Ashland school board prepares to replace superintendent, start new school year

ASHLAND— Change was in the air at Ashland City School’s board of education meeting on Monday as it prepared to find a replacement for outgoing superintendent Doug Marrah and begin a new school year.

Marrah plans to retire from the district and move on to a new role as executive director of Tri-County Computer Services Associates starting in 2023. No definitive date for his retirement has been set yet.

Board of education president Zach Truax stressed that the board is at the very beginning of the process to find a new superintendent.

“Many were under the general impression that that would happen tonight. It’s not gonna happen tonight,” Truax said.

“I will say this, the Ashland City School District is in a very strong position because of Dr. Marrah’s leadership. We have an opportunity and the means to make this a very deliberate, well thought-out process.”

Ashland City Teachers Association co-president Flory Mauriocourt addressed the board after Truax, requesting the board involve school staff and the community in selecting a replacement.

“So, it’s a big decision and my assumption is when you’re doing the road map that somewhere along the process the classified, the certified staff, and even, I think, the citizens of Ashland would be involved. I would hope,” Mauriocourt said.

After hearing from Mauriocourt, the board entered executive session to begin mapping out the process for finding Marrah’s replacement.

The board also heard updates on preparations for the rapidly approaching 2022-2023 school year.

Renovations on Taft Intermediate School and Ashland High School are in “high gear” and Taft’s renovations are ahead of schedule, Marrah said. Construction on a new high school storage building has already begun, and work on a new high school track and scoreboard is expected to start next week, he added.

District curriculum director Linda McKibben also shared details on curriculum changes and staff training for the upcoming school year. Some of these changes are: a new middle school social studies curriculum, a new accelerated reader program for grades 2-8, and a revamp of K-8 math instruction.

Curriculum changes are often necessary when they haven’t been updated for some time. In the case of the social studies curriculum, it hadn’t been updated for 10 years, McKibben said.

“What happens is the companies no longer support it. The books go out of circulation, the editions are sold, you can’t replace things,” McKibben said.

The school board also distributed copies of the schedule for the district’s various open houses, which is listed below.