MV okays hire date for principal

BY ROBERT L. BAKER

Mountain View School Board Monday night okayed a start date for new elementary school principal Robert Presley of Oct. 11.

Presley has been at the last few school board meetings since he was hired in August, but has an outstanding contract as assistant principal at East Stroudsburg North High School which will come to an end in two weeks

He will be paid $72,000 a year at Mountain View.

Also announced as new hires of the district are Brian Hoover as music education teacher at a salary of $36,760, and Molly Ribitzsky as special education teacher at a salary of $49,137.

Superintendent Andrew Chichura said of Hoover that he is one year out of Mansfield University and comes highly recommended in both chorus and instrumental.

He said he hoped that those students who stepped out of the chorus and band programs while there was vacancy would now step back in.

The board also accepted the resignation of English teacher Aimee Krause effective Sept. 20, but could hold it up for 60 days pending contractual arrangements.

It in turn authorized the posting and advertising for an English teacher position with applications due by Oct. 15.

The school board also approved all employee salaries for the 2010-2011 school year and noted that the entire list of salaries would become part of the official minutes of the board meeting.

Chichura said making the salaries public was not something they had been done in the past, but was in line with Pennsylvania School Board Association recommended policy.

Two names- Deborah Hameza of Clifford Twp., and Tanya Cameron of Kingsley were added to the school district’s approved substitute list.

In continuing work of revising the school’s policy manual there was a second reading of policy #134 on alternative instruction course, #314 on physical examinations, #620 on fund balances and #137.1 on extracurricular participation of home education students. All were accepted without discussion as was a first reading of #204 on attendance.

Maintenance coordinator Robert Taylor gave an update on the elementary school roofing project and noted it was 100 percent complete, but the district was awaiting warranty papers.

He noted the school’s water well pump needed to be replaced and would be done soon by the lowest bidder of $5200.

The board also discussed a proposal for replacement of reel mowers and requested that bids for contracting grass cutting be solicited to see if there could be a cost savings realized without replacing equipment.

In the public discussion section, a parent raised issues about elementary school policy regarding testing students for spelling, reading and the fact that a child came home with a grade report of 94 or above in all of his classes except math.

She said the student got a 67 in math, and she was wondering why she had not been informed by his teacher prior to the mid-point in the grading period that his work was below average.

Chichura suggested she speak to the school’s guidance counselor, but the parent said she would make a point of speaking with the teacher so she could get to the bottom of the unacceptable grade.