On June 16, the London Board of Education approved a supplemental contract for a new head varsity basketball coach.
Bethany Warthen, who has served as an assistant college coach and for several years as a coach in the South-Western City School District, replaces Terry Toliver.
In other personnel news, Superintendent Steve Allen reported that he has received 67 applications for the principal’s job opening at London Middle School.
“Most of them have experience, which is our preference,” he said.
The plan is to hire the new principal by July. The new person will replace Mark Elliott, who resigned.
In the public participation part of the meeting, two parents aired complaints about situations involving their children.
Kristen Myers told the board of an incident that involved her daughter, a member of the tennis team this past school year. The incident happened in September following a tennis practice.
Myers said she arrived at the school to pick up her daughter and saw her running laps around the court with a few other players. She said her daughter stopped a few times, saying that her chest hurt and she was having trouble breathing.
When she did not get the assistance she wanted for her daughter from the coach, Myers said she called 9-1-1, but the call was routed to Columbus rather than to a local responder. After talking to the athletic director, she said she insisted that a squad be called. At the hospital, the doctors found that her daughter’s blood sugar level was very low.
Myers told the board she is not happy with how the situation was handled and did not understand why the coach was still on staff.
Angela Teems’ complaint involves her son, an elementary school student who cannot walk. She said she has had trouble with his bus driver not being able to properly secure his wheelchair on the bus. She also is dissatisfied with bus route changes that involve the driver taking all other students to school, then picking up her son and taking him to school separately.
“The 14th amendment allows him to ride the bus with everyone else,” Teems said. “He’s a typical child who just wants to be with everyone else.”
Allen said the board and administration will look into both matters, and Board President Nancy Smith will get back to the parents in a timely manner.
