By Bill Petzold
Editor
CARO — Theron Nesbitt was selected at a special meeting of the Caro Community Schools board of education to replace trustee Lisa Graf. Graf’s resignation was accepted at the November regular board of education meeting. She cited family reasons in explaning her resignation.
Superintendent Mike Joslyn said that four applicants — Gary Clemons, Tony Behrends, Brian Gyurko and Nesbitt — submitted applications for the open seat, and all but one, Gyurko, were able to attend the special meeting. Gyurko submitted his written responses to seven questions asked by board members of the attending candidates during 15-minute interviews.
Joslyn said the board followed Michigan Association of School Boards protocol, with board members casting first-place and second-place votes for those candidates they felt were the strongest. Board president John Forshee tallied the results and read them to the crowd. Nesbitt received five first-place votes and one second-place vote.
“It was a pretty much a unanimous vote,” Joslyn said.
All four applicants had sought seats on the school board in the November election. Nesbitt works for the Millington School District as a technology director and is subcontracted to oversee the technology department at Vassar Public Schools through a shared services agreement. He and his wife Shelly have two children, Alexis and Austin, who attend Caro Community Schools in 3rd and 7th grade, respectively.
In addition to overseeing the technology departments at both Vassar and Millington, Nesbitt uses his tech savvy as a coach for the Caro Middle School robotics team.
“We’re in the process of developing a high school robotics team,” Nesbitt said. “A couple weeks ago I was given a sponsorship by NASA — they gave me a $6,000 sponsorship, and I’m hoping to get another $6,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Education.”
Joslyn said that once the votes were tallied, the board made a motion to appoint Nesbitt to fill out the remaining two years of Graf’s term which expires in December 2016.
“I’m just super excited to be able to direct the schools in a positive direction,” Nesbitt said.