The Bellwood-Antis School Board met last evening under the direction of Board President Kenneth Loucks and Board Vice President Donna Tyler to discuss and decide upon issued within the school district.
\nThe minutes were accepted, approved and filed for the August 6th and 13th board meetings as presented.
\nB-A School Board members accepted policy changes to update the policies with regard to the use of \u2018electronic signatures\u2019 on checks for the school district. Previous policy numbers 608, 616 and 618 show revisions from the old policies.
\nPolicy number 608 added the following: \u201cAll disbursements by check shall contain the signatures of at least three of the following officers: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary, The use of facsimile and\/or electronic signatures is authorized. The secretary shall secure the electronic signature file.\u201d
\nPolicy number 616 added: \u201cThe next to last paragraph needs to have the following added, \u2018or an electronic file.\u2019\u201d
\nPolicy number 618 has been revised to include: \u201cLines 13 & 14 on page one of two needs to have the following revisions, \u2018designated principals who shall sign all check requests drawn upon them.\u2019 Line 31 & 32 on page two of two needs to be deleted, \u2018All checks shall be signed by the person authorized to approve such disbursements.\u2019\u201d
\nBellwood-Antis School District Business Manager, Ken Swanson, commented on the policy changes regarding electronic signature use, \u201cWe\u2019re beginning to utilize digital signatures on checks. Those are our old policies with those revisions to update so that by using the electronic signature our policies will be in compliance.\u201d
\nSwanson added, \u201cThere\u2019s tighter control with electronic signatures because now somebody simply can\u2019t fake a signature on a check. They\u2019re going to come on there and then we\u2019re going to have autotrails.\u201d
\nThe school board also discussed \u2018Act 57 Energy Savings.\u2019 Legislature passed a law to allow schools to enter into \u2018performance contracts,\u2019 where a company comes in, evaluates the school and areas where there can be energy savings, such as light retro-fits. By doing those improvements, the school will recognize a savings under utility bills.
\nSwanson commented, \u201cThey (B-A School District) take the money saved from the utility bills and use it for the improvements. It\u2019s called \u2018budget zero.\u201d He added, \u201cThe board is in the middle of evaluating the two proposals we received.\u201d
\nB-A School Board received quotations for the installations of a sewer line from South 2nd Street and Lowther Street to the restrooms attached to the bus garage. The quotations came from Messner Plumbing ($9,450), McCloskey Plumbing ($29,487) and Decker ($9,550).
\n\u201cWe have a septic system over there and its been installed since the early 1970\u2019s and we\u2019d like to have that tapped into the borough sewer line,\u201d said Swanson. \u201cThose cost proposals were for a four inch line instead of a six inch line, and along with other issues related, we need to get more information and then report back to the board.\u201d
\nThe board reviewed and discussed policies 108 (Adoption of Textbooks), 109 (Library Collection), 112 (Guidance Counseling), 113 (Special Education), and 114 (Programs for Gifted Pupils). The policies are still being reviewed. Once the school board goes from review to \u2018first reading,\u2019 the policies will be presented for the public comment. Within the following month the board will take action to approve.
\nB-A School Board reviewed the \u2018Pest Management Proposal,\u2019 which has been moved for first reading. The school district has to have a Pest Management Plan in place by January 1, 2003 by state law.
\nBoard presented a \u2018Student Transportation Update\u2019 that was designed to eliminate a take home run \u201cD5\u201d for grades 5-12, but were also able to eliminate the morning run \u201cD5\u201d for grades 5-12. The school district still has the vacancy for D6P that is a one and a half hour per day take home run. The board would like to monitor these changes for a month and report back at the October meeting.
\nChairperson Rhonda Hocutt and board members approved a PSSA Re-Test policy that would require all 12th grade students who did not attain a proficiency or advanced level on the 11th grade PSSA tests, take the state-sponsored re-take test in October of each year. This policy would exclude the special needs students who will be required to pass a locally designed assessment test later this spring.
\nBoard approved the finance committee submission of the Safe and Drug Free Schools application for $10,085 to cover security personnel, security cameras and SAP attendance monitoring.
\nBellwood-Antis School District approved their substitutes teachers for the 2002-03 school year. The board also approved the \u2018Strategic Plan\u2019 for the period of 2002-2008.
\nBoard approved modifying the elementary greeter schedule by adding one half hour per day making the start time 8:30 a.m. rather than 9 a.m.
\nElementary Principal Terri Harpster declared the Myers Elementary has an enrollment of 494 students officially. High School Principal Michael Sakash reported an official 430 students enrolled, which is lower than in recent years.
\nSuperintendent Dr. Rodney Kuhns noted at last evening school board meeting that the board needs to start architect selection for the renovation of the auditorium and set a date to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bellwood-Antis School Board met last evening under the direction of Board President Kenneth Loucks and Board Vice President Donna Tyler to discuss and decide upon issued within the school district. The minutes were accepted, approved and filed for the August 6th and 13th board meetings as presented. B-A School Board members accepted policy changes […]<\/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-48239","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\/48239","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=48239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}