New London to hold ?Meet the Candidates? event

BY BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

NEW LONDON ? Voters in New London will soon be able to ask the tough questions of the school board candidates with a ?Meet the Candidates? night planned.

The event will be held in the school?s auditorium on Thursday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m., and will be hosted by the New London Community School District and The New London Journal.

?This is going to be a very informative event,? said board secretary, Jessica Boyer. ?As of right now, all the candidates will be there to share their views on various issues. It should be a very nice evening.?

The event will be moderated as to give each candidate equal representation. There are two seats open on the school board. Currently, Melissa Anderson, Travis Benz, Laurie Hempen, Jesse Howard, Erica Pickle and Skye Wellington are running for the At Large board seat. Brian Roth is running unopposed for the District 1 seat. The election will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

During Superintendent Steve McAllister?s monthly report, he spoke primarily of miscellaneous construction and work projects, with most already complete or set to be complete within the next couple of weeks. Among the projects that are nearing completion include marker and tack board replacements; painting in the high school gymnasium lobby, the east locker room hallway, and the south gymnasium doors; and some painting and retouching in the elementary school multi-purpose room.

As for the major construction project on the family and consumer science room flooring and the upper high school hallway flooring, McAllister says the work is now complete.

?Although we had more issues with some of the flooring replacement than we originally expected, the work is now complete to the proper specifications,? said McAllister. ?We are very happy with the work. It desperately needed to be done, so we are glad that we could get it taken care of.?

As for improvements on the football field, McAllister said there is still some work left to do. However, he assured the board that if all goes as planned and proper measures are taken, the field should be ready for play in about two weeks.

However, as it is, McAllister says that due to rough, uneven areas on the field, play or practice on it could result in injury. Therefore, he is advising students and coaches to stay off the field until it has been fully cleared by grounds keeping personnel.

In other business, the board:

? Unanimously approved the continuation of the Instructional Support Program (ISP).

? Approved the preexisting early retirement policy for New London Community School District.

? Approved resignations of Steven Francis, special education associate; Julie Seils, special education associate; Jackie Thompson, family and consumer science teacher; and Madison Frei, Spanish teacher.

? Approved appointments of Lesley Yaley, preschool associate; Tyson Wintermeyer, food service worker; and Nancy Kuhlijuergen, family and consumer science teacher.

The next New London School Board meeting will be held on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m.