MAHANOY CITY — The Mahanoy Area school board voted at Thursday’s meeting to approve teachers, support staff and their salaries for the summer Extended School Year program.
The teaching appointments made were Jennifer Grochowski, special education teacher, $25.75 per hour; and special education teaching assistants Lisa Sewell, $11.55 per hour, and Jane Ulicny, $10 per hour. Molly Neifert will be the occupational therapist. The program will run from June 21 through July 28 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. The program is a state requirement as per the student’s Individualized Education Program.
According to the state Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education, ESY services are special education and related services provided to students with disabilities beyond the regular 180-day school year. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal special education law, requires school districts, intermediate units and charter schools to provide ESY services if a student needs these services to receive a free appropriate public education.
In some cases, interruptions in the school schedule, such as summer break, weekends and holidays, will result in children with disabilities losing many of their basic skills and taking a long time to get those skills back once school begins again. ESY services are provided during breaks in the educational schedule to prevent this loss.
In other business, bids were opened for diesel fuel for the 2016-17 school year. The low bidder was Superior Plus Energy Services, Aston. The company bid a firm price of $1.575 per gallon conditionally depending on the price of diesel fuel on the market at the time the company is informed of being selected.
The school board accepted the low bid from Superior on a conditional basis, stating that if the price changes and Superior is no longer the low bidder, the contract will be awarded to the next lowest bidder, which was Central Highway Oil Company, Frackville, with a firm bid of $1.715 per gallon.
After the meeting, Business Administrator John J. Hurst said that the school district solicits bids with two options. The first option is a firm bid that remains throughout the contract. The second option allows for fluctuations in the market price, to which would be added a markup and delivery charge, both of which would remain unchanged throughout the contract.
Hurst said the school district usually goes with the firm price to know the exact cost rather than dealing with changing market prices that are unknown and may add to the district’s diesel fuel expense.
In other business, the school board conditional approved a request from the Schuylkill Historical Fire Society to abate or forgive real estate taxes levied in 2015 on a property owned by the society in Mahanoy City where classic and historical fire engines are stored.
The condition is approval from the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas through a petition to forgive the 2015 taxes.
Hurst explained that the society, which is a tax-exempt entity, had the taxes levied due to when its status was filed with the county.
“What happened is that they got caught between two dates,” Hurst said. “When the building was donated to them back in May, the March taxes for the county and borough were taken care of. When they got the property and they properly appealed (with the county) for the tax-exempt status in the fall, that only related to the next fiscal year, which was 2016. So they missed the opportunity to appeal in April, which would have abated last year’s taxes. So they’re requesting to us to look into abating those taxes.”
Hurst said the matter was discussed with school district solicitor John G. Dean, who advised that the society must go through the court to approve the tax forgiveness.
“The taxes are out of our hands right now,” Dean said to society President Michael Kitsock, who attended the meeting. “What will be required of you is to prepare a petition to the county to have these taxes abated or waived. You have the contact person with the county to help you with that petition.”
Dean said that once the petition is prepared for the court, he will review it and if all is in order, it will be recommended to the board to have the district join the petition.
“It’s a pretty simple process. It just requires a little paperwork,” Dean said.
Kitsock apologized for the situation, to which Dean said it was not necessary since these types of situations happen often.
Dean recommended the following agenda item for the board’s approval or rejection: “Upon review and approval by the solicitor, the petition by the Schuylkill Historical Fire Society to forgive/abate their taxes for 2015. Pursuant to their request, the Mahanoy Area School District will join and/or concur in the petition.”
The school board acted on the following agenda items:
• Approved the purchase of 5Sight and 5Cast software from Forecast5 Analytics, Naperville, Illinois, at a cost of $4,550 per year for a two-year period. 5Sight is an analytics tool that allows users to generate business insights with performance data and the ability to create customized benchmark peer groups. 5Cast is a budgeting and forecasting tool that allows users to simulate “what-if” scenario analysis for the purpose of developing multi-year financial forecasts.
“Basically, 5Sight allows us to benchmark ourselves against other schools in the state based on test scores, based on financial information, salary information, etcetera,” Hurst said. “5Cast software is a projection software. Both of these products are actually $450 less than what we’re paying for a current forecasting model.”
• Approved the 2015 occupation tax exemption requests.
• Rescinded a letter of resignation, effective March 9, for Sharon Fritz, Barnesville, as a special education teaching assistant and to approve her request for an unpaid leave of absence retroactive to March 9. Fritz passed away April 10. The school board held a moment of silence for Fritz.
• Accepted a letter of resignation from Alexandra Knepper, Tamaqua, as a special education teaching assistant, effective April 8.
• Accepted the resignation of Keri Cavenas, Mahanoy City, as a special education teaching assistant, effective April 28.
• Accepted a letter of resignation from Karrie Kerestus, Mahanoy City, as a student aide, effective April 27.
• Accepted letters of resignation from Amy Dubeck and Lisa Broomell as band front co-advisers, effective March 31.
• Accepted a letter of resignation from Christine Evancho as seventh- and eighth-grade cheerleader adviser, effective March 31.
• Accepted a letter of resignation from Allison Kline as high school director and high school community services-music, effective the end of the current school year following the June trip to Disney World.
• Appointed Jamie Kalkiewicz, Mahanoy City, as a special education teaching assistant at an hourly rate of $8.75 per hour, effective April 28.
• Appointed Thomas Flamini, Mahanoy City, as a Schuylkill Achieve after-school program teacher at a rate of $18.90 per hour, retroactive to April 7.
• Approved a medical leave of absence, subject to the Family Medical Leave Act, for Rae Jones, effective approximately from April 26 to May 15.
• Approved the Special Education plan, effective July 1 to June 30, 2019.
• Approved the high school summer school program to run from June 8 to 28, Monday to Thursday, with sessions from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with specific schedules developed closer to the summer. Instructor will be Jon Shirvinski, science; Bridget Pollack, social studies; Danny Nester, English; and Nicole Luchetta, math.
• Approved the 2016-17 school year with the first day of school scheduled for Sept. 6 and the following Act 80 days in 2017: Feb. 2, May 5 and May 12.
• Approved Robert Killian as the 2016 Alumnus of the Year.
• Approved the school-wide Title I Parent Involvement Policy for the elementary and middle schools, effective April 30 to April 30, 2017.
• Approved the use of the district parking lot for the assembly of the annual Memorial Day parade on May 30 on a request made by Mahanoy Area United Veterans President David Bickowski.
• Accepted the resignation of Robert Killian, Mahanoy City, as intramurals-middle school boys coordinator and the intramurals-middle school girls coordinator for basketball.
• Approved the removal of the above-mentioned intramurals positions at $463.18 each from the budget.
• Approved the addition of the position of intramurals-boys and girls coordinator at a salary of $463.18.
• Appointed Randy Maksimik as the intramurals coordinator at a salary of $463.18.
• Approved the termination of the cooperative agreement for boys’ and girls’ swimming with the North Schuylkill School District. At its April 20 meeting, the North Schuylkill school board approved the dissolution of the cooperative sponsorship agreement between the two school districts. The agreement was made after North Schuylkill closed its swimming pool for repairs. With the pool having reopened, North Schuylkill will re-enter the Schuylkill League in the 2016-17 winter season.