Hughesville High School students in the East Lycoming School District make their way into the school on their first day on Wednesday. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

The East Lycoming School Board voted to move forward with the fall sports schedule at its virtual meeting Tuesday night. The vote means that all fall sports will continue but the district will need to comply with guidelines set by both the state Department of Education and the PIAA.

In the lead up to the vote, the board discussed what some of those regulations entail. For example, there will be no spectators, according to the department of education, which has set a limit of 250 people at sporting events. That 250 can include the athletes, staff, coaches, cheerleaders and band members with the total number from both teams participating not to exceed that capacity. The media would also be included in those permitted to attend.

Those not on the field would be wearing masks and socially distanced to the best of their abilities, according to Christopher Kenyon, the district’s solicitor, who clarified some of the guidance.

“The stadiums or fields would have to be closed to spectators,” Kenyon said. “Spectators should not be congregating even along the outside borders of stadiums or fields, so you should be maintaining that protected zone for any of your sporting events,” he added.

He noted that it would be the responsibility of the district to make sure that the guidelines are followed.

The board said that they are working with the video production group to explore televising as many sporting events as possible so that parents and other members in the community could watch the games.

“We really want to maximize as many games as we can broadcast,” said Michael Pawlik, district superintendent.

“We’ve had a number of radio stations, because media is permitted, that are planning on coming in and broadcasting the games. So basically the color commentary for the radio stations could be patched in to the video production so that if we don’t have our own announcers there will be a play by play broadcast along with the video,” Pawlik explained.

“So, it’s something that we just have to work through as we keep moving forward and being understanding that look, we get it, parents want to see their children. We appreciate that. We can do what we can to make that happen, if not in-person, at least virtually,” he added.

Kenyon told the board that it is important to remember that the guidance does change according to the state of the pandemic.

“The landscape is ever-changing, and what we’re getting today could be different next week. You might be faced with different decisions in the coming weeks,” he said.

Prior to the business portion of the meeting, the administration and building principals detailed what they have been working on to make the reopening of schools as safe and easy as possible for students.

Board vice-president Michael Mamrak, the Lyco-CTC representative on the board, noted that the enrollment at CTC is up this year with 305 students scheduled to attend for five days of instruction.

Under personnel items, the board accepted the resignations of Lorraine Staivisky, secondary English teacher and Misty Jacobs, part-time custodian.

They approved hiring Todd Nagy as a special education teacher at $53,985 per year, Flora Nyman as a substitute bus driver and Lisa Shaw as a biology and general science substitute teacher. All were for the upcoming school year.

Christopher Kish was also approved as an athletic volunteer for the 2020-21 football season.

The next board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 8.