BY PAT FARNELLI
Times-Shamrock Correspondent

The Elk Lake School Board voted Monday to approve a resolution opposing the milk regulations contained in the National School Lunch Program which prohibits the sale of milk with a fat content higher than one percent.

Superintendent Ken Cuomon read the resolution aloud during the meeting. The resolution noted a significant increase in discarded milk products in the district since the 2014 mandate and urged legislators to repeal the revisions pertaining to milk in the National School Lunch Program.

School board member Arden Tewksbury has long promoted dairy products in his role as ProAg spokesperson.

“Is there any restriction on sending this resolution to all parts of the United States, and to the news media?” Tewksbury asked.

The most recent royalty payment for Cabot Oil & Gas royalties was $4,041.72, received for the month of June. For comparison, the April payment was for $13,496.75. May’s royalty payment was $6,023.63.

At that meeting, Board President Anne Teel cited a decline in gas royalty income as a difficulty the district had to deal with while preparing the budget for the 2015-16 school year.

Retired Elk Lake staff member Susan Heed recently completed training in special education billing with special education personnel, and Cuomo recommended that the school reimburse her for billing work she completed, at the same pay rate she received before her retirement. The school board approved paying Mrs. Heed a total of $398 in emergency billing compensation.

A full-time first shift maintenance position will be filled with an internal transfer of an employee from either the second or third shift, said Superintendent Ken Cuomo. He requested permission to post a second or third shift full time maintenance position. “Hopefully, we will fill two positions at one time, by the August meeting,” Cuomo said.

The board will not vote on that agenda item until after the job is posted.

In response to a recent audit, the board approved a district policy allowing non-school district resident employees’ children to attend the school with a tuition waiver and covered by school insurance. The district will not provide transportation for these students.

Numerous activity positions were approved by the school board. A list of coaches and other activity advisors whose salaries were frozen, who provided the district with another year of services, will have their 2014-15 school year salaries adjusted to compensate them for the difference, based on what they would have received under their old contracts.

Another list of 49 activity positions for the 2015-16 school year was also approved in accordance with the new teachers contract approved in June.
Architect payments were approved or the months of April, May and June. Cuomo said that the roofing project should be completed by Friday. Hayes Large Architects, LLP of Altoona, is the architect. According to invoices published on Board Docs, the construction plans cost $4,699.50; bidding documents $1,253.20, and administration of the construction process cost $9712.30. The planning and bidding phases are complete. The company has already received $7,409.55 from previous invoices. The board approved payment of the amount due: $1,456.84.

Another project, fixing a paving problem in front of the high school, has not been completed yet. Cuomo said that an area in front of the high school porch is sinking. “I believe it is where an old fuel tank once was,” he said. “It needs to be excavated, refilled and paved. If it isn’t fixed now, then plowing this winter will pull up chunks of pavement.”