John Bright was selected to replace Jeremy Carlisle on the Cassopolis Board of Education Monday night. (Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK)

In a unanimous vote Monday night, the Cassopolis Board of Education selected John Bright to replace former president Jeremy Carlisle.

Janet Hall, via Skype, nominated Bright, who was then voted onto the board and sworn in.

Bright moved to Cassopolis about three and a half years ago and has been involved in law enforcement for over 20 years. He is currently a police officer at Indiana University South Bend (IUSB).

Bright said he wanted to be on the school board during his interview Jan. 21 because he cared about kids, cares about the community and the stability of its school system. He has attended most of the board meetings for the past four years and had a solid knowledge of where the board was at and where it wanted to go.

“I just love the community,” Bright said. “The community has just been fabulous. I love the schools and have been very active in a lot of the programs at the schools. I got really interested in the Science Ag when they were looking at doing that. Because of funds they were unable to do it, but I was on the committee when we tried to get that going. It didn’t work out at the time, but it was a real neat experience.”

In response to the question about what are the most pressing issues the board faces in raising student achievement, Bright said he liked what was going on at the elementary level.

“I like that we are giving the kids the right curriculum and the right tools to achieve the goals we set,” he said. “I also like that you have upgraded and are using more technology and giving teachers the training so they can be the best they can be at their jobs.”

Bright brings to the board a working knowledge of budgets having worked on police budgets over his years of law enforcement. He has also negotiated contracts.

“I realize a school budget is unique, but I have a knowledge of the process from sitting in on budget discussions over the last four years,” Bright said.

He said the top three priorities facing the board are student achievement, school safety and the school budget.

“We’ve set goals with sub-parts of each goal and I hope we can achieve all those goals,” Bright said.

The board also hired Kelly Hargrove, a seventh-grade math teacher to be the seven- and eighth-grade math coach.

The next regular meeting of the board will be Feb. 11 at Squires Learning Center.