Fedorchak Appointed to Mehlville School Board

Not many people in the community know his name, but the Mehlville school board’s newest member, Ron Fedorchak, prompted a unanimous vote from the board to fill its open position.

In a 6-0 vote after an hour and a half of discussion Thursday, Fedorchak will fill Michael Ocello’s vacated seat until the April 2012 election. Fedorchak, along with David Wessel and Ken Leach, were among the top three discussed for the position.

“I was completely stunned,” Fedorchak said. “I really thought Ken Leach and David (Wessel) were great candidates. They deserved four votes, I was happy to be in their group of three."

About his service to the board, Fedorchak said he is looking forward to the challenges and quickly learning the procedures to help improve the district.

“Teachers are probably my biggest priority,” he said. “Facilities were another issue I wanted to address. One thing that was encouraged is not to get tied down in the financials. I want to keep it focused in on the classroom, the kids and the teachers.”

Fedorchak has three daughters in the district, Savannah, 16, who will be a junior at Oakville High School, Bailey, 14, a freshman at Oakville and Grace, 10, a fifth-grader at Blades Elementary.

Inspired by his children to apply for the open position, Fedorchak participated in the district’s strings committee and discussed finance and long-range planning for the program.

In his application, Fedorchak said his family “business” was education. His father was a principal for 38 years and his mother taught in both private and public schools.

Fedorchak is a sales account representative at Cobert and Associates, a company that sells chromatography and specialized chemical equipment.

In the discussion Thursday, board member Larry Felton said Fedorchak was an exceptional candidate because as a layperson in understanding how the district works.

“I like that he said he has no axe to grind. He’s not coming in with a specific agenda beyond wanting to improve the schools,” board member Elaine Powers said. “I heard some specific ideas instead of just generalities of how to make things better.”

Board members discussed each candidate after outlining specific criteria they were looking for.

All board members said they wanted a candidate with experience in school and board matters, including finance and management at the professional level.

Board member Mark Stoner said he would like to see a person who would fill a hole on the board to strengthen the team.

After defining characteristics, the board discussed each candidate before voting to narrow down the field. Each board member could vote as many times as they wanted for a candidate to move on.

Leach and Wessel got four votes, while Michael Gindler, Greg Frigerio, Marea Kluth-Hoppe, Fred Padberg and Ron Fedorchak got three. Aaron Hilmer got one vote from Stoner and Timothy Champion received none.

“Aaron is a lightening rod in a lot of ways,” Franz said. “Aaron Hilmer is one of those people in the community that… you either love him or hate him. That can be good, that can be bad. Let’s just admit he brings baggage.“

“What you cannot deny is that he has tremendous support in the community which would facilitate bringing credibility back to the school board,” he said. “He has proven leadership.”

The board took another vote on each candidate that received three votes and moved Fedorchak forward as he was the only one to gain four votes in the second round.

With the candidates narrowed down to three, board members shared their thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of each applicant.

Felton and Tom Diehl served with Leach when he was previously on the board, and gave testimonies to Leach’s credentials, even though he was unable to attend the interviews. 

“I think you can probably talk to anybody in South County that knows Ken Leach and everybody is going to say that he’s a likeable guy,” Diehl said. “He really dedicated himself to the job of being board president to the point that it hurt his business that he changed careers.”

Powers said she felt that without Leach’s interview, those who did not know him could not get enough information to appoint him.  

“I think it’s really difficult to be able to keep him in this list from my perspective, because we don’t have answers to how does he feel about student achievement and community engagement,” she said.

When the board took another vote to move two members forward, Fedorchak came in with more support than both Leach and Wessel.

At that point, board member Larry Felton made the motion to appoint Fedorchak to the open position and the motion was passed unanimously.

Board President Venki Palamand closed the meeting thanking the candidates for applying.

“I would hope that many of them stay involved in the district,” Palamand said. “I think that the Mehlville School District benefits when we have an engaged and active community and it’s certainly great to see this many people apply… perhaps many of you will run in the election next year.”

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