By Steven Stilt
The Kaskaskia College Board of Trustees swore in a new student trustee on Monday evening and recognized its outgoing student trustee.
Connor Wademan, a 2023 Carlyle High School graduate, took the oath of office to join the board, moments after Board Chairman Bill Hawley read a resolution recognizing outgoing student trustee Madison Johnson of Vandalia.
KC President George Evans says Johnson was an outstanding member of the board, and he looks forward to working alongside Wademan for the next year.
“If her service as a student trustee is any type of gauge on how she is going to be in the future, the sky is the limit for Madison Johnson. She is going to succeed at anything she can do in life, because she’s just that type of person. I’m just getting to know Connor, but so far I am very pleased. He is a very pleasant individual, very polite and well-mannered. I’m looking forward to obviously getting to know him more.”
Johnson says she has many people to thank for her experience over the past year, including Evans, the rest of the college’s administration, the other members of the board of trustees and her fellow students.
“I want to thank the board for giving me this opportunity and my student body for allowing me to serve on the board. Without my students voting me into this position, it would not have been possible. And I also want to thank the board for always valuing my opinion. Even though I’m just a student, they valued my opinion as much as theirs, or even more.”
Wademan says he aims to follow in Johnson’s footsteps and be a voice for KC students.
“MJ walks in the hallway, everybody knows who she is and they know that she’s advocating for them and their education. I just want to be that person for the students at KC.”
In addition to joining the board of trustees and serving as a student ambassador, Wademan is a member of Pi Theta Kappa and the student congress. He also plans to join FBLA next year.
In other action, the board of trustees voted to accept the donation of a 2024 Chevrolet Blazer electric vehicle from Jansen Chevrolet of Germantown to the school’s automotive program. According to Evans, the donation will save the college around $70,000 that would have otherwise come out of an electric vehicle grant the school recently received.
“Thanks to the EV grant that we were awarded — a half-million dollar grant that we were awarded about three months ago — we issued an RFP to purchase this Blazer as part of the curriculum. When we found out from Jansen Chevrolet, Shane Street specifically called me, this freed up the money that we were going to purchase that Blazer with, to put back into the EV program. We’re going to take an already enhanced curriculum and throw another $70,000 in it. That’s just going to definitely benefit the students.”
The board on Monday also approved the purchase of a Puritan Bennett mechanical ventilator at a price of $28,224.
The creation of new Fitter-Fabricator and Precision Agriculture certificates was also approved. Board members also approved the new full-time positions of English Transition Success Coach and Rev Up Grant Manager/Success Coach. In addition, the promotion of Andrea Shipley from evening coordinator at the Salem Education Center to director of the Salem Education Center was approved.
Madison Johnson (left) stands with Kaskaskia College Board of Trustees Chairman Bill Hawley after being presented a plaque in recognition of her service as student trustee. Photo by Steven Stilt.
