PITSBURG – Board members met Tuesday night for the monthly Board of Education meeting. Many members of the community attended and spoke on behalf of Danny Diceanu, who is the coach for boys and girls soccer. He was told on March 1 his job would be posted and they were seeking a new coach.

One of the parents who’s daughter was coached by Danny, said she sent emails to the athletic director and principal last Spring, as well as last month.

“Our concern is that the school will settle for someone else who is less qualified,” she said.

She went on to praise him for organizing soccer camps with other schools. She said that without the involvement of Diceanu, other schools would not have worked with Franklin-Monroe. She said her daughter did not have to worry about going to late practices like some other coaches because of their full-time job.

“Danny’s full-time job is coaching,” she said.

Several of Coach Danny’s players talked about how much his coaching had affected and motivated them. One of the players, who was moved by tears, said she had never played soccer before and he taught her the whole game.

Another member of the community expressed concern about how tax dollars were being spent in finding another superintendent through the Ohio School Board Association (OSBA).

“Being in the education field, I know that there were several other options that you could have went with and it would have saved the district money,” she said.

She used one example of the same candidates existing through the Dayton Consortium search as they did in the OSBA but was a cheaper option for the district. The community member was also hopeful that the board would reconsider the continuation of Jeff Patrick as superintendent. The Board unanimously accepted the resignation of Jeff Patrick at last month’s board meeting.

Board President Scott Myers said they needed more guidance than in previous attempts to find a superintendent, saying the board was relativity inexperienced and that they were seeking more professional guidance.

”When you seek that guidance, you’re going to have to pay for it,” said Myers.

Superintendent Jeff Patrick said that the Darke County Sheriff’s Office was waiting for an answer to whether or not Franklin-Monroe wanted a full-time resource officer.

”If Tri-Village decides to go to a full-time officer, it would leave us as the only half-time school district in the county,” said Patrick.

Patrick also spoke about the magnesium levels. He said that last year there were renovations done to the water tanks and that now the magnesium levels “were still OK but reaching the higher end.” The EPA said that .05 up to 1.0 were higher levels of magnesium. Patrick said that the water that was being tested coming out of the wells were fine at .24, but once it is run through the filters, the magnesium levels spike.

“Last week we saw a high of .77 on the magnesium levels.” he said. The water system will have to be fixed, probably sometime in June, he said. “Eventually, we are going to have to do something with that water system.”

Patrick said that they were testing the magnesium levels hourly.

The next board meeting will be held on April 16 in the Franklin Monroe Conference Room.