Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967 Ex-Chester Twp. Police Officer Pleads Not Guilty to Sexual Battery By John Karlovec john@karlovecmedia.com Former Chester Township police officer and West Geauga School Resource Officer Nicholas Iacampo pleaded not guilty Dec. 19 to charges of felony sexual battery and unruliness or delinquency of a child, a misdemeanor, for an alleged Aug. 6 incident with a 16-year-old girl. Iacampo, 29, Iacampo who lives in Painesville with his wife, appeared for his arraignment via video before retired Portage County Common Pleas Court Judge John A. Enlow, who the Ohio Supreme Court assigned to preside over the Geauga County case. Also present were Lake County Assistant Prosecutor Adam Downing and defense counsel Ian Friedman and Madelyn Grant, of the Cleveland-based law firm Friedman, Nemecek & Long LLC. Enlow set a $20,000 personal recognizance bond for Iacampo and ordered him not to have any contact “whatsoever with minor DM, or family, directly or indirectly.” A pretrial hearing was set for Feb. 21, 2024. Iacampo was indicted a second time last month, after facing similar charges in August for the same alleged incident. Those charges were later dropped, however, because the Ohio Supreme Court found in 2016 the state law making it a felony for a peace officer to have sex with a minor more than two years younger than the officer was unconstitutional. This time, Iacampo was charged under a statute that prohibits a teacher, administrator, coach or other person in authority employed by or serving in a school from engaging in sexual conduct with a person who is enrolled in or attends See Iacampo • Page 2
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Volume 55, No. 16
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CHESTERLAND NEWS President Ben Kotowski Bids Farewell to Board Outgoing West Geauga Schools Board of Education President Ben Kotowski briefly reflected on his years of service to the district during his last school board meeting Dec. 18. “It’s been a privilege to serve on the school board for three terms, 12 years,” Kotowski said. “When I started, I had kids in school. Now I have kids with postgraduate degrees.” Kotowski cited West Geauga Schools as a major factor in his children’s success and expressed hope that over the next four years, the district will continue to progress. “Twelve years ago, this district was batting below its weight. Now, it’s hitting way above where you would SUBMITTED expect it to be, and that’s Superintendent Richard Markwardt, right, presents outgoing West Geauga because of a productive and Schools Board of Education President Ben Kotowski with a gift after comconstructive board that works memorating him for his many years of service to the district. well with the administration and (an) administration which, in turn, is extremely talented, and our community is … lucky to have them,” Kotowski said, also giving credit to the teachers and students of the district. Superintendent Richard Markwardt presented Kotowski with a gift and thanked him.
West G BOE Looks at Possible Future Building Configurations By Allison Wilson editor@karlovecmedia.com The West Geauga Schools Board of Education looked to the future at their Dec. 18 regular meeting, as Technology and Operations Director Scott Amstutz presented a three-year forecast for major projects. “When we think about all the different things that have to be done here, there’s quite a few when you look at all four sites that we’re looking at,” Amstutz said. “And what we did is we took a fiveyear budget proposal and looked, and we kind of crunched that down to three years and looked at the most important major projects that we need to address moving forward.” Amstutz is not the only person making these decisions, he added. Also involved in the process are
Treasurer Karen Pavlat, Superintendent Richard Markwardt, Facilities Manager Mark Richardson and Transportation Director Melody Coniglio, among other parties. Amstutz touched on the current state of the schools and considerations such as if a new building is built, what grades it might house. Earlier in the year, the Facility Master Plan Committee held discussions on centralizing the campus and downsizing to two buildings. The committee also brought up a need for renovations, which were last completed in 1996. “Obviously, with a (sixththrough-12th-grade building) for a middle/high school campus, you will not have (Westwood Elementary School) online and you will not have (Robert C. Lindsey Elementary School) online eventually, and then the middle school will
be renovated to do pre-k to (grade) 5, and then we have that middle/ high campus,” Amstutz said. A building for grades ninth through 12th would follow a different formula, he said, adding one elementary school would be kept online, one would be made a pre-kindergarten-through-second-grade building and the middle school would house grades third through eighth. No matter which building the board eventually decides to go with, the middle school will remain, he said, recommending the district invest more money into its renovations. Amstutz broke down the proposed renovations by site. These included a second well for the main campus, as the current single well supplies water to the middle school, high school and West See Schools • Page 2
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