Ellwood City School Board Expresses Disappointment Over Fireworks; Discusses School Start Times, Fields

The Ellwood City Area School District Board addressed the public on Monday night regarding blame placed on them by the Festival Committee for the cancelation of the Festival’s traditional fireworks display.

The school board expressed disappointment in the Festival Committee’s decision to cut the fireworks, and Board President Jennifer Tomon said the move is simply political.

“Local politics at its worst … that’s how I’ve seen the nine hard working people at this table and the EC football boosters, who I might remind everyone, are all volunteers, characterized,” Tomon said. “I would argue local politics at its worst would be the festival committee making a wildly unpopular decision and blaming it on the five people who just so happen to be up for re-election next month. That’s no coincidence. That’s politics.”

Tomon presented numbers from the tax returns of the Ellwood City Arts Crafts & Food Festival.

“From September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2018, the festival committee’s fund balance grew $24,713 for an 83% increase,” Tomon said.

The board went on to offer words of encouragement to a local man, 25-year-old Eric Rayner, who is leading an effort to begin a fundraising effort to keep the fireworks going.

Rayner attended Monday night’s committee meeting in the hopes to obtain use of Helling Stadium, where the fireworks display has been staged for years. The board pointed out that use of the stadium had already been approved previously and that the approval still stands.

The dispute began over the weekend when the Festival Committee released a letter citing disagreements regarding parking profits as a main reason for not having enough money in the budget to continue the fireworks. The committee said they asked the Ellwood City Area School District board for use of the school district lots at the Ewing Park School site and the football stadium along Joffre Street but were only granted use of one lot.

“Parking revenue is an essential part of the Festival’s financial plan,” the committee said in the letter. “In some years, parking proceeds have totaled more than 20% of the total budget.”

The Ellwood Football Boosters were also pointed out in the festival committee letter. The festival committee said in 2018, the Ellwood Football Boosters took 60% and gave the committee 40%; and said that for 2019, the split for the committee has been be reduced to 65/35.

Sam Teolis was in attendance at Monday’s board meeting representing the football boosters and vowed that the boosters would be the first group to make a pledge to fundraising efforts in order to continue the fireworks.

In other school board news:

District Superintendent, Joe Mancini, announced that he had done some preliminary research into school start times.

He cited an American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that middle and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later to give students the opportunity to get the amount of sleep they need in order to be healthy and productive in their studies.

Mancini said his research included the patterns of start times and bus pick up and drop off times of other schools across the state. He said many factors have to be taken into consideration when discussing changing start times including: required hours of instruction, teacher’s contracts, the amount of buses needed, and afterschool child care options.

He offered as an example three options for Ellwood City Area Schools.

Option one would have school beginning 15 minutes later and would offer the “least disruption.”

Option two would have school beginning 30 minutes later and would “dramatically effect extracurricular activities.”

Option three would be a “flip time” option where the bus schedules would flip. Essentially the younger kids would have earlier bus pickup times in the morning, while the older kids would have the later bus pickup times. Mancini said with this option afterschool care would become an issue.

Also, a factor of the research, according to Mancini is the transportation to the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center. Depending on how school start times would change, the school may need to add additional transportation for the students who attend LCCTC.

Mancini said more research will be done regarding the viability of making a change.

Board member Danielle Woodhead spoke about the condition of the softball fields at Stiefel Park.

During a March 14, 2009 meeting, Bill Garroway, coach of the Jr. High girls softball team and assistant coach of the girls varsity softball team requested the board consider the usage of Freidhoff Field in Ewing Park for the girl’s games. He cited poor quality of the fields at Stiefel as a main reason for the request.

Garroway said during that meeting Garroway if his request is not added to the agenda for consideration, he will revisit the board with an attorney citing Title IX discrimination.

Woodhead said she visited Stiefel Park to take a look at the facilities herself and found the fields to be substantially comparable but admitted that there are a few areas that require improvement. Woodhead said she has been in touch with Borough Manager David Allen, who recently announced the borough would be applying for a $250,000 matching grant to make improvements to Stiefel. According to Woodhead, Allen’s plan for the park–should the borough be awarded the grant–will take care of any necessary improvements.

Garroway said he is anticipating the borough’s plans for the fields and hasn’t taken any action since hearing about the grant.