Bonnell makes his departure from EL BOE

By MICHAEL D. McELWAIN

mmcelwain@reviewonline.com

EAST LIVERPOOL - Monday night was the last regular East Liverpool Board of Education meeting with Gary Bonnell sitting at the board table.

Bonnell opted to not run for reelection, but don't count him out from remaining involved.

"This is my last vote but not my last word," Bonnell promised. He thanked the voters, school administrators, school staff and students for making his tenure on the board enjoyable.

Praise was heaped upon Bonnell for his involvement with the school building project and his mindful financial eye. Plaques were given to him by Superintendent Ken Halbert and Robert Estell, board president.

"You saved us a whole lot of money and some aggravation and cut off some mistakes before they happened," Estell told Bonnell. "I want you to know that I appreciate it."

Bonnell offered to continue his role as an unpaid liaison between the district and the school building construction effort, but he was rebuffed despite getting a legal opinion saying it was an option.

Bonnell said he forfeited $12,000 in board pay over the last four years and volunteered to act a building construction liaison because, "I wanted to help the board, the district and the building project. That was my motive."

"All the board members have decided that internally," Bonnell said about them rejecting his offer to stay as liaison. "At the end of the road, I offered to stay with the project and finish the project out ... I think it's an injustice to our superintendent because he's doing the special education job, and he's doing his best to bring up our test scores. If it's not me, I think you really need to get someone in here to finish the project out."

Estell said Halbert will be tapped to become the liaison between the board and the building project.

After the meeting, Estell offered a "no comment" when asked why, despite him saying Bonnell was an asset, the board would not ask Bonnell to continue in the capacity at no cost.

For his part, Bonnell had a few more parting comments Monday including his great fear that the district's financial woes may return.

"I'm a person who looks at the pennies and makes sure the money is in the bank. I'm not so sure it's there," Bonnell warned. His comments were punctuated with a discussion on finances and the fact that the state's exact contribution for the next two years is still in limbo. That could, potentially, translate into the loss of millions of dollars in the worst case scenario according to Treasurer Todd Puster.

The board has not yet made a final decision on the fate of the remaining school buildings after the building project is complete. East Elementary and Westgate are scheduled for demolition, and the master building plan includes demolition as the final step.

Bonnell indicated fellow board members Janice Martin and Larry Walton voted for that master plan option several years ago. Keeping Westgate without any additional support would put the district on a slippery financial slope, according to Bonnell.

"In my opinion, that would bankrupt the district sooner rather than later," Bonnell said. "I've always been an advocate of keeping Westgate, but we (the district) signed a contract with the state."

Earlier this month, Estell indicated the board would decide the fate of the abandoned buildings before the end of the year and indicated he still intends to keep that promise.

"We're going to have a special board meeting before the end of the year," Estell said. "I'm not sure of the date yet. There's another issue that's come up involving the health of the students. I think we need to have all the information at our disposal before we make a decision."

In one other issue raised by Bonnell, he implored the board to hire a fully trained maintenance person to oversee and care for all of the high tech equipment in the school buildings.

"We'll have in excess of $100 million in three facilities when the project is over," Bonnell said. "It's important to have someone to take care of this because it's too much of an investment for the school and for the taxpayers not to."