NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. by: John Gerow (RVO) – The Redbank Valley School Board covered a wide range of topics at their Thursday evening work session in preparation for Monday night’s December Board meeting. Advertising for a head football coach, traffic control and street crossing, Narcan on campus, and testing the water for lead were only a few of the topics that were given consideration by the 7 Board members in attendance. Directors Dee Bell and Ann Kopnitsky were not at the meeting.

Following Coach Ed Wasilowski’s retirement, the District finds itself looking for a new head football coach. Bill Reddinger questioned if there was any need to advertise in the Oil City “Derrick” newspaper, or whether simply posting the position on the school’s website would be sufficient. It is conventional for Redbank Valley to use the “Derrick”, although there is no legal requirement to advertise coaching positions. Mr. Reddinger asked if there were coaches on staff interested in the position. Superintendent Dr. Mastillo reported that two of Coach Waz’s staff had expressed an interest in the head coach position. Director Darren Bain expressed his opinion that advertising in the Oil City paper was critical to filling the position. Director Jason Barnett argued that Coach Wasilowski retiring was common knowledge in Western Pennsylvania and that it was likely that most of the people qualified for the job, and interested, already know the position will be filled. The discussion expanded then, to a proposed motion for Monday night’s meeting that would allow the Superintendent to accept letters of resignation and post anticipated job openings without consulting the Board first. After several minutes, Dr. Shaffer explained that posting an anticipated opening would not lock the district into filling that position and that the final determination on creating or filling a position would remain in the purview of the Board. The motion will be voted on Monday.

Dr. Mastillo next reported that the Board’s contract with the New Bethlehem Borough Council to have the New Bethlehem Police Department provide traffic control at the start and end of the school day had expired and that he was in discussion with the Borough Council and Chief Malnofsky about redoing the agreement. The new chief of police is trying to provide coverage at the school as well as he can even without a standing agreement. Dr. Mastillo told the meeting that Chief Malnofsky was hoping to work with the Fire Police to provide coverage on the days that the borough police are unavailable. This may not be a practical option and the reality that the borough police may not be available every day when school is dismissed. That is a reality that the Board and the borough discussed last year as well. It is a reality of the small staff at the New Bethlehem Police Department.

The Superintendent reported that it is his opinion after watching the pattern of street crossing for almost 5 weeks, he thinks the Police presence is more important at the end of the school day. Darren Bain asked why the change from the previous agreement when the Board deemed that the coverage was more important in the morning. Dr. Mastillo explained that it is his opinion that there is more risk in the afternoon because all of the students are leaving at the same time that all of the busses are leaving. In the morning, he explained, most parents drop their students off at the front door so they are not crossing Route 28 and the busses come in at slightly different times. This staggering of arrivals does not present the same level of risk that the mass exit does in the afternoon. Mr. Bain expressed his concern that the Board had wanted morning coverage before and had changed the plan to afternoon coverage. He said that he was not comfortable with the change in direction. The Superintendent repeated that he could only go by his and Mrs. Rupp’s observations. Mr. Bain could not offer an explanation of the data that the board considered last year when contracting for the morning coverage.

There is a proposed motion for Monday’s meeting that would have the district enter into a Mutual Cooperation and Coordination Agreement with Value Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania (VBH-PA). VBH-PA has residential treatment facilities for youth and the agreement proposed would not “contract” the district to use their facilities, but would provide the VBH-PA facility and staff as an additional resource and option for Redbank Valley School District.

Dr. Shaffer brought up a topic that had been tabled at last month’s work session, that being, should the district develop a Narcan overdose treatment policy and program. Ed Goth, Emergency Management Coordinator for New Bethlehem Borough addressed the Board on the topic. Mr. Goth pointed out to the Board, that although there is an Emergency Management Service provider in New Bethlehem, they are often out on call and are not available to respond to an overdose at the school. He also pointed out that there are times when New Bethlehem and Clarion both are out on calls, and the school district would be covered by Brookville, Punxsutawney, or Kittanning. The response time for any of these EMS would be outside of the window of time to use Narcan. Mr. Goth strongly recommends that the district have trained employees and Narcan in-house, for the eventuality of it being needed.

He told the Directors that Narcan training and initial dosage kits were freely available. He also reported that the Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission was active in providing treatment and supplies in the area. Dr. Shaffer said that in the little research that he had done, individual dosages of Narcan were not prohibitively expensive. Mr. Bain questioned if any policy would have to cover all after-school activities, to which Dr. Mastillo tried to explain that the motion, as he understood it, would be to direct the Administration to develop a policy and that the Board would then approve or disapprove it. Jason Barnett expressed his concern about finite resources when he said, “Rather than doing two or three things well, we have a million things going on. We get to the point where we expect the school to be able to do everything.” The motion will be added to Monday’s agenda.

Director Darren Bain asked Dr. Mastillo if he could tell the Board whether or not the school security contracted through Armstrong Security should be continued. Dr. Mastillo said, “A month and a few days into this job, I can’t make any recommendation on that.” Following a lively discussion, Dr. Mastillo said, “If the Board as a whole wants a deadline on my evaluation of Armstrong Security, I will be more than glad to meet that deadline; but it must come from the whole Board.” Following further discussion, the group realized that a decision on Armstrong Security will have to be made prior to the budget being prepared for next year.

Darren Bain, Chairman of the Finance Committee gave a report on their work to date. While the committee’s final report is not done, Mr. Bain and Mr. Barnett reported out several things that their committee will recommend. One of their first recommendations is that all future budgets be much more detailed and in-depth – more emphasis on line items. The committee is going to recommend a spending freeze for the remainder of this year except for essential items. Dr. Mastillo said that he is already doing something similar as it is not clear exactly what projects, repairs, and such were budgeted. Mr. Bain also said that the committee is going to recommend better bidding on more goods and services, elimination of overspending on budgeted items, and out of season purchasing of sports equipment. At this meeting, the committee could not project savings from these changes, but they could be significant.

The regular monthly meeting of the Redbank Valley School Board will be Monday evening Dec. 3 in the high school cafeteria.

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ABOUT:
Redbank Valley School District provides education services for the 165 square mile area of New Bethlehem and Hawthorn boroughs, and the townships of Mahoning, Madison, Porter, and Redbank of both Clarion and Armstrong counties.

MEETINGS:
The Redbank Valley School Board meetings the first Monday of every month at 7pm at the High School Library.

CONTACT:
For more information about the Redbank Valley School District, please call 814.275.2426 or visit RedbankValley.org/pg/biz/redbank-valley-school-district