District in new hands

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District in new hands

New Dover Area board members took their posts, but one seat remains open.

By Michelle Star, York Daily Record (York, Pennsylvania), December 6, 2005

New Dover Area School Board members received a standing ovation from most of the crowd while a group of former board members sat at one side of the room.

Plaintiffs and witnesses from the federal intelligent design trial sat among the crowd at the meeting, which brought media from the BBC, Fox News Channel and local outlets to cover the handoff Monday evening.

School district parents sued the district after the former board decided to include the concept of intelligent design in the ninth-grade science curriculum. The trial ended Nov. 4, and the judge expects to make a decision in the case by the end of the year.

Heather Geesey, the only member who had not been up for election in the latest vote, served as temporary president until Bernadette Reinking and Terry Emig were voted president and vice president, respectively.

In what was already a historic event - in which members who had supported a curriculum change to include intelligent design in science class were replaced - one seat remained empty.

The seat will go to James Cashman or challenger Bryan Rehm after a special election Jan. 3 at Friendship Community Church because of a machine malfunction. Cashman is challenging the election results, arguing the malfunction might have prevented him from earning more votes than Rehm did.

Both Cashman and Rehm took places as spectators as the new board starting shaking things up.

Reinking said each meeting would be digitally recorded. Officials will determine later how those recordings will be made available. In the past, recordings, which were not available to the public, had been destroyed after the minutes were approved until legal action last year.

The board also changed meeting dates to the first and third Mondays of the month to coordinate with local municipalities in order to allow them to send representatives.

Stock and Leader lawyer Steve Russell was back and will attend the first meeting of each month, he said. The previous board saved money by asking their solicitor to attend only some meetings.

During public comment, which was moved to the beginning of the meeting, Lonny Langione said it was wonderful to see Russell.

Langione, who served on the board prior to the intelligent design issue, said former board member David Napierskie's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit was too late.

Napierskie, who lost a bid for election Nov. 8, tried to appeal to the new board as he had done with the outgoing board. He suggested the district avoid paying legal fees in the intelligent design lawsuit by filing a motion to dismiss.

"I say let Kansas or any other state or school board deal with it, not Dover," he said.

The Kansas school board recently approved a curriculum change questioning the validity of evolution, a goal of intelligent design proponents.

Reinking said the solicitor advised the board that the trial has ended and the judge will not likely rule to dismiss.

Support of the new board was echoed by former board member Carol "Casey" Brown, who resigned the night of the vote over intelligent design, and Charles Benton, co-founder of Dover CARES and technology education teacher at Dover High School.

No one spoke publicly against the new members.

After the meeting, Supt. Richard Nilsen said the new members are learning about district procedure, legal issues, contract negotiations, governance and the budget.

Addressing the district's budget and intelligent design curriculum will begin next, Nilsen said. The board is going to discuss the intelligent design curriculum issue during the Jan. 3 planning meeting.

Many people know the new members for their stance against intelligent design in science class, but board member Judy McIlvaine said they won't rush a decision. That's what the last board did, she said.

"The last thing we want to do is pull a mirror image," she said. "This (board is) going to have input from the teachers and the community."

Terry Emig also added, "We should have the judge's ruling by then (Jan. 3). If we don't have it I'm not voting on anything."

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