By Meg Hibbert, Contributing Writer
Council reappointed two Salem School Board Members at the Sept. 27 meeting, proclaimed the date “Murray Cook Day” and recognized the Salem Sheriff’s Office for its fifth professional accreditation.
Appointments of the School Board Members came after a 15-minute closed session at the end of Monday night’s meeting. The appointees are Dr. Nancy Bradley, who has served 12 years on the School Board, and Teresa Sizemore-Hernandez, who is filling the six months of Dr. Mike Chiglinsky’s term after his death earlier this year.
Bradley is the mother of three SHS graduates and is a professor of elementary education at Virginia Tech.
One of Sizemore-Hernandez’s sons graduated from Salem High School, the next is completing SHS and working in a vocation and the third is now a fifth-grade student at South Salem Elementary. She works as a professional relations coordinator for the state’s Disability Determination Services.
Julie Parsons also applied for the School Board. She has children in the school system and is a former Salem School employee. All three spoke to Council at the Sept. 13 meeting.
The Council vote Monday night as unanimous for Sizemore-Hernandez, but 4-1 for Bradley, with Vice Mayor Jim Wallace dissenting.
“I think Dr. Bradley is well qualified…but at the same time, I think it is important to have new ideas on the School Board and new perspectives,” Wallace said.
Mayor Renee Turk recognized the City of Salem Sheriff’s Office for earning its fifth accreditation through the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission. Sheriff April Staton and nine of her staff were present to accept the award. She praised Accreditation Manager Deputy Derek Mays for his hard work on keeping track of and completing the 926 standards the office does for accreditation.
Mayor Turk also proclaimed Sept. 27 as Murray Cook Day. Salem resident Cook is an internationally-known sports field designer. Among his accomplishments are doing the first-ever pitcher’s mound in the Soviet Union, being a Disney turf consultant, designing turf for Olympic games, the grass at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and this year, designing a regulation field next to the famed “Field of Dreams” from the film of the same name.
The mayor noted that the next Council meeting will be with Salem’s Economic Development Authority on Oct. 11 in the Community Room of the Salem Civic Center. Future meetings will probably be held there Turk said, because there is more space to spread out to meet COVID guidelines.
