Punxsy school board accepts co-principal’s resignation

PUNXSUTAWNEY — The Punxsutawney Area School Board officially accepted the resignation of co-principal Paul Hetrick at Tuesday’s meeting.

Matt Kengersky, Punxsutawney Area School Board president, presented the resignation, which was accepted unanimously, 9-0.

Kengersky said the hearing scheduled for Feb. 13 is canceled.

The school board also took the following actions on personnel matters:

• Resignations: Madison Hall, SEIA, effective Jan. 27; Abigail Steffey, teacher, Title I Reading, requested to hold for 60 days.

• Retirement: Brad Constantino, teacher, effective the last days of 20222023 school year.

• Hirings: Cabyn Grose, Angela O’Dell-Goetz, cafeteria, $9.55 an hour; Kelli Richardson, additional staff for after-school tutoring program; Jeff Winfield and Pat Renwick, Future First Responders Club advisors.

In other business:

• K-12 Guidance Plan: Dr. Curt Vasas, assistant to the superintendent, said they had a meeting last week, which he thought was very productive. He said all the buildings did a great job in putting that together. It’s in conjunction with the comprehensive plan, which was submitted last year at this time. The guidance plan is submitted one year after that.

“It goes through the review process; if they see anything that needs changed, they send it back to us,” Vasas said.

Vasas also gave an update on ARP ESSER spending, saying that Sept. 30, 2024, is the cutoff to spend that money.

“Even with the additional cost of the air conditioning at PAES, we still have some money allocated towards construction or capital improvements,” he said. “I think the additional money could moved

into a capital improvements fund, based on how we’re spending out the rest of it.”

He said when they have the budget meeting, they can have a further discussion on that because there will be a time limit on that money.

• Superintendent’s report: Dr. Thomas Lesniewski said that the district wants to have the Monday after Easter off, and the last week of school will be the last week in May

• Athletics: The school board approved the resignation of Lexus Dadson, junior high volunteer volleyball coach. It also approved a budget transfer of $2,000 to cover football helmet reconditioning.

• Financial: Susan Robertson, business manager, asked to pick a date for the budget work session. The chosen date was Thursday, March 9, at 6 p.m.

The next board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 2 at the administrative building.