West G BOE Honors the Late Sally Gilmore
West Geauga Schools Board of Education members shared heartfelt memories and words about former longtime member Sally Gilmore during their Dec. 13 meeting.
West Geauga Schools Board of Education members shared heartfelt memories and words about former longtime member Sally Gilmore during their Dec. 13 meeting.
Gilmore, who passed away in November, served on the board for 32 years and, most recently, served as a member of the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve.
The West Geauga board passed a resolution honoring Gilmore’s passion, wisdom and dedication to the school district and county — citing her four years serving as president of the board, 11 years as vice president and one year as vice president of the ESC board.
“I met Sally when we both ran for our first time back in ’79, so we served a lot of years together and she actually got the most votes, which she didn’t let me forget,” said board Vice President Kathy Leavenworth, eliciting laughs from the audience. “We came out the victors in that first try, and many times thereafter, and spent a lot of time working together on so many things for this school system and education in Ohio, as well.”
Gilmore’s dedicated “beyond belief,” Leavenworth added.
“Her memory was amazing. I would say, ‘Can you tell me or remind me when we did such and such’ and she’d know the date and the time and we didn’t have to really even access documents sometimes to come up with the right information,” Leavenworth said. “She was a miracle because of her health and surviving pancreatic cancer, which not many people do. She was extremely fortunate in that and she was a shining example to all in her passion for life and her passion for her kids and education. We’ll miss her greatly.”
Board member Bill Beers, who also served with Gilmore for several years, said she was always looking out for the “ongoing health” of the board.
“So, when there were positions that were available, she was usually one that was out trying to recruit new members. That’s how I got on the board,” he fondly recalled. “We had gotten to know each other through our involvement of our kids in band and so then, she started twisting my arm. It took about four years of her twisting my arm before I started running for the board. She was always trying to make sure the next step for the board was going to be a healthy one.”
Board member Ben Kotowski met Sally before he served on the board and got to know her a lot more after he became a board member.
“Sally was incredibly bright and incredibly perceptive and being on the board with her was a real pleasure because as Kathy mentioned, Sally was a person who had a really good memory for details and when you were stuck on something or didn’t quite know what had happened in a meeting, you could always ask Sally and she could tell you what happened at a meeting 20 years ago,” he said. “She became a close personal friend.”
Also in attendance was ESC Superintendent Jennifer Felker, who, along with ESC board President Geoffrey Kent, shared a few words about Gilmore.
“I can’t say enough for her dedication to public education,” Felker said. “I appreciated her expertise and her wordsmithing. She was very diligent about reading everything. I’m so grateful to have had her on our board for the last four years. Having her has been an asset. She will be missed.”
Kent recalled the last meeting Gilmore attended in September.
“I helped her into the room from the parking lot. You could tell she was struggling. She was not doing well. Shortly thereafter, she went into hospice,” he said. “But her dedication to the schools was unequaled by anyone I’ve served with. When we first talked about the merger some three or four years ago between the Geauga ESC and Lake County, she fiercely, and I mean fiercely, protected Geauga County. She knew, as we all did, that we had to become one ESC in order to survive and compete with our ESC in Cuyahoga (County). Geauga gave a little bit and we gave a little bit and we became one. But Sally was absolutely a rock through the whole process. I know West Geauga misses her and we will miss her also.”
