KANE — Incoming Kane Area School District Superintendent Robert Gaetano addressed the public for the first time during a meeting of the school board on Thursday.
Gaetano, the principal of Loyalsock Township Middle School in Williamsport, replaces Dr. Maryann Anderson, who retired at the end of December. Gaetano will assume his new role on Feb. 2.
Gaetano said he spent some time looking around town and getting accustomed to his new community. He said the student culture — everything from arts, theater and band to sports — all begins in the classroom. Interim Superintendent Stephen Perry welcomed Gaetano to Kane and said he was looking forward to working with Gaetano when he assumes his new position.
In other news, a video clip featuring students from Kane Area High School performing a lip dub of the Pharrell Williams song “Happy” was also played at the meeting. High school co-principal Jim Fryzlewicz introduced the producers, high school teacher Brian Wymer and senior Tyler Blankenship, who then explained the process of producing the video. Local filmmaker Sean Perry donated his time to shoot it.
Wymer said Blankenship’s dedication to the project was so great the Penn State bound senior was the only one in the entire school not in the video. Assistant technology director Chris Niklaus said the video has already received 23,000 hits on YouTube.
In other news, the board of directors voted down a measure to approve the deputy tax collectors for each taxing authority in the district.
Newly approved state legislation requires all elected tax collectors to appoint a deputy tax collector to “settle taxes during any incapacitation of the elected tax collector.” The motion was defeated 2 to 7 with only school board president Claire Ann Buckley — herself the former tax collector in Hamilton Township — and Dick Coleman.
Before the vote, school board director Keith Hastings weighed in on the matter. Hastings said his decision to vote against the measure is due to the appointment of Marianne Rook, the current tax collector for Kane Borough, as the deputy tax collector in Wetmore Township.
Hastings acknowledged that Rook could be a strong choice for the position and has done a commendable job in Kane. However, he pointed out that Wetmore Township resident Rhonda Holt also expressed interest in the position, and the deputy tax collector should reside in the taxing entity in which they represent.
Also, Kane native Lt. Trisha Wright of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps addressed the school board.
Wright recently returned from Monrovia, Liberia, where she was treating health care workers who are on the front lines in the fight against Ebola. She thanked former superintendent Dr. Anderson for her assistance in ensuring that her children would not be harassed at school for her work in Africa. Wright said Anderson wrote letters to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Pennsylvania Department of Health on her behalf, and also a letter to the faculty and staff of the school district on Wright’s behalf.
The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 12.
