Tuesday night, Tyrone Area School Board members approved a motion to charge the participating students $45 for its behind-the-wheel driver education program.
\nThe move followed a survey that was conducted by the Tyrone Area School District\u2019s superintendent\u2019s office.
\nA handout regarding the survey showed a list of several districts in the region and whether or not those districts charge students for the driver\u2019s ed program. The survey also showed the amount charged in the districts that do impose a fee on students.
\nCurrently out of 11 districts surveyed, Claysburg-Kimmel, Spring Cove, Bald Eagle Area and Philipsburg-Osceola Area do not charge a fee for the program. Philipsburg-Osceola is considering a fee, according to the survey information. One school district, Penns Valley, does not provide the service in-house.
\nOf the remaining districts, Altoona Area charges the highest rate with a $182.50 fee and an additional $50 charged to non-residents. Bellwood-Antis charges the lowest fee at $27. Other fees ranged from $36 to $50. One district, Bellefonte Area, allows its $50 fee to be waived if there is an economic need.
\nTyrone Area said the driver\u2019s education budget for the 2006-07 school year includes an approximate cost of $10,000 for the instructor\u2019s salary based on a $17.41 hourly rate for six hours per student of behind-the-wheel instruction. Vehicle costs for gas, insurance and maintenance are additional costs.
\nAccording to the information provided to school board members, districts requesting state reimbursement receive $35 for each student who completes the standardized driver education program. Districts can charge no more than $50 for the lab fee. The fee cannot exceed the justifiable cost per student and cannot include teacher salaries or benefits.
\nDistricts not seeking reimbursement can establish charges as approved by the school board.
\nSuperintendent Dr. William N. Miller said Tyrone would receive the $35 in state reimbursement plus the new fee of $45 being imposed on students.
\n\u201cIt still will cost the district a significant amount of money,\u201d said Dr. Miller. \u201cIf you look at Altoona, you are looking at about $185, that\u2019s probably realistic per student. We\u2019re getting a portion of it, approximately half.\u201d
\nThe district also provided statistics on student participation. In 2003-04, there were 93 students that used the program. In 2004-05 there were 102 participants. In 2005-06, there were 86 participants as of June 2. The information showed the district\u2019s expected additional students to have taken the course by the end of June. The district will begin charging the $45 fee effective July 1.
\nIn other school board decisions, Tyrone Area accepted the resignation of long-time elementary principal Theodosia Spewock. Her resignation is effective Sept. 11, 2006.
\nThe board also accepted the resignation of boy\u2019s head basketball coach Michael Harris. A story regarding Harris\u2019 resignation can be found in today\u2019s sports section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tuesday night, Tyrone Area School Board members approved a motion to charge the participating students $45 for its behind-the-wheel driver education program. The move followed a survey that was conducted by the Tyrone Area School District\u2019s superintendent\u2019s office. A handout regarding the survey showed a list of several districts in the region and whether or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}