Moyer appointed to Niagara Wheatfield school board

by Ralph Schwarz
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, Dec. 9, 2004

The Niagara Wheatfield Board of Education welcomed Donald Moyer as a new board member at its Dec. 1 meeting.

On recommendation of the district’s superintendent, Dr. Judith Howard, the board unanimously appointed the life-long Sanborn resident to fill the vacant seat left by the departure of former board member Carol Scholl. His appointment became effective immediately.

“I’m honored that I was chosen to serve on this board,” Moyer said. “Years ago, when I came to board meetings, it wasn’t a pretty sight. But I’ve seen this board work, and I felt that this was a thing I really wanted to be part of. There are a lot of good things going on right now. I’m very excited.”

A familiar face in the audience of the board meetings, the 52-year-old Moyer currently serves as president of the Music Parents Club of the Niagara Wheatfield Senior High School. A volunteer member of the Sanborn Fire Company, he held various positions during his 29 years with this organization.

Active Throughout Community

In addition, Moyer is an active member of the Town of Lewiston Haz-Mat team and has been a member of the Town of Lewiston recreation advisory board for more than 20 years. He is also involved in many charitable organizations, most notably the Ransomville Lions Club for which he served as vice president.

Moyer and his wife have been married for 32 years. Their 20-year-old son, a Niagara Wheatfield alumnus, studies at Niagara University, while their 15-year-old daughter currently attends 10th grade at Niagara Wheatfield.

Being new to the school board, Moyer regards his first term as a learning experience.

“I’m going to take that step by step and just see what happens and learn from my peers,” he said. “The other board members are very knowledgeable, and I hope I gain a lot of knowledge from them and from the superintendent.”

Moyer will serve on the school board through June 30, 2005. His name is expected to be on the ballot at next year’s school vote.

Murawski Thanks Candidates

After welcoming Moyer to the school board, board president Michael Murawski thanked the other three candidates for their interest in serving on the board.

“It was a pleasure talking to the other three people who applied for this position,” he said. “It was difficult to come up with one person out of the four, but it was nice to see that there was enough interest to get the board up to full strength.”

The board began to look for candidates in October to replace Scholl, who resigned from the board on Aug. 18 due to her moving out of the district. After discussing the options on when and how to fill the vacant seat, the board members originally decided to leave the position open until next year’s school election. State legislation, however, required the district to fill the vacancy after a certain period of time.

Agenda Items

In other business, the board unanimously voted:

•To approve, upon recommendation of the superintendent, the action items of granting resignations, retirements, appointments, leaves of absences, and other miscellaneous items for administrative, instructional and school-related personnel as submitted.

Those items included the retirement of Deidra Sterner, elementary teacher at Errick Road Elementary School, effective July 1, 2005, and the appointment of Megan Martin as LTS Spanish teacher at the Senior High School, effective retroactive Sept. 1 to June 30, 2005.

•To approve, upon recommendation of the superintendent, seven fund-raiser requests as submitted.

Next Meeting

The Board of Education will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m.