Board Takes Big Steps - For the teachers of Middletown, 1953 will be remembered as the year salary boosts and a new superintendent of schools to watch over the swollen payroll were approved by the Board of Education. Both school board actions stemmed from months of study by members and by citizens' committees, a new advisory set-up that in 1953 became a vital cog in board policy-making. The new superintendent was Earle R. Seidner, director of secondary education at Lorain. He assumed the Middletown post on Aug. 1, when Wade E. Miller resigned after 36 years of service to the city's schools. A citizens' group, headed by Board Member Joseph Woodruff, devised many questionnaires, secured advice from leading educators and personnel managers, accepted applications from about 40 men, interviewed 10 of them and finally narrowed the field to five. The school board then chose Seidner, after a week of interviewing...

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