The Perry School Board approved the appointment Monday of three persons to serve as custodial fund administrators with responsibility for distributing the money donated to the victims of the Jan. 4 shooting at Perry High School.
The three community members are former Perry Public Library Director Donna Emmert, retired Lutheran pastor the Rev. Lou Hoger and Perry City Council member Joseph Shelly.
The custodial fund administrators will be responsible for “developing and implementing the criteria for disbursement of the custodial funds,” Superintendent Clark Wicks told the board. “The criteria for disbursements will be documented by the fund administrator team. The team will follow the custodial fund guidelines.”
Hoger attended the meeting and briefly addressed the school board.
“I’m just very honored to be asked to do this,” Hoger said. “When your daughter, who’s on her second term on the school board in Carlisle, says, ‘Dad, you should do this,’ then I feel like it’s an honor and a privilege to do this. I think it’s very important for the community, and I’m so thankful that Donna agreed to serve and Joseph also.”
In April the school board began erecting the legal structure needed to distribute the funds — about $150,000 — donated to the victims of the January shootings at Perry High School. The donations are currently held in custodial accounts at the Raccoon Valley Bank in Perry.
The custodial fund administrators will begin their work “as soon as possible,” Hoger said. “We don’t know what we’re going to be hearing, for example, from these people.” He said tax questions and similar financial considerations will be the responsibility of the people receiving the donations.
