School Board January Meeting Brief

The following is a brief summary of the Ellwood City Area School Board meeting held on Thursday, Jan. 14:

Awards/Recognitions

Perry Lower Intermediate was recognized as a 2016 Distinguished Title I School. Only five percent of Title I schools in the state receive this recognition and this is the second year in a row Perry earned this honor.
Maddy McCommons was undefeated in three rounds of Linguistics, an academic competition, and thus qualified for the state competition.
Molly McCommons, a 7th grader at Lincoln, went undefeated in Propaganda Identification, an academic competition, and also won another competition, Presidents, for which she will advance to nationals in Atlanta.
Junior Tyler Alberts won the gold medal at the wrestling MAC championships in the 126 weight bracket and sophomore Tyler Baird earned the silver in the 113 weight bracket.

Personnel/Education

Martin Barsotti and Judith Kindle were appointed to the Ellwood City Library Board for a three year term effective Jan. 1, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2018.
Mikaela Stevens, from Geneva College, was authorized to complete her student teaching assignment under the supervision of Julie Mutmansky at Perry Lower Intermediate and Hartman Intermediate in Elementary Music from Jan. 12 through March 4.
Vice President Matt Morella was appointed to the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center board. He will join currently serving member LeRoy Cortez.
The administration was authorized to advertise for a psychologist intern for the 2016-17 school year at a stipend in the range of $10,000 to $15,000.
A student was expelled effective Jan. 6 through the end of the first term of the 2016-17 school year.
The following spring coaches were approved: Keith Golebie, head varsity boys tennis; Lewis Gordon, volunteer varsity boys tennis; and Mike Sinclair, assistant varsity boys tennis.

Properties/Education

A request by the Ellwood City Art Club to use an unused art room in the basement of Lincoln High was tabled until a special meeting on Jan. 27 due to several unresolved questions.
The board approved a request by the Ellwood City Arts, Crafts, and Food Festival Committee for property in Ewing Park owned by the district. Erica Gray, Jennifer Tomon and Danielle Woodhead voted no. “It’s our property. We should negotiate directly with the organizations that will be using it,” Tomon had said at Monday’s agenda meeting.
An unneeded and unusable piano was donated to the family of Traci and Cam-Rahn Cortez, per request of the piano’s owner, Cindy Pertile.

Student Affairs/Athletics

A motion approving the administration’s Wolverine Workshop plan for Hartman and Lincoln and to provide the necessary funding, less outside contributions, to adopt the programs for the 2016-17 school year, passed in a 6-2 vote, with Woodhead and Tomon voting no. Anthony Buzzelli was absent.

New Business

The board approved the replacement of a Perry boiler at a cost of $90,000. Perry has two boilers, both around 50 years old, but only requires one functioning to heat the school. The board rejected a plan to replace both boilers, which would have cost around $150,000.