ASHLAND — School was back in session on Monday, as was the Ashland City Schools Board of Education which heard updates on the start of the new school year at its regular session.
Superintendent Doug Marrah, who is starting his last semester as superintendent, had nothing but good things to say about the first day.
“It’s great to see everyone back, what a good, wonderful day. Everybody that walked in was really positive,” he said.
He added that the district’s enrollment numbers are “healthy” but he expects them to drop off after Labor Day, like they normally do.
Just minutes before the meeting began, school employees were still working on a chaotic first day of school transportation, Marrah said.
“I think we finished that up about 20 minutes ago to be honest with you,” Marrah said.
Some students don’t know what bus to get on, some get on the wrong bus, others still have plans change, leading school employees to coordinate district-wide to ensure that students get home safely, district Business Manager Steve Paramore said.
Paramore stressed that despite a frantic first day, the district always knows where its children are.
“I am proud to tell you that we’ve never lost a child. We did not lose any today,” Paramore said.
Kindergartners and first graders are only allowed off the bus if there is a family member or guardian waiting for them at the stop. If there is no one there, these students ride back to the bus garage, which happened multiple times on Monday, Paramore said.
The district was “all hands on-deck” for the first day with employees fielding phone call from parents, helping students to the correct bus, and radioing to bus drivers, Paramore said.
The result of the first day confusion were some late drop-off times, which Paramore believes will clear up in the weeks to come.
“What an opportunity to get better tomorrow. So we’ll just keep getting better, we’ll get our timing tighter and by middle of next week we’ll have everyone out of the high school lot at 2:41, we’ll have everyone out of Edison, Reagan, and Taft no later than 3:50, 3:55,” he said.
Near the end of the meeting, the board entered executive session to interview three potential candidates for the interim superintendent position. These candidates are Curriculum Director Linda McKibben, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Tammy Stevens, and Business Manager Steve Paramore.
“Those folks are all valuable assets to our school district. I appreciate their interest in that position and we look forward to having long conversations with them about their vision for our district and the opportunity this presents,” board president Zack Truax said.
