By Sam Elliott

At its first meeting of 2016, the Hamilton Southeastern Board of School Trustees elected a new slate of officers to lead the board in the new year.

Karen Harmer will replace John DeLucia as board president while Howard Stevenson will serve as vice president and Sylvia Shepler will serve as secretary.

“I’ve been honored and privileged to serve as president for the last two years,” DeLucia said before nominating the slate of Harmer, Stevenson and Shepler. “I’m just really grateful for the tremendous students… Our students and the families and parents that support them are the best. And we couldn’t do any of it without our teachers, who are just the best. I’d take them over any set of teachers on the planet. What they’ve done with the resources available is nothing short of incredible. Our administration is phenomenal and Dr. Bourff just had his first anniversary and we’re delighted to have him and look forward to his continued leadership.”

DeLucia and Harmer will swap as liaisons to the respective committees on which they serve, with Harmer joining the Mayor’s Roundtable and DeLucia joining the Mental Health and City of Fishers Economic Redevelopment.

Another big change for the board in 2016 will take effect in February, with regular meetings moving from the first and third Mondays of the month to the first and third Wednesdays beginning with Feb. 10 and 24 meetings.

“That’s a major issue for us,” Bourff said. “Monday board meetings are difficult to plan for and difficult to execute when you’re trying to prepare for all the questions that come over the weekend. Wednesday night board meetings are going to be much better for our staff and it also will help, if we have a long board meeting, to focus on the next two days to get the debriefing accomplished.”

January’s second meeting will remain on a Monday, Jan. 25.