Tewksbury to head EL, SCCTC board

BY PAT FARNELLI
Correspondent

The Elk Lake and Susquehanna County Career and Technology Center school boards met for reorganization purposes as well as regular monthly meetings Tuesday night (Dec. 8).

The Elk Lake School Board held elections for school board president. Sitting president Anne Teel was nominated for another term, but declined. Arden Tewksbury was then elected president.

Donica McGee was elected board vice president.

Tewksbury thanked his fellow board members.

He said, “I’d like to thank Mrs. Teel for her service as president over the past three years, and as a school board member for eight years. She has been very supportive of the school district and the board, and did a great job.”

In addition to Teel, board members recognized for their years of service included Chuck Place at 20 years, Harold Bender at 12, and Matt Curley at eight years.

The positions previously held by Alice Carr and Curley were replaced by Abigail Jones and John Pierson who were elected in November.

They were welcomed Tuesday night, and along with other board members re-elected in November (Bender, Place, Teel) were sworn in together.

One item not on the agenda received a considerable amount of discussion. The Montrose Area School District sent a letter notifying the Elk Lake School District that it is disbanding a cooperative football agreement between the schools.

Two Elk Lake seniors played this past season on the Montrose Area football team. Also, there are four other students currently on the roster who can stay on the team if they choose to, Elk Lake Superintendent Ken Cuomo said.

These students are in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10. However, students in grades below seventh this year are not in programs affiliated with the PIAA program, Cuomo said.

Board member Eric Emmerich said that he is a representative on the PIAA committee, and said he has heard of at least three other schools disbanding a joint football program.

The primary issue is one of classification by the PIAA which considers combined enrollments of participating schools, and this year the PIAA completely recalculated the enrollments based on alignments, as it does every two years.

Several visitors said that they were attending the meeting because they had boys in the Montrose football program.

One woman said, “Our boys’ hearts are in football, and they aren’t going to be content with soccer or the other fall sports.”

The younger students who are in the junior football program at Montrose, however, may not be able to participate next year.

Cuomo responded to the parents, “Take your issues to the PIAA.”

Cuomo also spoke to the board concerning the number of board meetings scheduled per month.

He said that when he first became superintendent, it seemed that it made sense for the two boards to have separate meetings, and the SCCTC board meeting has met on the first Wednesday, while the Elk Lake board meets on the third Thursday.

However, he said that he might like to change that pattern.

“From January to June of 2016, we will meet twice per month. In July, we may only meet once. But for the remainder of the year, we may be able to meet only for the third Thursday for both boards,” he said.

Cuomo also noted that a Toyota dealership in Scranton donated $100 as part of a fund drive for local school districts, with a Toyota Scion used in the automotive training for the Skills USA competition.

Also, a local plumbing and heating company donated shooter shirts for the boys’ basketball team.

At the start of the meeting, several SCCTC students and advisers were recognized for their performance at this year’s Skills USA competition.

Skills USA students attending the meetings included Noah Cobb of Elk Lake, who placed second in related technical math; Trevor Mills of Mountain View, first place in plumbing; Jonathan Nemeth of Lackawanna Trail, first place in building construction; Sara Walter, homeschooled, second place in baking; and Macy Wega, post secondary student, first place in job demonstration.

Also attending the meeting from the SCCTC were teachers/advisers James Baker, security and protective services; John Gazillo, building property maintenance; and Bruce Castelli, carpentry and cabinetmaking.

Some 70 students went to the two Skills USA competitions, and half of those attending earned medals. The first, held Wednesday, Dec. 2, at Johnson College, included automotive and wood shops. The second, held Friday, Dec. 4, at Luzerne County Community College, included culinary arts and nursing.

“Going to the state level in Hershey are 15 great students plus a delegate or two,” Alice Davis said. “Students had to work hard for this, with lots of preparation. Sometimes we forget how great our youths really are.”