Penn-Harris-Madison names 2 new school board members. Here's who will join the board.

MISHAWAKA — The Penn-Harris-Madison school board selected its newest members Wednesday morning.

James Turnwald, executive director of the Michiana Area Council of Governments, will fill the seat formerly held by Jaye Galloway.

Ryan McCullough, an executive with the Denver-based Eagle Claw Fishing Tackle, was selected for the seat previously occupied by Jamie Woods.

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Galloway and Woods, who both represented Penn Township, resigned their seats effective Nov. 5.

Woods, a 17-year member of the board, was recently appointed to the St. Joseph County Superior Court, and Galloway, who served on the board for 13 years, will devote all of her time to her role as director of media operations for Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish Media, according to a district news release.

Because the two members’ resignations came in the middle of their terms, the remaining school board members were tasked with appointing their replacements through a public interview process.

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Turnwald will serve the remainder of Galloway’s term, which expires in about a year, and McCullough will fill Woods’ seat, which is up at the end of 2024.

Both incoming members were unanimously approved by the sitting board. Their swearing-in is scheduled for the board's next meeting on Dec. 13.

"There really wasn't a method to it," Board President Christopher Riley said about the process for choosing who should serve the one-year term versus the three-year term. "It was more or less who we thought would be a good fit for those particular seats."

Board selects 'forward thinkers'

The selections come at a time where parents and educators in the Penn-Harris-Madison district have been at odds over issues like school mask mandates and how to teach topics of race and diversity.

With recent calls for state officials to end Indiana’s public health emergency and the Indiana attorney general’s recent release of a “Parents Bill of Rights 2.0,” both issues are likely to be addressed in some way by P-H-M administration in coming months.

"In identifying the issues facing P-H-M, both were forward thinkers," Riley said of the board's selections. "The issues they identified pertained not just to today's current events, but to long-term issues that the corporation will eventually face. To me, that was appealing. It indicated that they were in this for a long-term commitment."

Turnwald and McCullough were selected from an initial pool of 14 applicants, including some who have vocally criticized the district’s mask policies and social-emotional learning lessons.

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Those 14 candidates were narrowed to eight finalists invited back for public interviews conducted on Monday and Tuesday by P-H-M’s five remaining board members.

Other finalists considered were Anne Bolster, an educator with Family Connections of St. Joseph County; Vance Cole, an internet specialist with Liberty Mutual Insurance; Robert Hyde, a vice president with JPMorgan Chase; Ashley Leader, a local Realtor; Michelle Peters, a Saint Joseph Health System executive; and Andrew Tipton, a critical care educator, also with Saint Joseph Health.

Turnwald identifies academics, finance

James Turnwald, the executive director of MACOG, is also a board member of the Potawatomi Zoo and the nonprofit Michiana Down Syndrome. He has four young daughters, including two currently in elementary school.

With his youngest just 1 month old, Turnwald said Tuesday that he is committed to "ensuring that P-H-M continues to provide excellence in education for all children for decades to come."

Turnwald provided a data-centered approach during his Tuesday night interview. Drawing upon U.S. Census data, Indiana Department of Education reports and the recent findings of a statewide teacher compensation commission, Turnwald highlighted three areas — school finance, student enrollment and academic achievement — that he said the board should prioritize in the coming years.

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The board, not knowing what future years of state funding will bring, should work creatively to ensure teachers are still among the highest compensated in the region, he said.

The corporation should also consider working with a demographer to better understand the patterns of homeowners, potential buyers and young families with school-aged children within district boundaries.

And, he said, P-H-M should use student growth and proficiency scores to identify schools with specific academic needs such as mathematics interventions.

“We are a very diverse school district that has a lot of different needs,” Turnwald said. “We as a district, as a board, are faced with the challenge of ensuring that the resources that are needed are in each school and it may not always be even in the resources that are needed.”

Turnwald also proposed consideration of a new facilities study to assess the needs of buildings within the district and a parent involvement policy to clearly explain the corporation’s expectations for engaging with the community.

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“Outside of that policy, I would make myself available to parents to listen, to learn, to understand their life experiences and hear shared perspectives and why they’re coming at issues in certain ways,” Turnwald told the board. “I might not always agree. I might have a different set of solutions, but I’ll be there to listen, to understand, and to try and provide for an environment where we focus on student achievement and continuing to improve.”

McCullough pushes for communication

Ryan McCullough is a 1995 Penn High School alumnus and has two students currently in the P-H-M district.

McCullough said in his Monday night interview that he followed scholarships to play football and ski in Colorado after high school, but was drawn back to the Penn community, where he now serves as an assistant freshman football coach, to raise his family.

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McCullough also brought ideas to the board during his interview for how to engage parents in challenges currently facing the district, including support for students returning to the classroom after last year's pandemic-driven school closures.

He advocated for a restructuring of the district’s approach to social media and email communications, suggested steps should be taken to bring the corporation’s SEL lessons “full circle within the household”, and encouraged administrators to look into educating parents on the effects of teen drug and alcohol use.

“For years, I didn’t even know what vaping was,” McCullough said. “Parents need to get behind this. We only have (students) for eight hours.”

McCullough also expressed continued support for school safety and mental health initiatives, sharing a story of a friend in Colorado affected by the Columbine massacre. He also listed keeping up with advances in technology and athletics facilities as areas of interest, should school budgets allow.

"I'm so intrigued by being able to set goals, vote on policies, do things and then see an immediate impact within the community," McCullough said Monday. "It's just an awesome opportunity."

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Penn-Harris-Madison school board new James Turnwald Ryan McCullough