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Connellsville school directors make changes

By Joyce Koballa 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – The Connellsville Area School District will have an assistant supervisor of special education and five special education teachers for the 2005-06 school year. The hirings came as the Connellsville Area School Board eliminated and reassigned several other positions.

The board also combined several administrative positions to help reduce an initial $2.5 million deficit balanced by a portion of the district’s fund equity in order to prevent a tax increase.

The board adopted a budget by a 5-4 margin June 29 just one day before the state deadline with $57,412,200 in revenue and $58,317,345 in expenditures proposed.

The shortfall was first pared down to $1.7 million by either eliminating or combining 33 staffing positions and several programs leaving the budget deficit at $905,145.

Eugene Cunningham, business manager, said the shuffling resulted in a savings of roughly $1 million.

Cunningham said the recent staff additions were factored into the budget, which included the board’s decision to hire Anne Peters as assistant supervisor of special education along with the district taking over the operation of Intermediate Unit 1 special education services by hiring teachers Maureen Coldren, William Detar, Debra Krzysiak, Karen Dice and Toni Diederich.

Peters’ salary was set at $72,804 and factored into the initial budget along with the teachers’ salaries, ranging from $55,000 to $64,000 depending on their experience and level of education with the exception of Coldren, who will be on a sabbatical leave the first semester.

In conjunction with Coldren’s leave, the board agreed to waive the transfer of entities three years of employment requirement.

Last month, the board added the position of assistant secondary principal filled by Geoffrey Snyder at a salary of $72,804.

Ira Chrise was also hired as supervisor of special education at a salary of $81,240 while Robin Martin was appointed as a full-time elementary principal at $81,240.

Cunningham said the district discussed taking over the special education administrative positions with the IU prior to budget talks since both were under contract with the entity.

But, after the combining and reassigning staffing positions, board member Francis Mongell said the only position terminated in the district was that of Damon Connell, former warehouse manager, while attendant John Steich would be reassigned as a custodian.

The board has remained divided for several months on whether or not to keep the warehouse open since it has cost the district about $140,000 per year to operate the facility.

The board also haggled over the delivery procedures at the site along with the amount of storage.

Jeffrey Harvey, board member, suggested the building be used to house the staff at the Crawford Administration that will need to relocate following the board’s decision to close that location and transfer them to one of the junior high schools or vo-tech.

“It’s a nice looking building and we have everything out there,” said Harvey.

Meanwhile, Cunningham said the district will save $81,281, since Bill Wilson, director of Federal Programs was also appointed to serve as director of Elementary Education following the retirement of Wanda Reynolds.

Cunningham said Wilson’s salary will be commensurate with Reynold’s position at $83,632.

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