Clyde-Green Springs schools filling key positions

CLYDE – The Clyde-Green Springs Board of Education hired Meghan Rohde, of Castalia, as its next school treasurer and has offered the superintendent’s job to an elementary principal in Brunswick.

School board president Matt Jenne said the board voted to hire Rohde, a senior internal auditor for PNC Bank, starting May 16.

Jenne said the school board still has details to work out with Dennis Haft, the candidate for superintendent, who would replace David Stubblebine.

Haft is employed by Brunswick City Schools, where he is the principal of Crestview Elementary School, which has an enrollment of nearly 450 students.

“We have a little homework to do,” Jenne said about moving toward contract approval.

During its regular school board meeting on Monday, the board also extended the contract of current school treasurer Joyce Dupont.

“We employed Joyce through May 15,” Jenne said, with provisions for her to continue working on a per diem basis to assist Rohde with the transition. Dupont submitted her resignation effective in early May to take the school treasurer’s position with Norwalk City Schools.

The board accepted the resignation of Stubblebine in November 2015, effective at the end of his current contract on July 31.

Stubblebine’s career with the district has been marred by controversy since he was hired as superintendent in August 2013.

He was reprimanded by the board in November 2014 for engaging in a romantic relationship with McPherson Middle School Principal Rachel Aldrich, who was his direct subordinate. Stubblebine was charged with obstructing official business, a misdemeanor, after Clyde Police were not provided information about students who they believed were bringing drugs to school. When the superintendent went on trial in Sandusky County Common Pleas Court, the charge was dismissed by Judge John Kolesar.

Jenne said the school board conducted an extensive search and interview process involving numerous special board meetings to find a new superintendent.

“Hopefully we’ll have a superintendent in the district that will bring back honesty and trust,” Jenne said. “You just kind of want to make this thing right.”

The board president commented frankly that the district has not had a stellar record in selecting superintendents. A previous superintendent, Todd Helms, was convicted of multiple felonies relating to the theft of nearly $300,000 from the school district and its groups. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and has since been released.

“We did not leave a stone unturned,” Jenne said of the current search, noting that the board conducted three rounds of interviews of superintendent candidates. When they narrowed the list to just two people, those candidates each spent a half day in the district meeting with staff before the officials offered the position to Haft.

rrbrooks@gannett.com

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