By Imari Scarbrough
The Conewago Valley school board heard updates regarding its comprehensive planning process, elementary school buildings, safety upgrades and more during a regular meeting on Monday evening.
Dr. Brad Sterner, the assistant superintendent and Title IX coordinator for the district, said he recently took on the role of interim acting principal at Conewago Township Elementary (CTE).
Sterner temporarily took over the position following the resignation of former principal Autumn Zaminsky last month. Sterner jumped straight into a PTO meeting and faculty meeting in his new role.
“The energy there and positivity is just overflowing,” Sterner said. “It is a great place to be and they are very happy that our transition is what it is as it keeps the rest of the school year moving forward.”
A job listing for the CTE principal position was posted to the district’s website on Feb. 14 and will close on March 15.
Along with his new, temporary principal role, Sterner juggled his regular duties, reporting on committee and grant application updates.
The comprehensive steering committee opened on Feb. 26 and will meet monthly during the rest of the school year, taking a break for the summer before resuming in the fall.
Sterner said the district also recently applied for a yearly grant offered through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency with the hopes of receiving funding to benefit school safety and mental health.
Sterner said the application is “intensive” as it goes beyond grant writing to include input from a variety of individuals in order to craft the strongest possible application. He hopes the district will receive $500,000 if the application is approved. The money would be used to help with the cost of new radios and the salary and benefits of an additional school security officer as well as providing mental health training.
Safety and communication
Matthew Muller provided the board with a brief security update. The district has been working to improve its security, following steps highlighted in security audits.
Muller said the district recently installed 18 door alarms using grant funding provided by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Additional alarms will be added later this year.
The district also added “high visibility safety crosswalk designs,” according to Muller.
“We’re hopeful that that will help traffic flow and just recognition across pedestrians and students getting dropped off the bus and being dropped off,” Muller said.
At a separate, unspecified school, Muller saw door signs that he wanted to add to Conewago Valley schools, so he created signs that say, ‘Keep doors locked and secure’ to post on each exterior door in the district as a reminder for students. Muller said he and the school security officer, Dwayne Smith, will put up the signs together.
While some of the changes Muller has mentioned since taking the position in early 2023 have been seemingly minor, he said they all add up.
“We’re trying to take the steps we can as we can to bump us up a notch safety-wise,” Muller said. “Speaking of Officer Smith, he continues to be an asset to our district, simply providing a layer of intervention that we were previously not able to provide, so that’s been good for myself and also our principals.”
In February, Smith spent about 40% of his time at the high school, spending about 30% each at the middle school and K-6 levels, according to Muller.
Academic updates
Dr. Charlie Trovato, the district’s director of curriculum, said the past month has been busy as he has worked on a math committee, high school improvement committee, and served as a representative for the Lincoln Intermediate Unit (LIU) college board AP roundtable.
The secondary math pathways committee began on Feb. 27 and will address a variety of goals, all in the interest of increasing success in math in grades 6-12.
“The focus of the committee is going to have four different prongs,” Trovato explained. “The first one is to build a shared belief around algebra one programming at CVSD since that transcends multiple buildings. The second is to review and analyze our historical and current data regarding secondary math. The third is to organize and develop various pathways for math to ensure that all of our students have access to a variety of programming. And our fourth is to determine a common criteria for algebra one and advanced math courses, here at CVSD, starting as early as CVIS.”
That committee will hold another spring meeting, then will be paused until fall.
A high school improvement committee also started last month.
“The goal of the committee is to review our current standing as a high school, establish priorities using a variety of data, determine evidence-based strategies to support this work, and develop a workable improvement plan that will address those priorities of the school,” Trovato said. “The work will continue throughout the spring and the summer, with a draft plan that’s slated to be implemented as early as the beginning of the school year, pending board approval.”
Trovato is joined on the committee by Christopher Bowman, principal of New Oxford High School. The board will continue to receive regular updates before it is asked to vote to approve the plan.
Trovato’s final news was that along with Bowman, he represented Conewago Valley at the LIU for the college board AP roundtable.
“We attended at LIU, which brought districts together across LIU footprint to talk about implications for our students regarding AP programming in our district,” Trovato said. “We talked specifically about how AP and dual enrollment work together and not compete as standalone entities. We also had an opportunity to share and receive best practices regarding student placement in AP courses, scheduling supports, and overall philosophical approaches to advanced placement courses.”
Trovato said the meeting also provided a sneak peek at additional AP opportunities.
“We also heard about some new AP course offerings and some exciting pilots taking place across the commonwealth and how we might consider reviewing and adding to our suite of AP offerings here,” Trovato said.
Joshua Schaffer, principal of New Oxford Middle School, said students at his school recently supported the high school’s Mini-THON by holding a stall day.
The stall day allowed students to bring change to class and stall the start of the lessons by up to 20 minutes while the donations were added up, according to Schaffer. The efforts led to the middle school donating $1,097.29 to the fund.
“We gave up 20 minutes to raise $1,000 to fight childhood cancer, so we were really excited to be able to donate that,” Schaffer said.
Middle school gifted students also recently visited CAM Innovation in Hanover and created a video about CAM. The video was submitted to a the south-central Pennsylvania division of a contest, “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?”
Schaffer said members of the public can vote for New Oxford High School directly on the contest website through Thursday.
