Board Says B-W Students Should Listen to President's Speech

The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board voted, 7-2, on Wednesday night in favor of the following item: "RESOLVED, that students of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District will not have the opportunity to 'opt-in or opt-out' of the President’s Annual Back-to-School Speech." (The item did not specify any particular U.S. president.)

Board members Nancy Lee Crowder and Kevin A. Stiffey cast the "no" votes.

Click here to read about the board's discussion over that item on Oct. 5.

Act 93 Educational Administrative Personnel Compensation/Benefit Policy Approved

After voting down a motion on Sept. 14, 5-4, that would have passed an agenda item reaching a benefits agreement between the district and its Act 93 educational administrative personnel, the board reversed course on Wednesday night and approved the agreement by a 6-3 vote.

Board members Sam DiNardo Jr., Diana Kazour, Laurencine Romack, Martin Michael Schmotzer and Crowder voted "no" on Sept. 14, but only Crowder, Stiffey and John B. Schmotzer voted "no" on Wednesday.

Educational administrative personnel include the district's deans of students, psychologists, director of pupil services and guidance supervisor, among others.

The board heavily debated that item on Sept. 14.

Free Admission to Sports Events for Students Rejected

The board rejected, by a vote of 5-3, the following item: "RESOLVED, that the fees for all athletic events be waived for students in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District."

Board members Kevin J. Fischer, Martin Schmotzer and DiNardo cast the "yes" votes. Kazour abstained.

Click here to read about the board's discussion over that item on Oct. 5.

Kenneth Pokorny's "Acting" Tag Removed

Kenneth Pokorny, who had been serving as the B-W School District's acting transportation manager since May, had the "acting" part of his title removed on Wednesday night by the school board's 9-0 vote.

Pokorny will earn an annual salary of $60,000 as the district's transportation manager.

Pokorny vacated the district's position of assistant manager for safety coordination and customer service in order to become its transportation manager, so also on Wednesday, the board approved the hiring of David Tompkins, 9-0, to fill Pokorny's old position.

Tompkins will earn an annual salary of $50,000.

Bagpipe Enrichment Class Added at Baldwin High School

The board voted, 8-1, on Wednesday night in favor of adding an after-school "Bagpipe Enrichment Class" at Baldwin High School.

John Schmotzer voted "no."

Click here to read about the board's discussion over that item on Oct. 5.

Public Participation at Board Meetings

Due to a contradiction in school district policies in regard to whom may speak at school board meetings, the board revealed a policy revision on Wednesday night that would eliminate that contradiction.

The revised policy would void the following sentence: "The Board requires that public participants be residents or taxpayers of this district or anyone representing a group in the community or school district, any representative of a firm eligible to bid on materials or services solicited by the Board, any district employee, or any district student."

And, after this sentence, " ... The Board shall provide an opportunity at each open meeting of the Board for residents and taxpayers to comment on matters of concern, official action or deliberation before the Board prior to official action by the Board," it would add this sentence, "Other persons wishing to speak at a public meeting may request permission to do so."

The board will vote on whether or not to add this revision to the district policy at a later time.

School Board Members' Contact Info Will Be à la Carte

Before B-W School Board members voted on Wednesday night on whether or not to reveal their contact information to the general public via the school district's website, district solicitor Ed Lawrence informed the board that, no matter what the outcomes of the three votes were (one each for email address, phone number and home mailing address), individual board members could still choose not to reveal their contact information on the district website.

The board voted on the items, anyway, except for John Schmotzer, who abstained from all three votes since he believed them to be pointless.

The email address item passed, 5-3, despite DiNardo, Fischer and Kazour voting "no." The phone number and home address items both failed, 4-4, with Crowder, Romack, Stiffey and board President George L. Pry voting "no" on both of those.

As previously mentioned, board members will be legally allowed to excuse themselves from the email address practice anyway.

Click here to read about the board's discussion over those items on Oct. 5.