Uphold announces retirement
Uniontown Area School District will lose its top administrator this summer. The school board on Monday accepted the retirement notice of Superintendent Dr. Darrell Uphold, effective June 28.
“It has been a very, very rewarding experience,” Uphold said, counting 40 years of employment with the district.
He said every superintendent wants to go out on a positive note and, to that end, said test scores are up, behavior problems are down and the football and basketball teams have won honors.
Director William Rittenhouse Jr. made the motion “with regrets” to accept the retirement. Directors Tammy Boyle and Charles Castor made favorable comments about Uphold.
Uphold said he appreciated the kind remarks.
“I sincerely enjoyed my tenure in Uniontown. If I had to do it over, I would not change one thing,” he said.
He said he has no regrets and no complaints and that the school district has been very good to him and his family.
In other matters, Castor read a letter from a Uniontown City Council member who is a former school board member.
The letter from Joseph N. Giachetti echoed Castor’s previous comments that the school board should maintain its administrative offices in the city.
Giachetti wrote that the board’s discussion of moving the offices from the Central School Building “disturbs me greatly.”
He wrote that the school district and city should work together to develop a better community and that includes preserving the past, noting the historical and architectural significance of the building that he referred to as the “Ella Peach” school building.
“There must be some way you can renovate the building and maintain it as a public treasure. This is a treasure that should not be lost under any circumstances,” Giachetti wrote.
Director Ron Machesky responded, saying maybe city council could help the school district find some money for the building. A figure of $3.2 million was quoted last month as the estimate to renovate the office building.
The school board has discussed building an addition onto the high school or Menallen School. The board has also talked about leasing office space.
The board voted Monday to advertise for bids for renovations and additions to Wharton School and authorized the construction manager, architect and administration to open and tabulate the bids.
The Wharton School and central administration offices have been included in a first phase of projects to improve the district’s buildings.
They recently awarded $2.5 million in construction contracts for renovations and additions to Franklin School.
In sports and activities, they voted to open two assistant coaching positions for the boys’ varsity basketball team.
They named Robert D. Manges as a volunteer track coach. They accepted the resignation of Beth Lengvarsky as assistant girls’ basketball coach for the high school and hired Carol Craggette as the assistant girls’ track coach for the high school at a salary of $825.
Also, the board approved a field trip by the high school band May 3-6 to New York City.
They accepted the resignation of Jeff Sakaguchi as a school police officer.
The school board agreed to implement a summer school reading academy this summer.
Meanwhile, Director Susan Clay commended school nurse Kim Feris for life-saving action when a teacher became “violently ill” March 20 at Lafayette School.
Director of Education Merridy Greenlief announced three principals and one teacher will attend the Model Schools Conference of the International Center for Leadership in Education Inc. this summer in Washington, D.C., with 80 percent of the costs being paid by Reaching Educational Achievement with Community Help (REACH) and the rest from school district federal funds.
During public comment, Melissa McKulka asked for better communication from the high school to Fayette County Area Vocational-Technical School regarding student activities.
Identifying herself as an instructor at the vo-tech and mother of a student at both schools, McKulka said the vo-tech students missed out on a rally held recently to honor the basketball team’s accomplishments and that 73 students signed a petition that said they would like to be treated fairly. She said there have been other examples.
Director Dorothy Grahek, who also serves on the vo-tech joint operating committee, suggested that one person be put in charge of announcements at the high school and that person could send the announcements to the vo-tech prior to dismissal.