MARSHALL — Among the action items approved by the Marshall Public School Board at its work session meeting on Monday was the decision to accept the resignation of school board member Dion Caron.

Caron was recently hired as the business director for the district — assuming duties from current business director Bruce Lamprecht, who is retiring — and is resigning because his new role would conflict with his school board director duties. Along with MPS Superintendent Scott Monson and administrative assistant Tricia Stelter, the business director attends board meetings and provides vital information to board members as well as the public.

In his resignation letter, Caron said he is resigning from his position effective June 30.

“I have enjoyed serving on the school board,” Caron said. “Thank you very much for the opportunities for professional and personal development the last three-and-a-half years.”

In light of Caron’s resignation, the district will begin accepting applications for the vacant seat. Stelter said MPS has an appointment option since the vacancy is for less than one year. According to State Statute 123B.095, the school board may appoint a person to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the unexpired term, unless the vacancy occurs within 90 days of the next school district general election, in which case an appointment shall not be made and the vacancy must be filled at the general election, she said.

The vacancy will be posted and applications will be accepted between June 5-21. The School Board Governance Committee will review application during the week of June 25. If necessary and assuming there are multiple applicants, interviews are expected to be conducted the week of July 2.

At the July 16 meeting, a school board resolution will be considered and/or approved. After a 30-day statutory waiting period from July 17-Aug. 15 — a time in which district residents have the opportunity to complete a petition to reject the appointee — the school board appointee would attend his or her first meeting.

“Tricia really did an excellent job laying all of this out and making sure everything is done correctly,” board chair Jeff Chapman said.

While an individual will be appointed to fill the vacant position until December, Caron’s four-year school board seat will be replaced by an individual elected in the November 2018 election. Board members said it may or may not be the same individual, depending on the outcome of the election.

Besides Caron’s position, two other school board spots are up for re-election in November. Current board member Karen VanKeulen and chairman Chapman are finishing up four-year terms this election cycle.

The board also authorized administration to accept the team uniform and apparel proposal from BSN Sports. The district had received a total of six responses from five different vendors. One did not meet the district’s needs and three other proposals contained exclusive clauses that edged them out of consideration. That left BSN Sports and locally-owned and operated Borch’s Sporting Goods.

“I still struggle with doing something that is out of town,” VanKeulen said. “I know we do things out of town, that it happens. But it’s hard when we’re potentially looking at a referendum or anything like that.”

Caron said he agreed that going with local vendors is ideal, but that taxpayer interests also factor into the equation. Board member Bill Mulso said he felt that through the process, though, all of the vendors were given fair opportunities.

“It’s a pretty significant financial impact for the district,” Mulso said. “I know there are a lot of conversations we’re having with businesses and they were given the opportunity and that was the key. It makes good fiscal sense to abide by the process. And we had a good proposal from BSN that I think financially is the right move for us.”

Lamprect agreed, adding: “The BSN proposal was the least restrictive as far as the ability for the district to go out and submit for proposals from companies, whether they’re local or from Iowa or wherever they might be, and we’ll continue with that process. As far as the total value, it’s about a $40,000 difference between BSN and Borch’s. It’s a significant amount.”

The board also authorized administration to accept the low bid from Werner Electric for the Marshall High School Retrofit Project.

“It’s for the LED lighting project that has been in the works for more than two years,” Lamprecht said. “We’re finally getting to it. We had a bid process to accept sealed bids and we had three companies that came forward with proposals. We’re recommending Werner Electric with a $174,000 total bid with the base bid being the high school project and the alternate bid being the high school gyms.”

Lamprecht said he recently learned there was good news regarding the project.

“Mark Antony from Marshall Municipal Utilities on Friday did a look-see as to following the specifications of equipment and the light bulbs and so on that are part of the process,” Lamprecht said. “He’s looking at $38, 205 as far as a rebate the district will receive for doing this project, so that’s good. When you subtract $38,000 from Werner’s Electric bid of $174,000, this project came in a lot less expensive than we had budgeted for. We’re very pleased with that.”