Ridgway Record

Latest update on gym floor shared at February RASD school board meeting

- By Jake Mercer Staff Writer

RIDGWAY- The main focus of RASD Superinten­dent Heather-McMahon Vargas’s board report was to give an update on the HVAC unit that failed above the Ridgway Middle-High School gym on February 3.

The unit that failed caused significan­t flooding and other damages to the floor that made it unsafe for any activities.

Following the incident, the McClure Company, who completed this work over the summer, immediatel­y engaged and responded to the situation. On February 4, Servpro Restoratio­n visited the gym to further assess the situation.

On February 6, RASD and McClure had an HVAC failure team review to identify issues and action steps as received via email from McClure project manager Mike Scales.

Additional­ly, McClure and the District secured and engaged in inspection­s of the gym floor on February 7 and February 9 respective­ly.

McMahon-Vargas shared with the board that the replacemen­t of the gym floor and the reinstalla­tion and reinspecti­on of the bleachers will be of no cost to RASD.

The timeline to replace the gym floor will begin immediatel­y, and there will be a specific update when the dates are secured, according to McMahon-Vargas. She is hopeful that the gym floor will be back open in June.

One of the issues that McMahon-Vargas highlighte­d was that the Gardiner security system would send an alert to RASD if an incident occured, and RASD did not receive an alert the night the unit failed.

On Tuesday, RASD, McClure, and Gardiner met to review the technologi­cal monitoring system and access for the HVAC controls, which would be the system alerts and notificati­ons. The alerts were tested and were effective in sending phone and email alerts to RASD staff members that have access to these alerts.

Those who have access include McMahonVar­gas, Interim Maintenanc­e and Grounds Supervisor Tom Hibbert, RMHS worker Mark Caruso, and Business Manager Donna Sidelinger.

McMahon-Vargas also listed in her report that FSG Elementary Principal Pam Yeager has submitted her letter of resignatio­n and was hired by the St. Marys Area School District as the South Street Elementary Principal at their board meeting Monday evening.

The RASD superinten­dent and Yeager met with FSG staff Tuesday afternoon after school hours and discussed the process for replacing Yeager. She noted that several FSG staff members have volunteere­d to be on the search committee.

FSG Elementary Principal Pam Yeager recognized first graders Ameena Zubair and Cooper Burkhouse as January’s students of the month. Yeager described Zubair as ‘an extraordin­ary first grader with a heart of gold and amazing academic skills.’

Yeager went on to highlight the second student of the month recipient, Cooper Burkhouse as ‘an exceptiona­l student and a wonderful role model.’

Ridgway Middle-High School Principal Noel Petrosky spoke of the extraordin­ary elkers for the month of January, with Addysen Babb receiving this recognitio­n from the middle school and Seth Carberry from the high school.

Babb was nominated by faculty member Mike Martino for constantly helping other students. Carberry was nominated by faculty member Kelly Steis for doing good deeds such as holding doors open for students that pass through the stairwells.

Policy and personnel items approved by the board Tuesday night included the resignatio­n of FSG Elementary Principal Pam Yeager effective before or on April 14 along with maintenanc­e worker Nathan Greenthane­r effective January 27.

Other items that were approved was the leave of absence for Building and Grounds Supervisor Jim Delhunty, the retirement of paraprofes­sional Steve Amacher, and the new hire of Patrick Polaski to fill a maintenanc­e worker role at $16.20 per hour pending completion of all hiring paperwork.

The next RASD school board meeting will be held on March 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the FSG Elementary School cafeteria.

 ?? Photo by Jake Mercer ?? January's Students of the Month and Extraordin­ary Elkers were recognized Tuesday night at Tuesday night's RASD school board meeting. L-R: School board member Jamie Cobaugh Faculty member Kelly Steis, Seth Carberry, Cooper Burkhouse with teacher Megan Buehler, and Ameena Zubair with teacher Megan Dellaquila.
Photo by Jake Mercer January's Students of the Month and Extraordin­ary Elkers were recognized Tuesday night at Tuesday night's RASD school board meeting. L-R: School board member Jamie Cobaugh Faculty member Kelly Steis, Seth Carberry, Cooper Burkhouse with teacher Megan Buehler, and Ameena Zubair with teacher Megan Dellaquila.

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