The Franklin Area School District is one step closer to implementing a Naloxone policy which would stock the school with emergency Narcan kits in the event of an overdose on their property.
“I would like for us to have the first reading approved next Monday night,” superintendent Dr. Pamela Dye said Monday night. The final reading would be approved sometime in February.
The district also received paperwork from the state telling them their comprehensive plan deadline was postponed but Dye was quick to tell the board that the district still wanted to continue work on it despite the delay.
Dye also supplied members of the board with their statement of financial interest forms, which are due in May, but she stressed getting them completed by next week.
Dye also spoke about the district’s memorandum of understand with Children and Youth Services. The memorandum dictates that the district will work with CYS in deciding whether it’s best for a student in their program to stay in their home district or to move to the Franklin district.
In other news, Glade Run Lutheran Services has asked Franklin to sell them school lunches for the school year at their Utica location, St. Stephen’s Lutheran Academy.
“It’s basically the same service that we provide YMCA with right now,” Business manager Jackie Dutchcott said.
Dye also explained the Vo-Tech authority to board members.
The authority was created 50 years ago and needs to be re-enacted with a new board member representing Franklin’s district. Dye said that board member Randy Seitz, who was absent from the work session, had volunteered to represent them.
Scott Armburger, director of technology for the district, told the board Monday night that they were looking at a contract to run fiber optic line from Franklin High School to Victory Elementary because the existing bandwidth wasn’t enough.
“It’s to the point we need to do something,” he said.
Armburger said the city had installed enough fiber optic lines that their cost would be significantly cheaper than it would have been just a year ago.
He said Zito Media of Coudersport quoted the costs at $2,800 a month for 36 months for a total of $33,600. However, Armburger said the school would be reimbursed $26,880 through E-Rate.
Vice president Sabrina Backer told the board that a bill for charter reform had stalled at the state level and would be broken down into several smaller bills.
She was also asked by the Pennsylvania School Board Association to pen an article on teacher shortages affecting rural school districts for the PSBA Bulletin, a bimonthly magazine organized by the association.
Franklin Area School District meets again Jan. 23 at 7 p.m.
