By Bill Petzold
Editor
CARO — The Caro Community Schools board of education faces another candidate search after Superintendent Bruce Nelson announced his intention to retire at the end of the school year.
During the communications segment of Monday’s board meeting, Nelson presented a letter he wrote to the board telling them he plans to retire effective July 1, 2014. School board president John Forshee said the board learned of Nelson’s decision in an email sent Monday morning.
“Well, I’ve got a birthday coming up and (I considered) lots of things in terms of looking at the future and what’s coming down the road, and I think, you know, it’s time to look somewhere else, do something different,” Nelson told The Advertiser when asked what factored into his decision to retire at this time. “It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t stay in education, but at this point in time … it just feels right.
“I probably will be moving to the west side of the state. All my children are out there and all my grandchildren are out there. I’m originally from New Jersey. All my family in New Jersey moved out of Jersey, including me, and so now most of my family is in the Grand Rapids area and that’s where I’ll be settling. Probably I’m looking at doing some consulting, basically just pacing back a little bit.”
Board members began discussing the best way to proceed with finding the district’s next superintendent. A special meeting to discuss the matter is planned Tuesday, November 26 at 7 p.m. in the Caro Middle School media center.
“Thank goodness — for those of you that are in the audience — Mr. Nelson was kind enough to email that out to us so the shock and awe of that, it gives us a little bit of time to try to address this,” Forshee said after Nelson read his letter. “You will be sorely missed, I can say that. A harder worker we will not find. We’re thankful for the financial condition we are in, but we need to have a discussion, board members, about the future.”
Later in the meeting, board members debated whether they would seek outside council in their superintendent search.
“I want to tell (Nelson) that I appreciate this time frame, giving us the opportunity to do this job well — a tough job — to find your replacement,” board vice-president Dean Tomlinson said. “With that, I think we need to move ahead as quickly as is reasonable.”
Tomlinson suggested that board members compile a list of three to five criteria each that members feel are important in hiring a new superintendent, such as the importance of hiring an experienced administrator as opposed to someone with less experience, familiarity with the area and other factors in making the decision, and to bring them to the special meeting.
The public is invited to attend the November 26 special meeting.
• Nelson gave an annual report on the steps taken by Caro schools to combat bullying.
“We started the year with a movie on bullying for staff … to raise awareness of how serious it is,” Nelson said. “I think we all understand that, we understand that it changes the lives of students and those affected by it. … Since the adoption of our policies, we’ve developed forms and protocols to follow and then report. All staff members were required complete online training in a number of areas that included bullying this year.”
Nelson said the school was looking at student-to-student, adult-to-student and adult-to-adult bullying incidents, and that there were five cases reported of adult bullying incidents during the 2012-13 school year.
“The adult bullying incidents can be something like a parent coming into school, (being) loudly demanding and interfering in their usual process,” Nelson said. “It can be a staff member or a visitor in the building going beyond normal expectations of dealing with students. … Three involved irate parents, two involved staff members with students or parents. Investigations into all these cases were held, and the persons alleged to have been bullied and the bullies were advised that this was inappropriate and could result in a police report if continued. The district emphasis is that while we welcome parents and we welcome all of our students, we welcome our communtiy, we also have to deal civilly with each other when we’re on the school campus. On the positive side of that, we had no follow-up reports.”
According to Nelson’s report, there were 14 bullying incidents reported at Schall Elementary during the 2012-13 school year, each investigated, and praised staff for their efforts counseling students. This school year there have been four bullying incidents reported, two involving the same student.
• Nelson said that a survey regarding a proposed bond campaign revealed little support for a bond issue at this time. The board followed Nelson’s recommendation to form a Project Committee consisting of trustees Bill Thayer, Paul Strasz and Robert Fetting that will use information collected in terms of infrastructure and other school improvements to determine those items of greatest need for future projects.
Bill Petzold is the editor of the Tuscola County Advertiser. He can be reached at petzold@tcadvertiser.com.