FREDERICKTOWN – Fredericktown’s school board rescinded its previous motion to reconfigure staffing in its treasurer’s office. The board also approved for the assistant treasurer, who previously resigned, to instead continue her employment with the district during a special meeting Tuesday.
The board had accepted assistant treasurer Dawn Campbell’s resignation effective Dec. 21, 2021, during a special meeting Dec. 7. It subsequently voted to reconfigure the treasurer’s office to two positions, as opposed to three. Fredericktown has a treasurer, assistant treasurer and a fiscal support position, and the board voted to eliminate the fiscal support position.
The board’s latest Jan. 18 action reverses these actions from December.
In December, after a motion made by former board member Patty Miller, the board voted to change the office staffing from a treasurer and two employees contracted to work 30 hours per week and 20 hours per week, respectively, to a treasurer and one employee contracted to work 40 hours per week.
The board posted the 40-hour per week position for a month, from Dec. 3 to Jan. 3, treasurer Heather Darnold said. The board received no internal or external applicants, including from Campbell or fiscal support employee Lynnea Clevenger, according to the Jan. 18 resolution.
District treasurer Heather Darnold did not attend the Dec. 7 meeting due to personal reasons when the board cast the initial vote to reconfigure the office. Darnold has since told the board the treasurer’s office requires at least 50 hours per week of department support, and the board found this to be justified, according to the resolution.
Given the board’s Jan. 18 resolution, it does not intend to reduce Clevenger’s position at this time.
Campbell informed the board she wished to rescind her resignation and continue her employment right before the first board meeting of the year, Jan. 11, 2022, Darnold said. During that regular January meeting, the board rescinded the date for Campbell’s resignation from Dec. 21, 2021, to Jan. 7, 2022, which superintendent Jim Peterson said was because Campbell had continued to help the district with finances on several occasions.
Board member Candi Gallagher asked if the board needed a separate motion to pay Campbell for the additional time. Darnold said the board did not have to approve the additional pay.
Former board president Todd McClay said Jan. 18 he had been working on the resolution before the regular meeting and it had been on the regular meeting agenda until Jan. 10, when he said he was told Campbell was resigning again.
“I just want the community to know, and everybody to know, that this is something the former board president was working on Jan. 8 through 10, and if she hadn’t resigned again, we would have voted on this at the Jan. 11 board meeting,” McClay said Jan. 18.
Campbell was present at Tuesday’s special meeting. Campbell declined to comment on the situation but said she was grateful for Tuesday’s resolution.
“Thank you very much,” Darnold said to the board following the Jan. 18 vote. “I appreciate this.”
The board will continue to assess the staffing needs of the treasurer’s office and the district as a whole, according to the resolution.
