Ross Grimes was unanimously selected by the Monroe County Community School Corporation Board of Trustees to serve the remainder of Jacinda Townsend Gides’ District 6 seat during a special meeting Jan. 20.
“I am excited to start my role as an MCCSC school board member because I am a firm believer in public education and believe in bringing the best possible experiences to our students,” Grimes said in a MCCSC release.
Grimes will be sworn in at 6 p.m. Jan. 25 at the MCCSC regular board meeting and will serve as the District 6 Trustee through Dec. 31, 2024, when Townsend Gides’ term would’ve originally ended.
Indiana Education Code 20-23-4-30 states the task of filling a vacancy falls to the remaining board members. Each potential applicant must reside within the boundaries of the district they wish to fill the seat for. If the board is unable to find a new member within 30 days, a Monroe County Circuit Court judge will make the final appointment.
Grimes has been a resident of Bloomington since 1985. He is currently an account executive at EarthCam Inc. and has served as the Parent Teacher Organization president at University Elementary School. Grimes has been married for 28 years and has six children, three of which attend school in Bloomington.
MCCSC board members are compensated $2,000 annually. Members additionally receive $112 for each regular meeting they attend and $62 for each additional meeting they attend.
Townsend Gides resigned her District 6 seat Jan. 4 after accepting a professor position at the University of Michigan. Gides was appointed to the District 6 seat by the board in 2020, successfully being reelected later that year.
“It is with great sadness that I resigned my school board trustee position on January 4th,” Gides said. “Sadness, because the work is not yet done. It is never done, the work of schools. But I want to thank the Bloomington community for vesting me with the trust to aim for equity and excellence in our school corporation during the two years that I served.”
