Cranberry Area School District will have two upgraded security-related programs in place when students return for the fall semester.
School board members voted at their monthly meeting Monday to hire Robert Finch and Tyrrel Duncan, both retired state police troopers, to serve as school security guards. Each will work a 90-day term during the September to June school schedule.
Following the meeting, district Superintendent Bill Vonada said the officers will “be armed and in uniform” as they provide security details at Cranberry High School and Cranberry Elementary School. The schools are adjacent to each other.
In May, the board learned the annual cost would be about $50,000.
The presence of security personnel on school grounds is not entirely new to the Cranberry district, Vonada said. In previous years, the district contracted with state police as well as the Knox police department for those services.
“The difference is that we are not contracting with an outside police department,” he said.
In the second move to upgrade school security, the district has ordered heavy duty, protective metal screens for school doors and windows.
The screens, expected to be installed within the first few weeks of the fall semester, are designed to prevent or delay access to the buildings by making them more inpenetrable.
The screening will be fitted to doors and windows at both the elementary and high schools. In addition, Vonada told the school board that internal door locks at the high school are being replaced.
Property repairs discussed
Ben Gilberti, an engineer with HRG Inc. of Cranberry Township outside of Pittsburgh, offered his company’s proposal to do a feasibility study on drainage, roadway, sidewalk and related infrastructure on the school grounds.
The district is eyeing what board president Tom Neely described at a May meeting as expensive capital projects, “$2.5 to $3.5 million” for paving, roofing and drainage work.
The repairs and upgrades include easing traffic flow, building handicapped-accessible walkways, fixing damaged catch basins, improving drainage and more.
Gilberti said his company could do a feasibility study for $19,000 to outline potential projects and determine the construction costs. The work could be bid out as one project or divided into separate projects, he said.
Asked by Vonada if an August 2019 completion date was “feasible,” Gilberti replied, “Yes, if funding is in hand.” Actual construction could take between six to eight weeks, he added.
The superintendent told the board that a decision on whether to move forward on the project could be made at the August meeting.
Options on whether to add a coating on the existing roof at the high school or construct a new roof will also be discussed.
Beth Conkle, the assistant elementary principal, told the board that a committee of parents has volunteered to lead an effort to build a new elementary playground.
“We are dreaming big and the committee is doing its homework,” said Conkle. “It is exciting and a lot of work.”
While the project is “couple of years down the road,” Conkle said the volunteers are searching for grants and studying the best options, including having the site be fully handicapped-accessible, for the playground.
Personnel issues handled
They include:
– Mick Wachob, head boys track coach; Dustin Wenner, Conservation Club advisor; Janet Smith, department coordinator for family and consumer science/music/art; Lisa Vogus, department coordinator for foreign languages and Foreign Language Club advisor; Shawn Bean, department coordinator for health/physical education; Rob Anthony, department coordinator for math/business education and Math Counts advisor; Shannon Sturdevant, Foreign Language Club advisor; Gayle Mitchell, mock trial advisor and Model U.N. advisor; Kathy Uhrinek, mentor teacher
– Amy Mays was hired as an elementary special education teacher for the upcoming school year.
High school principal Ritt Smith said students in grades 8-12 can pick up their class schedules Aug. 15 and 16. Students in seventh grade will have their schedules handed out at an orientation set for 6 p.m. Aug. 23.
An open house at the high school is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19.
In other matters:
– Farmers National Bank was named as the primary depository of all district funds.
– Breakfast and lunch prices were approved. The costs include 55 cents for milk, $1.30 for elementary breakfast and $2.50 for elementary lunch; $1.50 for high school breakfast and $2.60 for high school lunch. Reduced meal prices are also available.
– Oil City attorney J. Ronald Kushner was retained as school district solicitor through June 2020.
