Earlier this month, two Greene County School Board members stepped down after not seeking re-election.

Bonnie Silbaugh and Michelle Fields each served one, four-year term on the Greene County School Board, with Silbaugh additionally taking on the responsibility of being the School Board President for the last two years and Fields serving as the Board Vice President. Silbaugh says after making a commitment to be on the school board four years ago and pouring some much time and energy into doing that, she felt it was time to direct her energy towards other areas such as running her business, Fudge’s Flowers and Gifts. 

Silbaugh talks about her favorite part of being on the school board was having the opportunity to be even more involved in the school district.

“I love getting to talk to people and all different types of people and there’s no better place to do that than in the school setting, because it represents a lot of your community. Because once you choose to try to go on school board you definitely want to go to as many things as you can, and see as many kids as you can, see the teachers interacting with the kids. So getting to see what they all do on another level, it completely blows your mind what everybody goes through in a day to get to school, to get home from school, and everything in between.”  

Superintendent Brett Abbotts expresses his gratitude for what Silbaugh and Fields have done in their four years on the Board and he reveals that it is a bittersweet experience because they were on the Board that hired him.

“Thank you just does not describe the level of appreciation that I have for both of them and what they did for their commitment, and support, and advocacy of our students, schools and staff. Again, just extremely thankful and grateful for the work and efforts that they put in over this time and also equally as grateful that they gave me the opportunity to lead this district.”  

New School Board members Megan Holz and Katie Nelson replaced Silbaugh and Fields, winning their respective seats and were sworn-in at the November meeting, along with incumbent Cindi Daubendiek that also won her re-election bid.