……The Hancock County Board of Education wasted no time or resources in getting a new superintendent on Board. The Board failed to extend Superintendent Dawn Petrovichs’ contract last week and voted to conduct an internal search. The Board has interviewed internally and is ready to make a decision Tuesday at 6.
,,,,,,Too soon? Too quick? Absolutely not. The Board has been unhappy with Petrovich since the debacle over her actions on awarding the human resource position to Sarah Parsons and getting sued by one of the candidates Alyssa Mick. The situation played out in slow motion with the attorney fees mounting and certainly was detrimental to the morale of the teachers and administrators. I applaud the Board for getting on with it swiftly.
…….Rumor has it JDRV Career Center Director Dan Enich will be the Board’s choice.
……..The lone no vote in extending Petrovich’s contract was Board Member Larry Shaw. While the former Board had a good many former educators Shaw, a former wrestling coach and librarian, is the sole educator on the Board.
……I was blown away by the story on State new this morning. THE WELCH NEWS (FORMERLY THE WELCH DAILY NEWS) has shuttered its operation. The only newspaper in Logan County the Welch News printed on site and went from 7 days a week to 3 days a week two years ago. It also had an e-edition that was quite successful. The circulation was declining and the 100 year old newspaper seemed to defy those 2000 newspapers who closed their doors in the past ten yearsl In its time, the small staff had broken some pretty impressive stories some of them making national news,
…….People don’t at first fathom what they lose when there is no local reporting. Government is free to run rampant with appointments, tax money etc without the 4th estate keeping watch. It isn’t just the cub scouts and fundraisers that gets covered, it the issues in your hometown that no-one knows about.
City and County government along with the Board of Education bear watching. We don’t need Erin Brockovich to tell us big business can get away with environmental practices which cause cancer and other illnesses, we see it right here in East Palestine.
…..Which is why we’re soliciting opinion from community members on the changes HOMETOWN NEWS needs to make to further meet your needs. It’s been eight years since we started our venture and printed, delivered and mailed 1,0000 copies. Just Shannon and I. It consumed us and then like it always does life happens. Shannon was faced with a divorce and the need to go to work full-time and I learned my husband had stage iv prostate cancer. We didn’t give up (although I gotta tell you we cried a lot) but John D. didn’t raise no quitters.
……..Two years ago we ceased printing and went with our digital newspaper. We ;lost some of the older readers who weren’t computer savvy, bit then we just kept putting out comprehensive copy and found we could do it on an hourly basis.and we started gaining younger readers who wanted their news on a more up to date basis
……..It wasn’t easy. My husband, Bill, l died Dec. 15 and I must confess my reporting was catch and catch can I must tell you that my ability to focus on my writing got me through some pretty rough times. We are now but we are now determined to make the digital edition more insightful, more informative with an improved layout that easier to read an copy ou won’t want to miss reading every day.
,,,,,,We’re soliciting from a team of experts in the industry and in the community (that’s you) and will be posing questions about how we can update and improve. cause the future is looking bright here in Hancock County and we want to be at the forefront of that future.