Just one month after passing a 2010-11 budget board members called difficult and disappointing, the Octorara Area School District July 19 received two good pieces of financial news which will bring the district more revenue.
Octorara signed an agreement with the YMCA of the Brandywine Valley to lease four classrooms for day care, offices, gymnasium, cafeteria and playground space at the elementary school for $45,000 annually (with 3 percent annual increases) from January 2011 through Dec. 31, 2014.
Secondly, Althouse Transportation, the district’s bus company, voluntarily knocked one percentage point from its 4.5 percent transportation contract increase, saving the school district $23,000 on its $2.7 million transportation budget.
Superintendent Tom Newcome has been negotiating with the YMCA since an agreement with the Y to lease classroom and program space and the high school Fitness Center fell apart in March during what Newcome called “bad faith negotiating.“
Under this agreement, the Y will not be running the high school Fitness Center. The district is this summer experimenting with a trial run to open the facility to the community.
School board members signed a comprehensive eight-page lease with the Y, which will also open the elementary school gym for Y programs from 3 to 9 p.m. week days, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays.
Board member Bob Hume said he believes the Y agreement will be a “great benefit” to the community. He also urged Newcome to explore the possibility of bringing cyber education programs to the district.
The school board also approved increasing the cost of some school lunches by 15 cents, to $2.15 for elementary students and to $2.40 for middle school students. Students will also pay an increase in milk, to 60 cents per container.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Nancy Bishop led several administrators in explaining the district’s five-year-old curriculum mapping program. She said staff have done an immense amount of work in standardizing curriculum which is readily available with numerous resources in a mapped online system. Bishop said the state is now moving toward curriculum mapping, putting the district ahead in this trend.
Finally, the school board: approved an employee assistance program with Pressley Ridge and hired Dawn Munion as a high school math teacher at a grant-funded salary of $48,873.
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