Board votes to review calendar, let go of officer

COAL TOWNSHIP - Next year's district calendar remains under review by the Shamokin Area School Board, but the decision to renew a contract for a police officer to patrol the school is not.

In a pair of separate 5-4 votes Wednesday, directors voted in favor of tabling approval of the school calendar for further discussion and against a subsidiary motion to keep a school resource officer on campus through the end of this school year.

Director Bob Getchey asked to hold off on approving the school calendar. His belief is that the school year should not start until after Labor Day weekend, allowing students more time to not only work at summer jobs but also more time to vacation with family.

"When we were young, we didn't start school until after Labor Day," Getchey said during the meeting. "There's no reason to start before Labor Day."

He suggested the board review the schedule and possibly adjust or trim some of the scheduled vacation days to start the school year in early September.

"We get too many days off in between" the start and end of a school year, he said.

State law requires a minimum of 180 school days of instruction for students.

The current school year began Aug. 26, 10 days before Labor Day, and includes 19 scheduled vacation days - four spent over the Thanksgiving holiday and another seven for Christmas break. One vacation day, Nov. 28, 2011, coincided with the start of deer hunting season.

The proposed start of the 2012-13 school year is Aug. 27, one week before Labor Day on Sept. 3. There are 18 scheduled vacation days, with the same amount proposed for Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2012.

Superintendent Jim Zack said a later start to the school year could shorten the amount of preparation time students have for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams, which are state-mandated tests assessing the performance of individual students, schools and school districts.

Those exams are generally held in March, Zack said, and adding days to the end of a school year to provide for a later start wouldn't help in test preparation.

Voting in favor of tabling a vote on the school calendar were Getchey and directors LaRue Beck, Edward Griffiths, Brian Persing and Bernie Sosnoskie. Directors Jeffrey Kashner, Ronald McElwee, Charles Shuey and Tracey Witmer dissented.

In a related move, revisions to the current year's calendar were approved, including moving the last day for students from June 1 to June 5.

School resource officer

Shuey is passionate about keeping a school resource officer at Shamokin Area. Despite the virtues of such a position, directors voting against the measure cited cost concerns in light of the district's $4.6 million budget deficit for next school year.

A motion made by Shuey last month to renew the agreement with Coal Township police to station a officer in the district failed when no one seconded it to allow it to be put to vote.

On Wednesday, Shuey motioned to keep the officer through the end of the school year, saying the question shouldn't be about whether the district has the money but on the priorities of how district money is spent.

"What price do we put on the life of a child?" Shuey asked.

The board had been paying 70 percent of a designated officer's salary and benefits to patrol the hallways of district buildings. The current officer assigned to Shamokin Area is Patrolman Chris Lapotsky. Of his $81,840.08 in annual salary and benefits, the district would have been responsible for $57,288.05.

Getchey said none of the directors wish to get rid of the position, but their hand is forced by the realities of Shamokin Area's fiscal situation. The position was originally paid with grant money, but that grant has since ended. If such a funding stream were to return, Getchey said he'd be in favor of reviving the position.

Griffiths, who is police chief of the Shamokin Police Department, said Lapotsky will simply be reassigned within his department. He is not losing a job. However, the cost to keep him in the district could potentially cost someone else theirs.

"If you have an incident, call 911 and (police) come," Griffiths said, saying an officer in-house wouldn't likely prevent an incident; rather, he'd investigate, just like responding officers.

Shuey said the approximate cost to keep a school resource officer through the end of the school year is $19,000.

"That's an aide," Griffiths said of a district's aide's salary.

Voting against keeping the officer in the district through June were Getchey, Griffiths, Kashner, Persing and Witmer. In favor were Beck, McElwee, Shuey and Sosnoskie.

The board did approve retroactive payment of $4,774 to Coal Township police for services rendered this month.

Committees

Griffiths and Witmer argued at the meeting's beginning over committee makeup - namely that Griffiths was left out of each of the nine board committees.

Griffiths was miffed about being left off, but Witmer said he wasn't in attendance at a Jan. 10 work session when the committees were formed. Griffiths claimed that the assignments were generated before the meeting was held.

Committee assignments are as follows: curriculum, Kashner (chair), McElwee, Shuey; advisory board, Beck (chair), Persing, Shuey; security, Shuey (chair), McElwee, Sosnoskie; education, McElwee (chair), Shuey, Witmer; policy, Beck (chair), Persing, Kashner; buildings and grounds, Getchey (chair), Sosnoskie, Kashner; personnel, Shuey (chair), Beck, Witmer; athletic, Getchey (chair), Persing, Kashner; career/technology center, McElwee, Shuey, Persing (no chair listed).

Other business

At Wednesday's board meeting, directors:

- Eliminated Elementary PSSA Saturday Review Program and reestablished it as the Elementary PSSA Saturday Prep Proposal, now funded by Title I money and to be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Feb. 25, March 3, 10 and 17;

- Accepted retirement notices of Spanish teachers Patricia Romanoski and Thomas Christ, and speech correction teacher Claire Taddeo, effective at school year's end;

- Made payment of $83,600 to Quad 3 Group for previously completed work on a proposed elementary school project;

- Entered a licensing agreement with Ohiopyle Prints Inc. for non-exclusive authorization to sell district merchandise, for which the district will receive an 8 percent royalty on wholesale sales;

- Exonerated Terri Hine, of Coal Township, from paying a duplicated $176 in property taxes;

- Consented to the sale of three properties from county tax claim repository totaling $5,801.99;

- Approved Joelle Reed as a volunteer with girls soccer this school year after accepting her resignation as co-head junior coach, effective immediately;

- Reduced hours worked by Lesley Carsto, part-time clerk secretary, from 6 1/2 to 3, effective Feb. 9;

- Voted to keep the mileage reimbursement rate at $0.555 per mile in 2012, which is unchanged from 2011;

- Tabled a vote on the sale of a school bus;

- Approved tenure for Laure Reiner, special education, hearing and visually impaired, and Valerie Malukas, school psychologist, special education.

- Eliminated the position of webmaster and furloughed Robert Jones, effective Feb. 9.

Jones was in attendance at the meeting and spoke highly of his 13 years in the district, including helping reestablish the Key Club and helping chaperone a bus trip to New York. He described his tenure as a roller-coaster ride but thanked the board for the opportunity.