Seven candidates to interview for open Greencastle School Board position

The Greencastle School Board will have its hands full in choosing a board member to fill the remainder of a Greencastle Township appointment.

Seven candidates have applied to fill the position recently vacated by veteran board member Mike White, who resigned effective June 15 after 13 years on the board.

The candidates include Carrie Ball, Jimmy Beasley Jr., Scott Bieniek, John Mark Day, James Sprinkle, Anthony Tillman and Kevin Verhoff.

The school board will meet in a special public meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 27 to interview prospective members.

Acting board President Ed Wilson told the Banner Graphic that a second public meeting for interviews has also been set for 4:30 p.m. on Friday, June 28. Wilson said the second meeting serves two potential purposes.

One is to accommodate any candidates unable to schedule an interview for Thursday. The second is for overflow time should Thursday’s meeting run too long.

With interviews complete, the board is set to meet in executive session at 6 p.m. Friday to develop a final list of prospective appointees.

The board will then reconvene for a 7 p.m. public session at which the final choice for a new school board member will be made.

All meetings are set to take place at the Greencastle Community Schools Central Office, 1001 Mill Pond Lane.

Although Greencastle School Board members are appointed by the Greencastle City Council (two members), Greencastle Township Trustee (two members) and Madison Township Trustee (one member), mid-term replacements are appointed by the board itself, with the board given 30 days from the effective date to make a selection. In this case, that gives the board until July 15 to choose White’s replacement.

The appointment in question expires on June 30, 2027.

This position is the third to be appointed or reappointed during the month of June, as Kathryn Dory was selected by the city to replace current member Brian Cox, and Wilson was selected by Greencastle Township for a second term on the board.

Among current candidates, Day and Verhoff were also both among the candidates for the city position for which Dory was ultimately chosen. Bieniek was the other candidate for Wilson’s Greencastle Township appointment.

The terms of Dory and Wilson expire on June 30, 2028.

Of the remaining two positions on the board, Madison Township appointee Dale Pierce’s current term expires June 30, 2025, while Megan Inman’s City of Greencastle appointment expires June 30, 2026. Inman was also a mid-term position, chosen in the spring of 2023 to replace Russell Harvey.

The Greencastle School Board met on Monday in what was the final meeting for Cox, who has served on the board since 2018.