Wednesday, January 26, 2000
Ask away on school split
Middletown/Monroe hires coordinator to get the answers
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
MIDDLETOWN — With questions mounting as a vote on the Middletown/Monroe schools split nears, a Warren County educator has been given the role of answer man.
Have you heard something about the proposed split, but you're not sure whether it's fact or rumor?
Ask John Lazares.
Mr. Lazares, superintendent of the Warren County Education Service Center, has been tapped to get answers.
“This is not a presumption or anticipation the vote will go one way or the other,” Mark Frazer, president of the Middletown/Monroe school board, said after the board voted Monday to appoint Mr. Lazares.
Should Monroe voters approve the split in a March 7 vote, the new district would begin operations no later than July 1.
Mr. Lazares will serve as transition coordinator on behalf of Middletown schools, at no cost to the board of education except his expenses.
He will be the district's spokesman on the subject and will work with Dan Hare, superintendent of the Butler County Education Service Center, who is working with Monroe residents as they begin preparations for a new school district.
“My first priority will be to establish a contact at the state department (of education),” Mr. Lazares said.
“This is a new experience for everybody. I'll be looking at the bigger picture and will work with Monroe and look at the legal aspects — which we don't know yet.”
Mr. Lazares said he is well-suited for the job, having 26 years of experience as an educator, including work in Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties.
Also, his schedule is more flexible than Middletown/Monroe Superintendent Wayne Driscoll, who still has to run the school system.
Mr. Lazares served as superintendent in the Norwood and Kings districts before moving to the Warren County Education Service Center.
Even before he was named transition coordinator, Mr. Lazares said he had scheduled 14 appointments in Columbus during January and February on other business. Transition business also can be addressed on those trips, he said.
The Rev. Greg Tyus, a Middletown/Monroe board member, said he was in favor of a single spokesman from the district as it works through a plan should there be a split.
“(He will be) a communication mechanism to make sure whatever communication we have comes from a single source ... not just what some people are thinking,” the Rev. Mr. Tyus said.
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