Jim Thorpe seniors will graduate on time

More than 50 high school seniors, their parents and teachers from the Jim Thorpe Area School District descended on the board's normal monthly meeting on Monday evening to express their dissatisfaction with a plan to change the Commencement date due to more than the anticipated number of snow days. While the board had yet to make a final decision on the matter, moving the date had been discussed at a previous meeting.

The state of Pennsylvania requires that all students attend a certain number of days during the school year. The local district is not reimbursed by the state for students that do not attend school, making it important to the board that all seniors attend the required number of days. There was some concern that if Commencement occurred before the end of school, some seniors might not return to class to complete the year and could forfeit their diplomas on a technicality.

The conference room at the district's administration building was filled to overflowing at the beginning of the meeting. Instead of following the agenda, board president Dennis McGinley turned control of the meeting over to district superintendent Barbara Conway.

"Hopefully, with this announcement half of our visitors will leave," Conway began. "We are staying with our calendar as approved by the board, so graduation will be on June 4. Thank you very much. If that's what you're here for and you'd like to get out, you may."

The crowd applauded and most headed home for the evening.

Many other visitors did not leave the meeting however. A number of concerns were addressed by residents during the initial portion of the board's meeting, including the condition and plans for the high school football field, the status of the school's new dress code and state of the district's website.

A number of residents were concerned over rumors that the district had plans to play its home games at another school, a rumor that Conway denied.

Previously, Times News reported that a local resident and parent to district students Joe Jaskott had agreed to provide plans for the repair of the field. Those tests and plans were completed, but the school can't take action on the plans until they are certified by an engineering firm acceptable to the state department of education. E&I Associates, the district's engineering firm, has agreed to certify the plans for about $250,000.

"We have to go through Pennsylvania Department of Education, Land Development, various engineers and others," board member Richard Karper told residents. "The cost to fix it now is up to $300,000."

Karper said that the money to repair the field is in next year's budget, but that budget won't be finalized and approved until the end of May, which could allow the district to begin work on the field in time to complete it by the fall football season.

One resident asked about the board's progress on the new dress code. Some parents who were following the issue had hoped that the district would release the new code by March so that they would have time to buy clothing for next season at end of season sales this year. Conway said that the code would be on the agenda for the next board meeting.

Finally, a resident new to the district complained that he had difficulty finding the district's website and once he found it was disappointed to find a lack of financial information. Both Conway and board member Gerald Strubinger said that the website was being improved and that additional financial information would be provided.

"If you don't see if by next month, come back to the meeting," Strubinger said. "We want to get this done."