Sound of music coming back to school day

Last year, chorus, band and music instruction were classified as afterhours extracurricular activities.

After an outcry by parents last year, the Peters school board decided to reinstate chorus and music classes next year as part of the school day at McMurray Elementary School.

The decision was made at a Monday board meeting after superintendent Jeannine French recommended the changes.

“We’ll be bringing music back to the school day,” she said.

Last year, administrators dropped chorus, band and music instruction as part of the school day after a decrease in assessment scores due to a lack of core classes. Instead, the electives were classified as after-hours extracurricular activities. Parents attended the May board meeting to complain about the move.

Beginning in the new school year, students again will have the option to take the music-related classes because administrators have been able to tweak schedules to make both core classes and the arts available to students, Ms. French said.

The board also accepted the retirements of many longtime teachers and staff, including librarian Myra Oleynik, French teacher Davant Dodson-Rosenberg and second-grade teachers Sandra McWilliams and Linda Sallee,

The $5.6 million renovation of McMurray Elementary is moving forward after the board unanimously approved the following: a contract with Gurtner Construction Co. Inc. of McKees Rocks for $1.83 million in general construction work; Lugaila Mechanical Inc. of Thornburg for $2.63 million in HVAC upgrades; and a $1.16 million contract with Pitt Electric Inc. of Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood for electrical construction work on the project.

The board also approved a contract with WAE Balancing Inc. of Mercer for $61,000 for HVAC inspections at McMurray Elementary and $36,100 in work at the high school. Lugaila Mechanical also won a contract for $213,000 to upgrade HVAC controls at the high school.

The board approved a wireless networking system for McMurray Elementary not to exceed $63,305 from Dagostino Electronics of Hays.

Along with the contracts, the board approved seeking bids for various parts of the McMurray project.

Members also lent their names to two resolutions calling for the overhaul of pension funding and a new funding formula for cyber charter schools.

The district has paid more than $2.9 million over the past eight years for students who attend cyber charter schools. This year, 47 local students attending cyber charter schools will cost the district about $423,000.

Board member Lisa Anderson cited test scores and other data that indicate a poorer performance from cyber charter schools compared to the district.

The resolution urges the state Legislature not to require funding from districts such as Peters, which “demonstrates exemplary academic performance,” Ms. Anderson said.

“Those districts shouldn’t have to pay,” she said.

Regarding pension overhaul, the district, along with others statewide, has been hit by increases in contributions over the past several years. Contributions are expected to jump by nearly 26 percent by July and more than 32 percent by 2019.

For the district, those numbers translate into an $863,137 increase in 2015 and an anticipated increase of $240,433 by 2019. The district’s total contribution in 2019 is estimated to be $5.5 million. This year, it was $4 million.