In July 2011, the Gillingham Charter School Board of Trustees named its first board president, Mary A. Rushanan, Llewellyn, a broker/appraiser based in Minersville. And Rushanan held the post until she resigned in April 2013.
Rushanan, 71, passed away on Monday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, Allentown, according to her obituary.
At Gillingham’s board meeting Thursday night, the current board president, Marsha Chwastiak, made a statement in honor of her:
“It is with great sadness that we note the recent passing of our first board president, Mary Rushanan. We offer our condolences to her daughter, Monica Meza, who is a gifted member of our faculty, and to Mrs. Rushanan’s entire family. A major reason we are here today is because of Mary Rushanan’s commitment to education. Mrs. Rushanan was instrumental in opening Gillingham and led us through some very difficult times. What a beautiful legacy she has left by working so hard to educate Schuylkill County’s youth. We hope to honor her legacy and do her proud by re-chartering this school and teaching generations to come to respect and serve others as she did.”
In other matters at Gillingham’s regular January meeting, the board accepted the resignation of Dawn Housel, the school’s programs and compliance coordinator.
“We would like to thank Dawn Housel for her dedication, hard work and loyal service to our school. She has been presented with an amazing opportunity that she could not pass up and will be resigning from her position as the programs and compliance coordinator,” Rachel Bensinger, the school’s director of organization development, said at Thursday’s meeting.
“Dawn has been a valuable member of the Gillingham family for years. She may no longer be a GCS employee, but she is still part of the Gillingham family. This is not goodbye. She expressed deep interest to continue to be actively involved with the school as a parent and we look forward to working with her in this capacity for years to come,” Bensinger said.
In August, the Gillingham board hired Housel as a 12-month employee at a rate of $35,500.
The board filled the position Thursday by promoting a part-time administrative assistant and teachers aide, Carlie Cole.
In August, the board hired Cole as part-time administration support at $14 per hour for 20 hours per week, and as a part-time teacher’s aide at $12.25 per hour for eight hours per week.
On Thursday, the board promoted Cole to programs and compliance coordinator at $30,000 a year.
In other matters, Nicolle M. Hutchinson, the school’s CEO and director of education, said Gillingham will welcome a student from Drexel University who will complete 20 hours of classroom observations in the school’s secondary English classes.
Hutchinson did not name the student, but said, “she wants to learn more about our way of teaching and specifically asked to come up here.”
“That is great!” board member Lisa Halteman said.