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Montoursville school board’s budget approved, taxes going up

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Montoursville School Board Member Ron Snell questions the need for small classes and the lack of budget cuts before the school boards vote to verify their 2018,2019 budget Wednesday night.

Montoursville Area School Board Wednesday night brought to conclusion a pair of issues that have resulted in heated discussions in recent months.

Shortly after school directors approved a $29 million spending plan that includes a 0.55-mill real estate tax hike, they voted in favor of what wording to place on the plaque to commemorate the high school building project.

By raising the tax millage from 14.85 to 15.40, the board agreed to exceed the Act 1 index.

The vote to approve the budget was 7-1.

Voting yes were William Ruffing, Jennifer Marriott, Dottie Mathers, Scott Konkle, Susan Beery, Robert Logue, and Daniel Albert. Ron Snell voted no.

Dave Shimmel was absent.

Snell said he had problems with a budget that included spending for Advanced Placement classes that include very few students. He said he also was against hiring a science teacher.

“That’s not common sense to me,” he said. “With this budget there were no sacrifices made.”

Superintendent Christina Bason said due to a retirement, the teacher hiring would not add to the overall teaching staff.

“We aren’t adding a position,” she said.

But Snell also wanted to know what type of long-term planning went into the budget.

Beery, a member of the budget committee, said with a majority of the spending plan tied to mandates, there is little room for spending cuts.

Ruffing told Snell the district has seen numerous savings in the past couple of years.

He noted the hundreds of thousands dollars the district lost for construction delays to the high school building project as well as legal fees over the issue.

Snell fired back by saying the district could have saved $14 million had the board decided to merely renovate the high school.

The board agreed on a motion made by Ruffing to include the names of past and present district administrators on the high school plaque, along with the seven board members who approved the building project, as well as the prime building contractors, the architectural firm of Rohrbaugh, Crabtree & Associates, buildings and grounds supervisors and project manager Dick Castner.

Logue said he agreed with much of the wording, but said he couldn’t go along with including the names of former Superintendent Timothy Bowers and Business Manager Robert Saul, both of whom resigned from the district well before the project was completed.

He said he agreed that Junior High/High School Principal Dan Taormina’s name should be prominently displayed on the plaque.

“Let’s look at the people who did the hard work,” Snell said. “It wasn’t board members, solicitors or superintendents.”

Snell said the name of Superintendent Christina Bason should certainly be placed on the plaque, however. He noted that Bason, along with Business Manager Brandy Smith, joined the district during the high school building controversy and “didn’t jump ship” like their predecessors.

He noted that the four people present at the board meeting — Bason, Smith, Taormina and Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Joseph Gnoffo — did the “hard work.”

Ruffing argued that Bowers and Saul demonstrated vision and initiative in helping make the project happen.

Snell disagreed.

“When times got tough, they stuck their tails between their legs and ran,” he said.

The vote in favor of the plaque wording proposed by Ruffing was 5-3.

Voting yes were Ruffing, Konkle, Marriott, Mathers, and Albert. Voting no were Snell, Logue and Beery.

In a personnel matter, the board voted to hire Matt Yonkin as head varsity wrestling coach at a stipend of $4,960. He replaces Jamie Yonkin who resigned earlier this year.

The board went ahead and hired Jamie Yonkin as a volunteer wrestling coach.

School directors approved Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. to provide insurance coverage at a cost of $83,522 and Bollinger Specialty Group for student accident insurance coverage for $20,744.

During the public comment period, Michael Krall told the board he was disturbed by the recent behavior of Montoursville head varsity baseball coach Jeremy Eck.

Krall, a former Montoursville student, said Eck had to be restrained by his players from fighting with an umpire.

Ruffing, who noted he was at the playoff game last week between Montoursville and Loyalsock, said it didn’t appear to him that Eck wanted to fight anyone.

However, he said Eck is very passionate about his coaching responsibilities.

He noted also that the umpires did a very poor job, making bad calls against both teams.

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