Boyertown Picks Boyer for Open School Board Seat

Photo by Evan Brandt

Rodney Boyer takes the oath of office Tuesday night after being chosen by the Boyertown Area School Board to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Robert Caso, who defeated him for the seat in the November election.

In a result that surprised few, the Boyertown Area School Board voted 5-3 to appoint Rodney Boyer to the seat left open by Robert Caso, thus diminishing by one, the block of fiscally conservative votes on the board.

School Board members Ruth Dierolf and Christine Neiman voted for William Yanalavage to fill the post while Clay Breece cast the only vote for Robert Houck.

No one on the board voted to nominate Ruth Baker, who had also applied and who, at the start of the meeting, urged the board to appoint someone who shared Caso's fiscally conservative views, which is what the voters had chosen.

That view was also echoed by Breece, Dierolf and Neiman, but the board chose Boyer, who board member Steve Elsier said seemed the most familiar with the district and board operations.

The board also voted to hire a new chief financial officer, Rebecca Clouser, C.P.A. at salary of $139,000.

Also decided was a location and date -- June 7 at the Santander Center in Reading -- for this year's high school graduation, due to the questions that remain about the safety of the high school stadium.

The board also received the first of what will be monthly reports on safety and security in the wake of last month's school shooting in Florida.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting: