviews: Brian Cannon, McPherson Middle School Principal in the Clyde-Green Springs School District; Brad Contat, the director of human resources at Anthony Wayne Local Schools; Brian Hughes, principal at Benton-Carroll-Salem Schools; Justin Johnson, grades 6-12 principal at Gibsonburg Exempted Village Schools; Dr. Lori Pierce, the principal at Fremont City Schools; Mark Pugh, the principal at Sylvania Northview High School; Brian Rau, the superintendent for the Wellston City School District; and Dolores Swineford, the assistant superintendent/curriculum director for Evergreen Local.
The board, which hopes to select a candidate by late spring, will conduct first interviews March 24-25 and second interviews on April 7.
“The board is seeking an outstanding educational leader with a proven track record and the ability to instill trust at all levels,” Rothenbuhler said. “With the high quality of the candidate pool, the difficult task will be to determine which of the candidates best fits our needs.”
In the public portion of the school board meeting, Drew Kachmarik was honored as the March student of the month. A student-athlete who is heavily involved in the school and community, Kachmarik plans on attending Defiance College next year while majoring in sports management and continuing his baseball career.
Along with Connor Norton, who was last month’s honoree, Kachmarik does the morning announcements, and he was instrumental in the creation of the popular Monday Night Lights community basketball league.
“Drew has gone out of his way to get involved since he’s been a student at Eastwood,” said Mrs. Sims, who is one of Kachmarik’s instructors. “He has a ton of school spirit. He's always working hard to get others involved. A three-sport athlete, he’s not afraid to ask for help in class and will spend time during study hall and after school getting extra help he needs.”
Kachmarik wasn’t the only student honored as Savanah Stephens, Carys Ruck, Lexi Hoffman and Taylor Nowakowski were honored for their selections to the Ohio Musical Education Association (OEMA) High School District Honors Choir.
Out of 100 students in the choir at Eastwood, they have four representing the district.
“That really speaks to their talent, hard work, dedication and the time they put in,” Eastwood choir director Jennifer Conklin said. “They’re fantastic leaders in the classroom, and they go above and beyond to look for opportunities to be great ambassadors for the chorale program.”
The sixth and final student recognized was Daniel Ridenour, who created the Eastwood Sports Network. Over the past year, he has streamed live broadcasts of Eastwood’s athletic events beginning with baseball last spring. This year, he has grown it to include broadcasts of football, basketball, volleyball and soccer.
“Daniel took it upon himself to raise funds and purchase the different equipment that was needed,” Eastwood’s athletic director, Scott Sorg, said. “He's been an advocate for this program, even going out and securing all of the monies that have been needed in order to make this a reality. He started off recording games and posting them to YouTube and then moved up to broadcasting games live.
“We’re excited for what Daniel's put together, and we're going to try to figure out how we can keep this going with Daniel graduating, but we wanted to just recognize Daniel here today in front of the board for his efforts and for starting the Eastwood Sports Network.”
The board approved the following items:
- a two-year classified contract for Ann Clark as a bus driver effective March 21.
- letters of resignation from Dom Shiple as a middle school teacher effective Aug. 31 and Emerald Diamante as a high school/middle school custodian effective March 27.
- a two-year administrative contract for elementary principal Joe Wank, effective Aug. 1
- the hiring of Ali Knight, Amy Kozma, Abby Marinelli, Mikayla Bingham, Heidi Dohanos and Aubree Schroeder as summer school teachers at the rate of $30 per hour.
- the hiring of Brenna Kindle and Raelynn Parsell as summer school substitutes on an as-needed basis at $30 per hour.
- the hiring of Deign Maxon and Dan Magrum as seasonal workers at the rate of $16.25 per hour.
- the revised letters of resignation for retirement from Joe Wank, the elementary principal, effective June 30, and Jodi Zunk, the middle school assistant principal, effective June 30.
- the hiring of Ali Knight as a tutor for the current school year at the current tutoring rate.
Superintendent Brent Welker also recommended the following items for approval, which were subsequently approved:
- a renewal of the College Credit Plus Partnership Agreement with Owens Community College for the 2025-26 school year.
- the signing of a master electric energy sales agreement with Engie Resources, LLC, which is the endorsed electric supplier of POWER4SCHOOLS.
- extended field trips for Eastwood High School Marine Science to travel to the Florida Keys June 10-17 and Eastwood High School FFA to travel to Carrollton, Ohio from July 7-11.
