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The Baldwin City school board on Monday filled a vacant position on the board by unanimously deciding to appoint Susan Schiffelbein as its newest member.

The board voted to have Schiffelbein complete the unexpired term of Nicole Tiller, who resigned last month from her District 2, Position 5 seat before moving out of the district with her family. Schiffelbein was the only person to apply for the vacant seat, which represents the eastern part of the district.

Tiller’s term was to end in December, but Schiffelbein is likely to be on the board at least four more years. She was the only candidate to file for the seat before the June 1 filing deadline for this year’s city/school board elections and will be unopposed on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.

Schiffelbein told the Journal-World in May that she filed for the position because of the lack of interest in board positions and because she believed her 27 years of experience in education would benefit the district. She taught at the elementary level for 26 years in western Kansas and in the Topeka area and Eudora schools, she said. She now works for the state helping local school districts implement improvement goals.

In other business, the board received a proposed 2017-2018 budget for the district’s capital outlay fund. District financial director Cynde Frick annually shares the fund’s budget with the board in advance of its July approval for publication of the district’s overall budget for the coming school year.

The proposal would maintain the current 8 mill levy for the capital outlay fund. That is the maximum mill levy the state allows the district to levy for the fund. It would raise an estimated $981,000.

Among the new expenditures Frick proposes for the coming year is $35,000 for additional security cameras at the entries and hallways of schools, $60,000 for drainage improvements west of Baldwin Junior High School and $66,000 for new kitchen equipment for the Baldwin High School culinary arts program.