CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Dillard appointed to Canton City BOE

Canton Repository - 1/23/2018

Jan. 23--CANTON -- McKinley High School alumnus Mark A. Dillard has been named the newest member of the Canton City Board of Education.

In an unanimous vote Monday, board members selected Dillard from among nine candidates that were described as among the most-talented pool of school board applicants in the past two decades.

But Dillard won't be the newbie on the board for long. Board President John Rinaldi also announced Monday that the board is seeking applicants to fill the seat of member Will Grimsley who submitted his resignation, effective immediately.

Grimsley's resignation letter, which the district received Monday, gave no reason for him stepping down from the post he has held since March 2015. The deadline for applications to fill Grimsley's seat is due to Treasurer Jeff Gruber by 4 p.m. Friday. Applicants must live in the second subdistrict of the Canton City School District, which lies largely south of 12th Street NW.

About Mark Dillard

Dillard, 38, is a 1998 McKinley graduate who has served as the operations supervisor for the Social Security Administration since 2013. The U.S. Navy veteran has two children enrolled in the district and previously served as a military recruiting representative for Timken, McKinley, Canton South, GlenOak and Hoover high schools. He will serve the remainder of Corey Minor Smith's term, which ends Dec. 31, 2019. Minor Smith resigned Dec. 29 to begin serving on Canton City Council.

Dillard, who has master's degrees in education and business administration from Trident University, said he sees his service on the board as an extension of the involvement he's had with Timken Early College High School and McKinley's speech and debate team.

"I will do my due diligence to try to make sure that we can continue on with the excellence that we've had in this district," he said.

Board member Eric Resnick said he asked Dillard to consider seeking the position after seeing him interact with his children and other students at a speech tournament.

"What I saw impressed me a lot," Resnick recalled. "... I just think he's a very high quality appointment."

Rinaldi said Dillard's interview presentation was one of the best he's seen in all the years he's interviewed candidates.

"He just has an aurora about himself, he's very confident," Rinaldi said, noting Dillard's service in the U.S. Navy and as a military recruiter. "He carried that presence (from his military service) along when we spoke."

Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @kweirREP

___

(c)2018 The Repository, Canton, Ohio

Visit The Repository, Canton, Ohio at www.cantonrep.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.