Festival Parking Lot Issue Resolved
The board passed a motion resolving an ongoing parking issue with the festival committee. District organizations, such as the football boosters, have historically used festival car parking as a fundraising method. However, a new district policy concerning licensing/subcontracting and confusion over which organizations the festival would award the parking lots to resulted in a delay in the board granting the lots to the festival committee.
The motion granted the festival committee use of the district’s parking lots in Ewing Park, provided school organizations have first choice to use the lots. The motion also temporarily suspended the district’s licensing/subcontracting policy. Board members Erica Gray and Danielle Woodhead voted no, citing concerns about suspending the licensing agreement and that student organizations wouldn’t be prioritized for the parking lots.
Board Discusses Later School Start Times
Board members Renee Pitrelli brought up the issue of starting school later. She said studies show that teenagers function better by sleeping in and expressed concerns over children walking to school in the dark. Pitrelli favored pushing back school by 15 to 30 minutes.
Superintendent Joe Mancini responded that a moderate delay of start time, while feasible, wouldn’t have a major impact on teenager’s sleep cycles.
“If we followed what the studies show, teenagers would sleep all morning and come to school for 10 minutes in the afternoon,” Mancini said sarcastically.
Board president Mike Neupauer felt the district was currently handling too many projects, such as the upcoming budget, construction projects, a new security committee and a budding discussion on school uniforms.
Board member LeRoy Cortez wasn’t opposed to the idea but felt the district should wait longer to get feedback from nearby districts that have changed start times. Several other board members agreed with Cortez.
In addition, the board has discussed the topic in the past and Thursday’s meeting largely repeated the same arguments.
Pitrelli felt moving start times back 15-30 minutes would be relatively easy, although Mancini said it would take cooperation with the bus company and administrative research as well as communication with parents as many families would have to make alternate arrangements for daycare or dropping off/picking up children.
“Do you think we can just send out an email that says ‘hey school starts half an hour later’ and that’s all we got to do?” Neupauer said, adding that district’s human resources were taxed.
Lincoln Construction Bids Awarded
The board awarded the following bids for construction and remodeling for Lincoln High School:
- Canfield Development, of Pittsburgh, for the curtain wall asbestos bid for $82,222.
- Garlan/DSB, Inc to install an EPDM roof system on the Lincoln bridge for $32,196.
- Edward Simon and Company to upgrade the sound system at the auditorium for $15,984.
- Milcam Construction, of Brookfield, Ohio, for the curtain wall bid for $893,850.
- First American Industries for HVAC for $344,000
- Blackhawk Neff, Inc, of New Castle, for $52,558.Lincoln Construction Bids Awarded
Misc.
- Four students will be attending the National Academic Games Competition in Knoxville, Tennessee from April 26 to May 1.
- The board approved a cooperative sports agreement with Riverside School District for senior and junior high wrestling.
- Cortez brought in copies of New Castle School District’s dress code as a possible template to move forward in changing Ellwood’s dress code.
- The recently formed security committee organized an active shooter training, taught by a state trooper, on Wednesday, May 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second story of the Ellwood fire department building. The training is open to school district faculty and is hosted by the PTO.
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