MANSFIELD — Six Mansfield City Schools seniors have each received a $1,000 scholarship to propel them toward their college careers.
There were 15 applicants for the school’s booster club scholarships this year, but the club could only choose six. School board member Chris Elswick said he is proud of the students awarded with the scholarship money.
“Their average GPA (grade point average) is 3.8 and they had a cumulative ACT score of 29. So we were proud to award them the money, which will probably go to books,” he said with a chortle.
The six who won the $1,000 scholarship included Thea Cronley, Tessa Nehrkorn, Alexia Kemerling, Caitlynne McGaughlin, Grace Haring and Colin Henley. The seniors will attend Miami University, Ohio State University at Mansfield, Hiram College, Ohio State University, Baldwin Wallace University and Allegheny College, respectively.
One of the recipients, Haring, also won the Franklin B. Walter Scholarship from the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center. Elswick said she is the first-ever student from Senior High to win the $500 scholarship.
Elswick said the Richland All Sports Booster Club was able to award $10,000 last year and $6,000 this year.
“It’s not much, but it’s at least something,” Elswick said of the scholarship money. “We’re just now coming back from the incident. It’s good compared to what we lost.”
In an investigation that started in 2007, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office concluded that three individuals — Kendall Clemons, William Clemons and Cheryl Patrick — misused around $295,753 in scholarship funds through a bingo operation.
The Clemonses both were sentenced to a year in prison. Patrick was sentenced to two years probation. In November 2014, a Richland County jury ruled Kendall Clemons owed $6.4 million in restitution to five area nonprofit groups that never received charitable bingo profits.
Although the high school’s booster club receives around $150 per month in restitution, Elswick said the department’s funds are tight.
“I just think of what we could have done with that money for the kids,” Elswick said.
