The Weatherly Area School Board Board members discussed the tax abatement likely to be asked for the developers of the empty Schwab School.

The company may ask for a LERTA (stepped tax abatement — 0% in year 1, 10% in year two, through ten years).

No request has been made. It was agreed to have business manager Edward Rarick calculate what the taxes would be on a building with an estimated assessment of $2 million.

The board appointed Rarick to be school board secretary and made other moves this month in preparation for the school year.

Nicole Dunnigan was hired as a full-time elementary teacher (salary of $52,607 plus benefits).

Sherrianne Burlett, Joeline Hunsinger and Tonya Kephart were hired as part-time paraprofessionals at $13.75 per hour, 5.75 hours per day, 186 days per year was also unanimous.

The board went into executive session at the request of member Ty Harris ahead of a vote to approve Helene Baur as full-time 12-month secretary at $14.50 per hour plus benefits. The vote was 7-1, with Harris opposed.

Handbooks for this school year were approved as follows: Pre-K, Elementary School, Middle School, High School Students, Support Staff, Staff, WAVE Parents and athletics.

There are six substitute teachers on the 2024-2025 list as of now. Administrators are working to bring back to school some of the students who chose to attend charter schools last year.

School lunch prices will be the same as last year’s, though some a la carte items will increase.

Harris suggested having a first aid training course available to volunteer weight room supervisors.

Cameras on school buses were discussed. All are working as of today. Route bus cameras were bought in 2018, but cameras in spare buses are 12 to 15 years old. It was suggested to install cameras in the vans.

Also mentioned was the closure of River Road. Rohrer Bus will use a van to go in to the south section to get students due to the tight turnaround.

Principal Anthony DeSpirito thanked board members for approving the handbooks. He noted that schedules should be ready for students by the 13th. Enrollment is up 42 students, with 30 between Kindergarten and 5th grade.

He noted that the numbers are getting close on needing a second ESL (English as a second language) teacher, or at least a paraprofessional. Tutoring by college students was suggested. He noted that languages are primarily Spanish, but also Hindi and Portuguese.

Thanks were offered to Ken Mehlig and his custodial and cleaning staff. The schools are clean and ready for early sports, and for freshman orientation on Tuesday.

Mehlig and his team finished the parking lot drain, did upgrades of faucets in the kitchen and installed a new motor in the dishwasher, added Freon to the air conditioning units, and fixed the zero-turn mower. He expects the area where the old tennis and outdoor basketball courts were to be cleaned up prior to school’s start.