By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
Two principals will keep heading the Okarche Public Schools sites for the elementary, junior and high schools for another year.
The Okarche School board met Monday, Feb. 12 to discuss the future employment of elementary principal Chris Roby and junior high and high school principal G.W. Parham for the 2024-2025 school year.
The board unanimously approved current principal Chris Roby as elementary principal for 2024-2025.
The vote was 4-1 to keep G.W. Parham as the junior high and high school principal. Grades 7-12 are in one building in Okarche.
School board member Joe Alig voted no to rehire G.W. Parham for next year. Heather Nance, Ryan McIlvain, Robert Anderson and Jerrod Meuggenborg voted yes to keep Parham.
Also, current employee Skye Tilley as a paraprofessional/teacher’s aide and an adjunct teacher for high school and junior high softball and athletics for the remainder of the 2024 spring semester. The board unanimously voted to hire Tilley to coach softball in the spring.
Tilley was an assistant basketball coach before resigning in December when head coach Haley Mitchel also resigned following an anonymous letter about the basketball program sent to the school board.
In other action on Monday, Feb. 12, the board unanimously approved purchase of a 12-foot by 20-foot studio building for the technology education classes and the Okarche robotics team. The team has needed the building for several years, Superintendent Josh Sumrall told board members at the Feb. 12th meeting.
Work is being wrapped up at the baseball and softball fields as the season approaches, Sumrall said.
