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KCSD board picks Jodun to fill vacant seat

WADE JODUN

By CHRIS MORELLI

cmorelli@lockhaven.com

MILL HALL — The Keystone Central school board has a new member.

During its voting session on Thursday night, the board selected Wade Jodun of Mill Hall to fill the seat that had been vacated by the recent resignation of Jennifer Bottorf. The board heard from five candidates during a special meeting, which was held prior to the voting session. The candidates were: Greg Mayes, Jodun, Paul Washington, Eric Dershem and Elisabeth Lynch. Each candidate was asked a series of questions by superintendent Jacquelyn Martin.

Jodun, 48, of Mill Hall, was excited to be selected by the board.

“I’m thrilled,” Jodun said. “I spent 20-plus years with the federal government and I’ve done a lot of different things – budget, facilities maintenance and some actual teaching. I grew up here. The district is important to me.”

Choosing Jodun was not an easy task, said board president Boise “Bo” Miller.

“I would have been comfortable putting any one of them in the Region II seat. After each of them were interviewed, I had no reservations about any of their capabilities. It’s really hard when you have that kind of talent pool to choose from,” Miller said.

When the seat was vacated, Miller was uncertain how many – if any – candidates would try to claim the seat.

“We were very surprised,” Miller said of the five candidates. “We’d never seen anything like that.”

Board member Charles Rosamilia echoed Miller’s sentiments.

“I was very impressed with the quality of the applicants we had. Sometimes we struggle to get one person to apply and we have to wait five to six months for that to happen. In this particular case, we had five people – and I would have been very happy myself – to have any of them on the board with us. I want to thank the people who came out and we appreciate your interest in the district. I hope you continue to have that interest in the district. There may be vacancies in the future. This was a very good pool of candidates,” Rosamilia said.

The questions were the same for each candidate. They were:

– Explain the responsibility of a school board and the role of board members.

– How will you handle a situation in which you disagree with a board member and/or the superintendent?

– How do you balance the need to maintain transparency with the community and the requirement for confidentiality of sensitive information?

– How do you balance the educational needs and a quality work environment while being fiscally responsible?

– What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the district at this point?

– Is there anything you would like to add to support your candidacy?

Jodun, who attended Bald Eagle-Nittany and graduated in 1988, said that his career has come full circle with the board’s appointment.

“I trace a lot of the success that I’ve had to those (high school) influences. I just want to bring the abilities I have, the skills I’ve garnered over a quarter century of being a professional to help the board in any way I can. I’m thrilled and I’m excited to be able to give back to a community where I grew up and a community that’s important to me,” Jodun said.

Jodun will fill the seat until December. His approval was unanimous. Roger Elling was the lone board member absent from the meeting.

Jodun will formally take the seat at the board’s next meeting. There is a work session at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 4 at the Central Mountain High School auditorium.

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