Mount Pleasant School Trustee Jost Resigns from Board
Mount Pleasant Board of Education Trustee Maria Jost announced last Friday that she resigned her seat because of personal reasons.
Reached last weekend, Jost said following the death of her father in November and another relative more recently, she needed to focus on family matters.
“My heart’s with my family right now and I think people can understand that,” Jost said.
She had considered a leave of absence from the board but concluded that because she had decided not to run for re-election this spring it would be most prudent for her to resign.
Also, the number of school functions that required her attendance has recently become too much to handle, Jost said, and didn’t believe to was fair to the board’s other members. With the district and the board functioning well, it was the right time to step aside.
“I just think the most important thing for me and my family and the school district and the board, which I have the utmost respect for, I just thought it was best for me to resign at this point,” Jost said.
Jost was elected to the board as a first-time candidate in 2017 for the three-year term. However, before her board service, she had been involved in several other capacities with Mount Pleasant schools since 2001. Those positions included serving as chair of the Elementary PTA Ways and Means Committee for five years and she co-founded the district’s Special Education PTA, serving as its president and vice president.
Jost also was co-chair of the superintendent’s Special Education Advisory Committee and organized fundraisers for the Westlake High School baseball and track and field teams.
She said that her late father, Louis Brusco, provided money to the district upon his death to fund this summer’s STEAM symposium.
In a two-sentence letter Jan. 17 notifying the community of Jost’s resignation, Board President Colleen Scaglione Neglia mentioned that the Board of Education will convene a special meeting this Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. to discuss next steps.
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