Johnson named to school board post
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton named Glenn Johnson, the former president of the board of Lake Ridge Schools, as his appointee to the board of the Gary Community School Corporation in a Tuesday news release.
“It’s my honor to appoint the final body to a diverse group representing community, business, and academics,” Melton said in the news release. “Glenn Johnson, just as I am, is a product of Gary public schools and he is dedicated and proven effective at developing learning environments that support children in the classroom and beyond.”
July of last year saw an important step toward the return of local control to the struggling GCSC. In 2017, the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeal Board took over the financially struggling school district, hiring the Florida-based MGT Consulting to manage it. It was the only such case in the state.
Senate Enrolled Act 327, signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb in May, gives the Gary mayor and city council one appointment each to the newly reconstituted school board, with the state Secretary of Education getting the remaining three appointments. The board is serving in an advisory capacity to the district’s emergency manager and could regain its full governing authority by July 2024, depending on the results of a Distressed Unit Appeal Board assessment.
After serving for more than a decade, Johnson resigned from the board in August 2022 due to COVID-related complications. He was its first Black member and its longest-serving president.
“I am hopeful that my previous experience on the Lake Ridge School Board will be beneficial to the students of the Gary Community School Corporation,” Johnson said. “I look forward to working with fellow members of the board as well as the emergency manager,
with fellow members of the board as well as the emergency manager, DUAB and the Mayor to make Gary community schools as successful as we know it can be.”
Johnson previously served on the Gary Redevelopment Commission and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for Lake County Recorder in 2020.
Johnson takes the place of former board member Akilia McCain, an educator and former elected school advisory board member who is married to former Deputy Mayor Trent McCain. Former Mayor Jerome Prince appointed McCain to the board in June. Melton, who was sworn in Saturday, removed McCain from the board effective the following day.