Weatherly Area School Director William Knepper was honored for his eight years of service to the district at Wednesday night’s school board meeting.

Weatherly Area Superintendent Daniel Malloy made the presentation to Knepper in place of a member of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association who was supposed to attend the meeting.

“I couldn’t be happier that this honor falls to me,” Malloy said. “School board service has long been a crucial part of our nation’s legacy and its commitment to public education. As the first school boards association in the United States, the PSBA has a rich history of more than 125 years of service. The consummate school directors are described as ethical, principled individuals with a deep desire to serve. They believe in the value of our public schools and local control of public education for the benefit of all students.”

Malloy said the recognition is the PSBA’s way of thanking people who give of their time and talents for the betterment of schools.

“Today, school districts are expected to offer more services, along with world class education, with limited resources,” Malloy continued. “These expectations provide a tremendous challenge for our school directors, unpaid volunteers, who dedicate their time to our community.”

Teacher returns

On another matter, a local teacher is coming home.

The board voted unanimously to appoint Kayla Durham as a full-time elementary school teacher to replace Joshua Dunn, who resigned Aug. 29.

Durham originally began her teaching career in the district before leaving 17 years ago to become a special education teacher for Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21.

She will be teaching fifth-grade science and social studies.

Durham returns to WASD at Step 17, Masters, at a rate of $72,134. After her appointment, Durham thanked the board, and said she was glad to be coming home.

The board also approved the appointment of Cheryl Weichman as a part-time cafeteria aide at 4.75 hours per day, 186 days a year, at a wage of $13 per hour, and Georgianne Wiskoski will be added as a substitute cafeteria aide with the wage of $10 per hour.

Sheral Anderson Bamford is approved as substitute nurse for the 2023-2024 school year.

Gabriella Hernandez will transfer from part time to a full-time paraprofessional position at a rate of $13 per hour with benefits. Kris Baker will fill the part-time paraprofessional position at a rate of $13 per hour.

Teachers Maria Whitley and Krystal Singley were approved for step raises per the teachers’ contract, effective Sept. 21.

Teachers John Mcgee, Shane Moran and Katie Leach are to be instructing homebound students this school year.

New maintenance supervisor

At its caucus meeting on Sept. 6, the board appointed Kenneth Mehlig of Weatherly to be the full-time maintenance supervisor. His salary will be $65,000 plus benefits as per the ACT 93 contract. His first day of work was Sept. 11.

Mehlig will be able to save the district money. A proposed contract for replacement of the high school’s water heater will instead be done in-house, saving the contract cost of $11,850.

Time change

The board voted to change the start time of coming meetings to 6 p.m. from the current 7 p.m. The first 6 p.m. start will be at the October caucus meeting on Oct. 4.

During the caucus meeting, district food service director Jeanine Snyder gave a fine presentation about the food service working to engage elementary school students in curiosity about new foods, and about food variety. Programs included student taste testings. For the kindergarten students, a ‘Nutrition for Life’ program helps make meals fun. Samples of new foods were offered at the board meeting.

Snyder thanked principal Anthony DeSpirito and maintenance team member Jay Koch as the compressor for main freezer for the middle school stopped working over the weekend. Volunteers, including DeSpirito, turned out to move the food quickly to other freezers. The volunteers were also thanked.

The board approved having Plum-Air Inc. replace the freezer compressor for $4,513.

DeSpirito gave his report including about the upcoming homecoming weekend on Sept. 22 and 23.

Seth Isenberg contributed to this report.