DUKE CENTER — The Otto-Eldred School board unanimously voted to pass a resolution opposing Senate Bill 2 after discussions during the meeting held Tuesday evening.
Superintendent, Matthew Splain, discussed the potential impact of Senate Bill 2 with the board. Splain explained if passed, Senate Bill 2 would siphon public school money toward private schools. Families with students attending the lowest 15-percent performing schools in the state would be eligible to establish an Education Savings Account through the state Treasury to use toward private school costs along with other non-public educational resources. There would be no oversight or accountability for the use of these public funds.
Private schools would determine which students to accept, regardless of their educational background or disability. The calculation to determine the lowest 15-percent performing schools is quite limited. Currently, Otto-Eldred High School is on that list even though the building’s current School Performance Profile score is 80.5, higher than any other building in the Intermediate Unit 9. It was also mentioned that Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, currently supports this bill.
During administrative reports, principal Harley Ramsey relayed the results from the Skills USA competition in New Castle he attended last week. Senior Simon Peter Couls won first place in networking, and junior Bradley White placed second in automotive. Simon will be competing at the state competition later this spring.
Lindsay Burns gave a report from the elementary side of district. Burns reported that truancy numbers have significantly decreased over the course of the year. The system in place since the beginning of the year has proven to be successful at the elementary level. The system includes providing updated letters, parent notification and holding individual meetings.
In addition, new recess protocol and procedures were put in place at the elementary to allow students to access a more structured recess and access preferred activities for all students.
Curriculum and instruction director, Melissa Merry, reported that Keystone testing for winter will wrap up this week. Math and ELA MAP testing in grades K-9 will be completed this month to help identify instructional priorities.
In old business, an update to the extracurricular policy was approved. This would update the “Riding Home After Events” portion of the policy to streamline the parent approval process and allow for a non-parent to transport students after an event. This policy will be in place for Fall 2018.
The board also adopted a resolution to participate in a new contract with IU9 for internet services to the district. After a recent re-bid, Zito Media will be supplying districts with internet. With the expansion of technology in schools, each district will have access to 1000 Mbps of bandwidth, and see costs drop 90 percent.
Junior advisor Fawn Miller received approval for prom to be held at the Sawyer Evangelical Church Recreation hall on May 5.
A PTO movie night will take place this Friday in the elementary at 6 p.m. All student, parents and/or guardians are welcome to attend.
For those interested, the next PTO meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 5 in the cafeteria of the elementary school.
The next school board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 13 in the elementary technology lab.
