State College Area School Board appoints former member Jim Leous to fill vacant seat

The State College Area School District Board of Directors appointed a new member at its Monday night meeting.

The board unanimously appointed former longtime board member Jim Leous to fill the seat left vacant by former board president Amber Concepcion, until the election in November. Concepcion resigned from the district in January after being appointed to a seat on the Centre County Board of Commissioners.

There was no discussion of any candidates prior to Leous’ nomination and Leous was the only candidate nominated for a vote by the board.

In his interview on Thursday, Leous spoke of his experience with hiring former superintendent Bob O’Donnell and his longtime institutional knowledge of the district. Leous has lived in State College since 1986 and was an assistant coach for State High’s hockey team for 10 years. He currently co-chairs the Information Technology Services version of IT Architects in Academia at Penn State.

“When I saw how short of a gig it would be, I decided that it is probably a better deal to take somebody who’s been on the board before and had some experience,” Leous said after the meeting on Monday.

Leous said that he would not be running for the position in November, a factor that helps ease board president Jackie Huff’s concerns.

“When I thought about all of the candidates, because of the timing of our vacancy, I was really nervous about appointing someone who would be running in an election,” Huff said. “I would feel like — we might be kind of putting our finger on the scale and I didn’t want to give off that impression. I didn’t want to essentially be endorsing someone who was also running for an election.”

Leous served on the board from 2009-2021, serving as board vice president from 2011-2012 and from 2014-2018. His previous work on the board included helping build State High and draft the district’s Inclusive Excellence Policy. Leous also ran for mayor against Ezra Nanes in 2021.

“He was highly respected on the board and he’s highly respected in the community, so he would just be a huge asset to us as we transition into a new superintendent,” Huff said. “So when I kind of put that all together, it just seemed really obvious that Jim was the best option for this moment to fill this vacancy.”

Nine applicants were interviewed for the position in a public board session on Thursday. Ten applied originally but former vice president of student affairs Damon Sims withdrew his application prior to the interview due to personal reasons.

Several candidates have announced their intentions to run for the board’s five open seats in November, including the seat now held by Leous.