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JERSEY SHORE -- Students at the Jersey Shore Area School District may soon be playing bocce following a presentation at the week's school board meeting outlining the specifics of what that could look like for the district.
Life Skills teacher Stephanie Machmer told the board that she had been approached about the possibility of bringing bocce to the district about a year ago and had since visited a district to watch a match.
"The more we researched, the more I found out that it's really at a lot of places and we're kind of behind the times on unified sports," Machmer said.
Special Olympics PA Interscholastic Unified Sports (IUS) are sports that include both special education and regular education students.
According to information provided for the board from Special Olympics PA, the two groups of students train and compete as equal teammates on teams that are regarded like every other interscholastic sports team at the high school level.
There are three components to the program. The first is hosting a unified bocce team which consists of a minimum of six athletes and a maximum of eight. The district would then have to host one event and travel during the season to a minimum of four.
The district would also have to start a club which would also be a unified club.
Special Olympics would provide everything for the first two years to get started, including equipment, technical support and $1,000 towards a coach's stipend. They also provide all the uniforms, state championship opportunities and training and resource guides. The district just has to agree to host one regular season competition and provide transportation to matches.
During the third year of the program, Special Olympics asks the district to begin fundraising to start matching funds that they give, but if that is not sufficient, they would continue to provide funding.
More detailed information about bocce programs was attached to the meeting's agenda online.
The board will vote on bringing bocce to the district at the Oct. 23 board meeting.
In other business, the board approved the following personnel items: Amy Pecchia, 12-month accounts payable secretary, $39,259 annually; Jared Kowalchick, volunteer girls' basketball coach; Tom Butzler, volunteer lifeguard; Gerald Ulsamer, volunteer softball coach; and Harrison Young, CTE teacher as mentor for Izak Turner, $510 stipend.
The board accepted a letter of resignation from Abigail Packer, high school guidance secretary.
The board also approved coaches for the winter sports. They are listed as follows with their stipends: boys' varsity basketball, Tyree Kirkpatrick, head varsity, $7,277; Kalob Thomas, first assistant, $3,677; Randy Smith and Steve Lehman, assistant JV coaches, $3,064 each; girls' varsity basketball, Mike Schall, head varsity, $7,661; Avery Hess, first assistant, $3,907; Josh Smith, head Junior High, $4,002; Steve Lehman, assistant JV coach, $3,064; wrestling, David Herman head varsity, $7,661; Ty Kanouff, head junior, $4,213; Aaron Hager, first assistant, $4,597; Collin Glorioso, assistant varsity, $3,881; Logan Huling, assistant Junior High, $2,757; cheerleading, Laura Eck, head varsity, $4,576 and assistant junior high, $2,059; Nicolette Russell, assistant varsity, $2,746 and head junior high, $2,517; and swimming, Kelly Butzler, head swim coach, $4,704.
The board approved the following miscellaneous items: an agreement of affiliation between the district and Western Governors University regarding student teaching placement, observations and evaluations; an amended renewal of the district's Pre-K Counts partnership agreement with All Things Bright and Beautiful Day Care Center for the current school year; a Keep Safe Transportation Services agreement for the 2023-2024 school year; a five-year School Nurse Practicum Affiliation agreement with Slippery Rock University; and an ESS Northeast LLC (Source 4 Teachers) agreement for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years.
The next board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at the district administration's board room, 175 A&P Drive.