During its annual Organization Day on Monday, January 3, 2022, the IPS Board of School Commissioners unanimously re-elected Evan Hawkins as the governing body’s president.
Hawkins noted that he will not seek re-election to his position representing District 3 when his term ends at the end of 2022. A member since 2019, Hawkins is an active IPS parent and currently serves as a facilities director at Marian University.
The Board also re-elected Venita Moore as vice president. Representing District 2, Moore has been a Board member since 2017 and will serve through 2024.
The Board elected Kenneth Allen as board secretary, succeeding Susan Collins (an at-large commissioner). Allen, also an at-large commissioner, is a certified child and youth care worker with Indiana Youth Services Association and oversees the organization’s statewide anti-human trafficking awareness initiative.
Collins has been a member since 2019 and is serving through the end of 2022. She is a retired IPS teacher who coordinates tutoring for Dockside Services and is a contractor for the Indiana Department of Child Services and other agencies. Five of her nine children graduated from Indianapolis Public Schools.
Other IPS Board members include Diane Arnold (District 4), Taria Slack (District 5) and Will Pritchard (District 1).
In other business, the board approved a resolution re-appointing Weston Young, IPS chief financial officer, as treasurer; and John Niland, accounting supervisor, and Geoffrey Dobbins, director of budget and strategy, as deputy treasurers.
The resolution also appointed Weston Young as the district’s designee to the Marion County Board of Finance and authorizes him to execute any necessary special education excess cost contracts on behalf of the Board.
The board also approved the re-appointment of Andrew Bernlohr as executive secretary to the governing body.