By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Cassopolis Vigilant
CASSOPOLIS -- "I am trading my wave runners for snowmobiles," said the Cassopolis Public Schools new interim superintendent Allen Schau, who was appointed at Monday evening's Board of Education meeting.
Schau already owned a cottage at Gravel Lake and returns to the area he is most familiar. A Galien native and high school graduate, Schau went on to Western Michigan University and has been in education for 40 years.
Previously he was the superintendent at Buchanan for six years and was the Niles High School principal for four years. Most recently he was the superintendent at Ridgewood High School in Norridge, a suburb of Chicago, Ill. his wife Pam is also an educator.
He hopes to "not be just a caretaker, but to help lead" the Cassopolis district.
He will work with Superintendent John Ostrowski after he starts about Sept. 9, until Mr. Ostrowski moves on to the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District as its new superintendent at the beginning of October.
The Michigan Association of School Boards was appointed to help the district with its search for a permanent superintendent.
While parents of seventh graders walked around the school with their students, trying out locker combinations, the board met in the library.
In other business the board learned another $65,000 has been found which will help the district install self-locking doors in all the buildings. The doors will no longer need chains and will be secure in that they can be opened by a buzzer, apart from the actual door.
Emergency lighting is also being added with backup generators to all the buildings in the district except Red Brick School.
Dailey Church provided 30 back packs, filled with supplies for students entering Sam Adams.
The board went into closed session to discuss negotiations. An agreement was reached which will be a two-year contract with the teachers' union.
Salary increases for the certified teachers will average 2.75 in the first year and 2.5 the next.
The contract was accepted by both the teachers and the board members.