MV board hires basketball coach

BY VIRGINIA CODY

The Mountain View school board voted Monday night to make this past year’s junior varsity coach – Dave Bell – the new head basketball coach.

The 7-2 decision, with board members Kevin Griffiths and Jay Wescott voting against it, prompted some verbal fireworks from about 20 persons in attendance.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” shouted a couple of persons who had addressed the board earlier on behalf of Corey Gesford, a formerMountain Viewteacher.

At its July 18 meeting, the school board had taken a vote on hiring Gesford, but that vote ended with four board members (Griffiths, Wescott Mark Phillips and Gina Yarrish) in favor, four (Todd Adams, Ellen Aherne, Sandra Stine and James Zick) against and one absent (Dava Rinehart-Cowan), and so the position was left open.

Gesford, who coaches a local 21 Hoops team for the Amateur Athletic Union, formerly taught at Mountain View High School, but resigned after allegations of impropriety with his teaching credentials.

The state attorney general’s office in 2008, charged Gesford with forging a teacher’s credential in 2004, unsworn falsification of records in 2006 and illegal use of a professional title in 2005.

He pleaded guilty to all three charges onApril 24, 2008, and his teaching credential with the Pennsylvania Department of Education at the time was also revoked.

Gesford, who had asked again Monday to be hired for the coaching position also addressed the board, saying he had apologized for his mistake and was also expressing a commitment to the community for the next 30 years.

The group of supporters at the meeting, led by Jay Bradley of Hop Bottom, had insisted that Gesford had paid his debt to society and should be given a second chance.

The board saw matters differently, and amidst shouts and accusations that the board was not listening to its constituents, board president Zick, asked those shouting to leave, telling them they were “out of order.”

Other areas discussed by the board on Monday included the creation of a part-time cafeteria monitor position, booster club management, bus routes and contracts, and adoption of the One Call System for emergency notifications.

Regarding the One Call System, Superintendent Andrew Chichura recommended its adoption as a means for getting information on school closings and delays to parents more efficiently that how it’s been done in the past with a “snow chain.”

It is an automatic phone call system whereby someone in the district would make one phone call and the system would relay the message to every phone number it was directed to.

Chichura said the One Call System could also be used in case of health concerns and could replace the need for bulk mailings in certain cases.

“The cost of one mailing runs $600,” he said.  “It would only take three mailings to pay for the system (per year).”

The One Call System is available to the district on a three-year contract basis.  The first year would cost approximately $2,000.  The second years would cost approximately $2,100 each.

Elementary school principal, Robert Presley, pointed out that he had personal experience with the One Call System in his last position and was very pleased with it.  He also noted that he had contacted the Susquehanna School Districtwhich uses the One Call System and they reported excellent results.

Regarding bus routes, concern was expressed by numerous members of the public that the absorption of one or more bus routes into others would force children to be on the bus for an inordinate amount of time, some not arriving home from school until4:45 p.m.

Business manager James Mirabelli attempted to field concerns by acknowledging that the school board had asked him to rework the routes by considering “time” as opposed to “mileage” as the primary criteria.

Related to the routes, the board approved two bus contracts on Monday.  One of these is to Pocono Transportation Systems; the other will go to Sheila Petrochko of Kingsley.

Concerns among members of the public about these contracts and the bus routes themselves were so extreme and time consuming, Zick determined the meeting should be continued on Aug. 22 so that all issues could be addressed.

“We’re not going to adjourn this meeting,” he stated to the board and public.

In other issues, the board approved award bids for three items.  RGM Hardwoods was awarded the wood fuel bid.  LJ Bogumil was awarded the hot water heater bid.  And, ISO Bunkers of Ashton was awarded the fuel oil bid.

ISO’s bid price for oil was $3.0372 per gallon.

Also on the agenda was the signing of a corrected affidavit of possession and ratification of an oil and gas lease.  A related action was the authorizing of Bluestone Pipeline Company ofPennsylvaniapersonnel to access school district land to do a pipeline survey.

The district also approved the adoption of a high school textbook, “Speech,” by McCutcheon.

Also, Presley advised the board that kindergarten orientation was scheduled for Aug. 30 at2 p.m., and class lists were to be made available Aug. 22.