Cameron County School Board Meeting

Follow this link to the Bradford Era


EMPORIUM — At Thursday’s meeting, members of the Cameron County school board heard a presentation from students who recently traveled to Hawaii to perform in Pearl Harbor Day Memorial ceremonies.

Cameron County High School band director Dan Sensenig and a number of directors and staff from across the region escorted a group of students selected from area school districts to perform in the event. Sensenig was asked to form the Pennsylvania Pearl Harbor Honors Band following the successful CCHS Band trip the year prior.

“It was a real honor to be there, especially on the 75th anniversary, to represent our community, our state and our veterans,” said Sensenig.

The students presented a slide show and talked about some of the learning experiences they had while on the islands, including visiting the USS Missouri and performing in front of the memorial, touring the Dole Plantation and visiting a number of communities at the Polynesian Culture Center.

Students representing CCHS at the event were Dalton Ball, Chloe Burgett, Kaitlyn Burgett, Ann Burt, Marissa Doud, Ariel Farren, Sally Holjencin, Lia Inman, Cam Ramsey and Hannah Uber. CCHS Colorguard Advisor Maggie Sensenig also participated as part of the honors band staff.

Congratulations were also extended to four students who qualified for the PMEA District Band Festival. Students who excel at the district festival may be invited to participate in a regional festival, and can later advance to state band. This year, CCHS will be represented by Ariel Farren, Cam Ramsey, Abby Rowan and Mason Shaffer.

Kindergarten registration will be held from Feb. 27 through March 10. Principal Amy Schwab stated that it appears as though the incoming class will be similar in size to those in recent years. Most grades at Woodland Elementary have 40 or 50 students currently. Registration packets are available at the school, and have also been distributed to many early-education facilities within the county.

Superintendent Dr. Keith Wolf stated that he received a call from a concerned citizen about the qualifications of the contractor chosen to perform work at one of the Woodland Elementary School playgrounds. A representative of Losey Contracting produced documents on request that included the contractor’s state and federal identification numbers and insurance documents, paving the way for the work to be completed.

At a meeting held earlier in the day, Cameron County Commissioners approved an Act 13 request from the school that will cover the cost of the contracting bid. Commissioners approved a Marcellus Legacy Fund expenditure in the amount of $7,410 to cover the drainage work. The district will still pay $13,000 to install new mulch at the school as part of the same project.

At next week’s district business meeting, the board expects to vote on the following items: hiring of an assistant softball coach; professional leave requests; nomination of a board member to the Seneca Highlands IU9 Board; adoption of the 2017-18 school calendar; payment of district bills; acceptance of audit reports; and donation of a surplus floor scrubber to the Emporium Volunteer Fire Department.

The board may vote on additional individuals to be added to the substitute lists. Currently, the district is seeking substitute teachers, and recently initiated a pay increase to entice more people to apply for the positions. Two interested individuals had contacted the school, but one was hired to a full-time position elsewhere and the second has not rescheduled an interview that had to be cancelled.

The next meeting of the school board will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 9 in the high school library.

Article by Amanda Jones  Bradford Era Correspondent