HASB members honored

HASD superintendent Jennifer Mitchell echoed those sentiments, saying school board members are an absolutely vital part of the community.

“They get paid zero dollars. All of their work is volunteer,” Mitchell said. “And I can tell you they spend many hours in meetings, coming to interviews and doing many more of the things that they need to do as board members, such as reading ahead on items to be discussed so they’re prepared for meetings and sometimes making some really tough decisions.”

Each of the board members were given a certificate of appreciation by Mitchell, along with a large thank you card and fresh baked brownies from the middle school life skills class.

Also Monday night, the new Huntingdon Area High School head football coach Tim Lucko was introduced to the board.

Lucko brings with him 20 years of high school coaching experience and was most recently head coach at Tussey Mountain High School. A more complete story on Lucko’s qualifications was published in Tuesday’s edition of The Daily News.

In other athletic related items, the school board approved creating the position of athletic trainer and advertising for the position. An athletic trainer job description was also finalized. School directors also approved agreements with two individuals to provide athletic trainer services when available.

All of this action comes following the loss of the school district’s previous athletic trainer who was contracted through a physical therapy company. Unfortunately despite extensive attempts by the firm to recruit a replacement none was found, resulting in cancellation of the contract for those services. Now the school district is taking a different approach, by hoping to hire its own athletic trainer.

Turning to the financial report, district business manager Matt Gibson gave some good news to the school board.

“Revenue wise, we’re doing good. Expenditures are right on track with budget. Right now, we’re looking good to come in at or below budget for the year,” he said.

A related item Monday night was adoption of the accelerated budget opt out resolution. This is an action taken by the school board certifying the tax rate will be held to within the inflation index for the 2023-2024 school year. The bottom line is that the school district plans to create a budget for the next fiscal year that can be funded based on maintaining current tax rates or increasing taxes by an amount less than or equal to the inflation index. The index for the next fiscal year is 5.3%, and the school board is agreeing not to increase the rate of its real estate tax by an amount that exceeds that index.

The 2023-24 school year budget preparation begins soon and the final spending plan must be approved by directors by June 30.

The school board also approved a list of nearly 40 personnel items including new hires, coaches, resignations, leaves of absence, substitutes and volunteers. Also approved was an addendum to the confidential employees’ agreement and an agreement with an interim student services director to fill in after the recent departure of Staci Young from the position.

Directors went on to okay the Accessible Literacy Learning (ALL) curriculum study, a digital learning app adapted for children with speech challenges; a policy regarding the disposal of surplus property, adoption of the Pennsylvania School Board Association’s principles for governance and leadership and an agreement with the Juniata Valley School District to allow interested JV students to combine with HAHS students to form one indoor guard unit.

A contract with the Tuscarora Intermediate Unit 11 for special education services for this school year was also approved, along with several building use requests and an agreement with the Huntingdon Community Center to use a school district gym for 10 hours per week to run a youth basketball program.

The school board held an executive session for personnel reasons prior to the public meeting.

The next meeting of the Huntingdon Area School board is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, in the high school library.

Joe can be reached at dnews@huntingdondailynews.com.