Student
CARMICHAELS – During a lengthy meeting Thursday night, the school board unanimously approved implementing a long-term but day-to-day substitute teacher for second grade, after the district noted an influx of second-grade students. According to acting assistant superintendent Craig Baily, the district currently has 102 students enrolled in second grade, with four teachers handling the workload.
Baily said the state strongly recommends reducing class size to about 18 students per teacher and noted that with the addition of the fifth teacher, the second grade would near compliance with about 20-1 student to teacher ratio.
Baily said in comparison, the first-grade class in the district has only 89 students spread over four classes, and noted that the first-grade teachers are also supplied with teacher aides.
“This will bring us down to a more manageable number,” Baily said.
In other business, the board appointed director Jerry Simkovic to a newly formed wellness committee, after the state mandated the committee’s implementation as directed by the U.S. government.
Baily said the committee will begin to examine ways to monitor and track the health of the students in the district to try and curtail the growing obesity rate among American youth.
In addition to Simkovic, district food service director Nancy Hayden, three other school administrators and three at-large Carmichaels residents will comprise the eight-member committee.
The board also conducted the following business:
– Announced that the total assessed value as reported by the county for Carmichaels has dropped about $2.8 million but added that figures that show coal supplies dwindling across the county will not affect the district, as no coal is mined in Carmichaels.
– Received grants totaling $30,000 from the state Department of Education for a vertical lift at the school for handicapped students and a driver’s education car.
– Approved the revised job description of the teachers and administrators in the district, after changing the administrative structure over the last few months.
– Accepted a $2,500 proposal to install placards at the school’s football and baseball fields to honor past championships in the state and WPIAL conferences as well as retired jerseys.
– Purchased new equipment for the district’s weight room at a cost of $11,435.
– Held a one-hour executive session for personnel matters.