Elementary school designs and district policy updates
Dr. Sharon Perry, superintendent of the district, updated the board on both the four-year policy review cycle and the progress on the renovations of New Oxford Elementary and Conewago Township Elementary schools.
As part of the work towards perfecting the elementary school designs, Perry said representatives from the district have visited three separate elementary schools. Two of them were designed by Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, the architectural design firm the district is working with for the school upgrades, and were the most inexpensive sites the firm had designed.
Perry assured the board and the community that the district is trying to keep costs low while not sacrificing on quality.
“So what we were looking for and what we heard from our community is, ‘We want to do this. We want to do it right. But we want to do it in the most cost effective way possible,’” Perry said. “So that’s what we’re looking at. We’re not looking at those top shelf Taj Mahal options that we keep hearing over and over and over again is a concern.”
A representative from Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates will be present at the board’s study session on April 1 to provide an update, according to Perry.
The draft Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget will also be presented during the study session.
Perry said creating the budget has been a long process built by the contributions of district employees.
“The teachers, the curriculum leaders, administration working with Mrs. (Lori) Duncan, as well as the business office and as well as the board, you know, I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone because it takes all of us to pull this process together,” Perry said.
Perry said two separate committees are cooperating to update district policies.
“We have an internal review administrative regulations committee and district board policy committee that works together to ensure that we’re able to fully implement the policies that the board approves,” Perry said.
Board action
After hearing the treasurer’s report with a balance of balance of over $37 million presented by board member William Getz, the board voted 8-1 to approve the report. Board member Lindsay Krug voted against approving it. There was no discussion.
Immediately after the vote, the board reviewed finance items recommended for board approval. Getz also provided that brief report. Action items ranged from transaction approvals to approving the 2022-23 district audit. Those items were unanimously approved without discussion.
The board unanimously approved the ‘Ways and Means’ portion of the agenda.
The section included eight separate items including approving a contract with Laurel Life, approving exchange students, appointing a parent to the comprehensive planning steering committee, providing the green light for a list of professional development requests and field trips, and approving a single expulsion.
Personnel matters were passed with an overall vote of 8-1. Presented by board member Meredith Miller, the action items included faculty and staff resignations, approving changes to the listed FFA advisors, and volunteer, hiring, leave and transfer requests.
Krug voted against approving the personnel action items. Getz voted to approve all but one item, an extracurricular contract for the girls’ soccer head coach.
Honors
The board reviewed its monthly, ‘Honors and Recognition’ segment to highlight the academic and athletic achievements of students.
Ryan Carver, named the New Oxford High School Rotary Student of the Month for February, was recognized.
Liam Rosenbach, one of five students nominated as the Winter Sports Athlete of the Week for the Gettysburg Times in February, was also congratulated.
The board also highlighted the college acceptances and scholarships awarded to students to date this school year. As of Monday evening, Conewago Valley students had been awarded a total of $1,056,000 in scholarships, according to the board document tallying the money.
Other business
The spring sports season began last week and competitions will start on Friday, according to Doug Wherley, the district’s athletic director.
About 250 high school students and 163 junior high students participated in various tryouts, according to Wherley.
Sporting events will be held “almost daily” through mid-May, according to Wherley.
“We wish all of our spring sports the best of luck,” Wherley said.
Students from Conewago Township Elementary and New Oxford Elementary read, “Ben’s Dream” to the board and highlighted what they learned from the project. In the story, the main character dreams he visits 10 landmarks around the globe, from the Parthenon to the Eiffel Tower. For the project, the students closely examined each landmark listed in the story to learn more about its history, geography and interesting facts. The students briefly provided the board with information on each landmark mentioned and read a short essay a student wrote about St. Basil’s Cathedral.
During the time for public comment, one individual from Hamilton Township asked those present to consider attending a zoning hearing scheduled for March 28. The hearing will be held at the United Hook & Ladder Co. 33 Station 1 at 21 North Bolton St., New Oxford.
Another asked for clarification about why individuals cannot ask questions following building reports during the meeting. The question echoed that of a school board member earlier in the meeting.
Jeffrey Kindschuh, president of the school board, said board members can access materials ahead of time and ask questions before the meeting while members of the public can utilize the public comment period. Kindschuh said questions are not allowed during the reports in the interest of efficiency.
Perry said she works to research and answer any questions sent her way. She used the example of a concern she had heard about a coach in a recent meeting as an example, saying she met with Wherley for a “significant amount of time” to review the concerns.
The board opted to discuss personnel issues during an executive session held before the open meeting.
A policy subcommittee meeting initially scheduled for Tuesday will be moved to April, according to Kindschuh.
“Reason being, we want the board to have an opportunity, all the board, to review the policies, provide feedback which is then what the subcommittee will review in that meeting on April,” Kindschuh said.
The board will hold a study session at 7 p.m. Monday, April 1 in the district board room. The board will hear updates regarding the elementary school designs as well as the draft 2024-25 budget during that meeting.
The next regular board meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 8, also in the district board room.
Those unable to attend can follow along using the district’s YouTube livestream of the meeting. The recordings are archived for those unable to watch live.
Imari Scarbrough is a freelance journalist.
Imari Scarbrough is a freelance journalist. She was a staff newspaper reporter for five years before becoming a freelancer in 2017. She has written on crime, environmental issues, severe weather events, local and regional government and more.
You can visit her website at ImariJournal.com.