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The South Williamsport School Board approved several staffing positions and policies at its first meeting of the 2024-2025 school year this week.
As many school districts have done in recent months, the board will seek to revamp its cell phone policy, Superintendent Dr. Eric Riggs said, announcing a special meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sept. 25.
"I have students, I have staff, I have administrators, and I have parents. What I've done is gathered information from neighboring districts that have dug into this same discussion of looking to change the cell phone policy within their school districts," Briggs explained.
The board gave approval of the district's involvement in the state Student Teacher Support Program, which Briggs said was born out of a shortage of educators.
"Because of the shortage of teachers, they are offering stipends to student teachers," he said.
After filling out a simple application, the selected student teacher receives a $10,000 stipend with a $2,500 stipend going to the cooperating teacher," Briggs explained.
The only additional requirement is that the selected student must commit to working as a teacher in the state for three years.
"I do want to put a shout out to our teachers, because we take in quite a bit of student teachers from the local universities here, and they're very open to taking on these folks, and I know sometimes it's extra work in their school day," the superintendent said.
"I feel as the small little school district we are, we have a great turnout in terms of teachers wanting to be cooperating teachers," Briggs said.
In staffing issues, the board approved Angela Confair as new Jr./Sr. High School math teacher, with a tentative start date of Nov. 11 at a salary of $73,639; Sheila DuMont and Collen Shaffer as BLaST IU 17 guest teachers; Kimberly Pelt as a general support assistant assigned as lunch monitor at Central Elementary School, effective Sept. 10 for three hours per day at a rate of $15 per hour; Brenda Trimble as certified substitute; classified substitutes Karen Baier for cafeteria and Timothy Herritt and James Karnes for custodial; eight assigned bus drivers and 24 substitute drivers; and 27 individuals to various extracurricular advisory positions at stipends ranging from $230 to $1,700.
The board approved 12 policy first readings as well as the revised 2024-2025 Jr./Sr. High School TSI Non-title school plan; and an out of state trip for the Varsity Wrestling team to attend a wrestling tournament in Elmira, N.Y.
At the close of the meeting, it was announced that Erin Armond had resigned from her position as representative from region two, a term set to expire on Dec. 1, 2025.
Those interested in filling the vacancy must live between the west side of Curtin Street in the borough and Brown Street in Duboistown, and are directed to send a letter of interest and brief resume to board secretary Jamie Mowry, after which the applicant may go through a brief interview process with the board, most often at a public board meeting, before a candidate is approved by majority vote of the board.
The next school board will be held at 6 p.m. on Oct. 22.