ONEIDA, Ill. — The ROWVA School Board appointed two new members during its board meeting on Monday, April 18.
Heather Godsil and Emily Bean fill two open board positions that were left vacant following the resignation of two board members in March.
James Haynes and Melissa Shepherd during a special meeting on March 10 resigned from the ROWVA School Board. Haynes served as board president and joined the board in 2009. He had last run for his seat in spring 2021. Shepherd had been on the board since 2015.
Board vice president, who was later voted in as president, Scott Lake, thanked those who had applied for the open positions, saying that there had been a lot of interest.
During its regular school board meeting on March 21, the board had voted to approve another new board member. Amber Fleming replaced Rob Kalb, who had served on the board for 15 years, following his February resignation. Kalb cited "personal and family reasons" in his resignation letter.
The three resigning members had served alongside the four members who still remain on the board, Lake, John Kuelper, Matthew Johnson and Ryan West, since 2017.
The school board isn't the only place the ROWVA school district is seeing changes.
The board accepted the resignation of High School English teacher, Traci Johnson, on Feb. 22. Her resignation was effective immediately, according to board minutes.
The board then accepted the resignation of Junior High Social Studies teacher, Chris Johnson, on March 10. He will depart at the end of the school year.
Superintendent Joe Sornberger on March 10 announced his resignation. Sornberger had been with ROWVA for eight years and will leave at the end of this school year, set to take over as superintendent of Jasper County Community Unit School District 1 in Southeast Illinois for the 2022-23 school year.
High School and Junior High Principal Adam Seaney will also leave at the end of the year. He was recently hired by Galesburg District 205. He was hired by ROWVA in 2018.
The resignations come following several controversial board discussions this school year. In August 2021, the board split on whether to follow state mask mandate guidelines. Two weeks later, the board met again and voted to require masks be worn in the classroom.
Most recently, in January, the board split on the issue of the novel, "The Hate U Give" being taught in a freshman English class. Johnson was one of those teachers.
The 2017 novel, written by Angie Thomas, is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, according to Thomas' website. It follows the story of a 16-year-old girl who witnesses her friend shot and killed by police.
Parents objected to the profane language in the novel and said it was too mature for freshmen to read.
The school board voted 4-2 to remove the book from the classroom, but it's allowed to remain in the library. Sornberger had recommended the board neither ban or suspend the book in any capacity. Kalb and Shepherd were the two board members who voted against removing it.
During that Jan. 18 discussion, the board proposed forming a committee to review its school policies and the book. Students at the meeting asked to be a part of that committee. Lake would not confirm to News 8 whether that committee had been established or whether any review had taken place.
Neither Lake, Kuelper, Johnson, West or Sornberger responded to requests from News 8 to comment on the recent resignations.
Now that the ROWVA School Board is back to its full seven members, it also voted on Monday night on its new board positions. Lake now moves to president, West will serve as vice president and Fleming will be secretary.
The ROWVA School District represents the small towns Rio, Onedia, Wataga, Victoria and Altona. The district has around 600 students.