Annville-Cleona school board accepts member resignation, looks to fill seat

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The Annville-Cleona School Board voted during its Jan. 12 meeting to accept the resignation of board member Robert Evans, leaving them with 30 days to fill the seat.

Board members wanted to fill the position without holding an extra meeting that would need to be publicly advertised. After discussion, they agreed to ask past board presidents and the former board member who just ran for reelection, and then have open interviews.

The board has reached out to former presidents to fill vacancies before, board president Brent Copenhaver said. With no guarantee that someone will say yes to finishing out the term, he said he wanted an order of people to ask.

“My hope would be that one of the past presidents would be interested in it,” Copenhaver said. “They have experience — I think it would be a great fit.”

Copenhaver, according to the agreed-upon order, will ask the most recent board president, Mark Frattarole, the next most recent president, Gordon Waldhausen, and a former board member who ran for reelection, Chris Sirriannia, and then open up interviews if none of those individuals are available or willing to finish the two-year term.

The board had varying opinions, but Copenhaver had enough support to move forward with the steps he originally outlined.

Member Cynthia Eby said she has some hesitations about going to the previous board member if the past presidents don’t agree.

“I think that’s fine, going with the past presidents first. With going to your plan B, I do have a little bit of caution with that since that person did not get voted in by the community,” she said. “Nothing against him by any means, and I would be more than happy to consider him if he wanted to apply, but I think I would feel more comfortable, if one of those past presidents didn’t want to do it, to open it up.”

Board members added that this could raise some issues when going to past presidents who didn’t win a reelection campaign. Copenhaver asked how they should consider reelections to make it fair, and board member Darren Grumbine added his own opinion.

“I always support, this person put forth the effort to run,” Grumbine said. “Anybody else in the community, yes, there might be some good candidates out there. They didn’t put forth the effort to run. There’s a lot of effort that goes into this.”

Heather Hostetter said she wouldn’t mind putting in an extra evening to interview candidates, and she wants to respect the community’s vote in the November 2025 election.

“I do think there’s a consideration based on the timing of everything,” she said. “I would like us to balance the respect for the community and their vote and the timing — this doesn’t happen all the time, so we are in an interesting position.”

Copenhaver said he will reach out to each person on the list throughout the week. If no one agrees to fill the seat, the board will hold interviews at a public meeting.

In other business, the school board:

• Recognized Harry Hitz, Kelly Minnich, Dane Wolfe, and Bruce Yeany as Dedicated Dutchmen.
• Approved the resignations, retirements, and extracurricular volunteers outlined in the agenda.
• Ratified and approved an agreement between the Annville-Cleona School District and New Story Schools for the enrollment of one student at the rate of $451 per day from Nov. 24, 2025, through June 30, 2026.
• Approved an agreement between the district and Incident HQ for a helpdesk subscription in the amount of $4,950.34, effective through June 30.
• Approved all employments included in the agenda. 

The Annville-Cleona School Board will meet next in the district office board room on Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. for a work session meeting. The next regular board meeting will be on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.