Blue Ridge fills board vacancy

BY STACI WILSON

One candidate stepped forward to fill the open school director’s slot on the Blue Ridge Board.

Following a short question and answer period with board members, Mike Detweiler, of Jackson Twp., was accepted to fill the vacancy. Lavone Lewis resigned from the position in late September.

Detweiler, however, was not administered the oath of office during the meeting.

Detweiler, a long-time resident of the district, said he would like to be more engaged in the process of education and to act as a public representative.

The board’s move to open the tax collection policy for a 30-day review was questioned by New Milford Borough Tax Collector Vicki Drake.

The suggested policy changes detail the manner in which funds are deposited and reports are submitted to the district.

Drake said under the proposed policy, some of the collectors would be required to submit a report to the district everyday during peak collection times. She also said the collectors had been issued no less than seven different directives from the district.

Superintendent Robert McTiernan said the proposed amended policy would supercede all the others.

After a back and forth between Drake and the board about the required supporting documents, Board President Laurie Bonner said the tax collectors could discuss the details with the district’s business manager, Loren Small.

Drake said the tax collectors could face financial penalties if they did not comply with the school’s request but said there was still some confusion about what, exactly, the district is asking for.

The tax collectors in the district have been notified to turn in their school issued laptop computers in exchange for a desktop model.

Drake asked how long it would be before the desktop computers would be installed.

Bonner said the collectors had been “advised to make a trade. Our tech staff will make sure you have working desktop computers.”

Drake said the collectors feared a data loss during a system transfer, as had happened to some collectors in the past.

She asked the board to consider waiting until this year’s books were closed out before switching.

Bonner said the board would take that into consideration.

The board approved a dual enrollment agreement with Keystone College for the 2012-13 school year.

Transportation software from Transfinder was also purchased by the district. McTiernan said a workshop meeting dealing with transportation has tentatively been scheduled for Sept. 29. The meeting will deal with reimbursement, routing and how it pertains to a single tier bell system.

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