ABOVE: The scene at the beginning of the Wednesday January 15th Danville District 118 School Board meeting. Superintendent Dr. Alicia Geddis was once again absent; with board members Shannon Schroeder and Darlene Halloran also not in attendance.
Danville District 118’s first school board meeting of the year carried over a familiar scene from the end of 2024. Superintendent Dr. Alicia Geddis continues to be absent, as well as continues to be on self initiated working remotely status after expressing concerns about threats made to her. During a recent meeting, the board asked Geddis to return and work in person, but that has not happened.
During board member comments at the end of the meeting, some obscure references appeared to be made. Elder Tyson Parks stated, “Please pray for us, there are things we are going to have to do.”
Board member Kimberly Corley echoed a recent comment she had made by saying “There are thing I’d like to say but I cannot.” However, Corley also implied that Dr. Geddis had not been accessible when needed during closed session portions of board meetings, and that sometimes the presence of a superintendent at that time is necessary to do district work. She asked if Assistant Superintendent John Hart would be able to sit in. Hart, while having no direct comment on Dr. Geddis’ status, did say that he’d sat in in closed sessions before, and would be glad to help.
AUDIO: I haven’t sat in on closed sessions, probably, in around two years. But I’d more than happy to help out in any way that I could.
School Board president Dr. Randal Ashton also had no direct comment or information about Dr. Geddis’ status. But he did echo the “pray for us” statement that Elder Tyson Parks had made.
AUDIO: We still get the work done; there’s a little difficulty in the situation that we have, with Dr. Geddis being remote. We do try to get things done, and it’s worked out to this point pretty well. Is it something that we want to continue on in the future month? Absolutely not. So we have to get some work done, and make some tough decisions; and that’s what Elder Parks was talking about. So, pray for us.
Danville District 118’s next scheduled board meeting is Wednesday, February 12th.
