School Board to Todd Fort: Please resign
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Harrisburg School Board unanimously called on board President Todd Fort to resign at a special meeting last night.
Fort has been in the Jackson County jail since July 20 on four charges of criminal sexual assault and four charges of official misconduct involving a 17-year-old girl who was under his supervision at the Sheriff's Department. Fort was chief deputy until being relieved of the position last week by Sheriff Keith Brown. He remains on the force, but is not being paid because he is not working.
Board Vice-President Tom DeNeal read a prepared statement after a lengthy closed session.
"The crimes board President Todd Fort has been accused of committing are serious, but Mr. Fort has not yet been convicted of any crimes. Mr. Fort's criminal charges are pending and the Board of Education of Harrisburg Community Unit School District No. 3 should not, and will not, do anything that would affect his criminal prosecution or defense. Nonetheless, Mr. Fort has been, and probably will continue to be for the foreseeable future, unable to attend to his duties for the school district while his prosecution is ongoing. He has been unable to attend meetings, conduct school business and perform the duties of a board member, let alone a board president.
"The law does not allow us, the board of education, to remove Mr. Fort from the board or remove him as president, but we think Mr. Fort should do the right thing and resign from the board. We call on him to do so," the statement read.
Board members decided to leave the pre-kindergarten program alone for the time being and see what the state does with funding. State officials told local school districts the pre-kindergarten program would be funded at 90 percent of the previous year, but the grant money could be at least one year late. The board last month laid out a plan to proceed with the program with the 10 percent cut. In the meantime officials learned funding could be at 70 percent of last year's levels.
But this afternoon the official talk from the state school superintendent centered on 90 percent funding again, Superintendent Dennis Smith said. The talk of 70 percent may have passed.
"We need to go with what he says officially," Smith said.
West Side Principal Scott Dewar presented some options: Leave the program as-is; eliminate the parent coordinator, which at 70 percent funding would mean the district has to come up with $7,600; or cut a teacher and aide at savings of $66,000.
Matt Winkelman, who attended by remote teleconference, said it is too close to the beginning of the school year to cut the program.