Board awards contract for roof work at Haine

Seneca Valley school board on Monday awarded a contract to C.E. Davis of Ford City to replace most of the roof at Haine Elementary/Middle School in Cranberry.

The company will be paid $476,500 for the work, which will replace 70 percent of the school’s roof, said Robert Cook, the district’s director of buildings, grounds and security. The roof replacement is part of the summer maintenance planned by the district. Hesaid the current roof was put on the building in 2000.

Also on Monday, school board members voted to keep cafeteria prices the same for the next school year: breakfast, $1.75; elementary lunch, $2.25; and secondary lunch, $2.75. Milk will cost 65 cents.

At last week’s meeting, it was announced that the district is planning for every student to have a computing device by November 2018.

“This is an evolution, not an event,” Sean VanScoyoc, district technology director, said about the one-to-one computing initiative. “It evens the playing field for all students.”

Students in kindergarten through fourth grade already have individual devices for daily use, Mr. VanScoyoc said. Kindle e-book readers were put in place for every student in kindergarten through second grade in November, and two-in-one devices that can act as laptops or tablets were purchased in February for all third- and fourth-graders.

The plan calls for all fifththrough eighth-graders to have the two-in-one devices by November of this year and for grades nine through 12 by November 2018, he said.

“We have made sure that it’s not just about the devices and technology, but using them to leverage learning,” superintendent Tracy Vitale said.

Ms. Vitale and Mr. VanScoyoc both noted that the cost of the devices continues to drop.

The district has slowly been using money allotted for technology to buy more mobile devices rather than desktop computers, Ms. Vitale said.

In other business, Cassandra Doggrell was named principal of Haine Middle School, replacing Dan DiDesiderio, who left last month to take a position at Fox Chapel Area School District.

Ms. Doggrell had been assistant principal at Haine and Evans City middle schools since 2014 and previously worked as an elementary autism support teacher at Rowan Elementary School. She will be paid $90,000 annuallyinhernewposition.