By Julianne Besznyak, Correspondent, The Times
EAST MARLBOROUGH — As was the case with the job of Assistant Superintendent, a familiar face will be filling the job of Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Director of Curriculum and Instruction — current Patton Middle School Principal, Tim Hoffman.
The district Board of Education moved Monday night to appoint of Hoffman to replace John Nolen, who was appointed earlier this year as the new Assistant Superintendent — replacing Ken Batchelor, who was named Superintendent in Radnor.
Hoffman’s new position comes with a $155,000 prorated salary for the remainder of the school year and will be effective February 28, 2017. Hoffman will be finishing the rest of the school year in his current position as Patton Middle School Principal.
Hoffman, in his fifth year as principal at Patton, said that he is excited for this new opportunity.
The board also discussed at length a pending bill in the state legislature that would end real estate taxes as a funding source for public education. SB 76 — like similar versions of the bill floated during the last two legislative sessions — would leave all funding to come from the state, a prospect not looked upon favorably by local school districts.
Director Robert Sage read a resolution that he wrote opposing the elimination of school property taxes. Greg Lindner said that he would not sign this resolution as is and indicated that he liked Downingtown Area School District and Tredyffrin/Easttown School District’s versions better. Superintendent Dr. John Sanville also mentioned that there is a boiler plate version also available.
All of these versions will be circulated and further discussion on this issue will take place at next month’s meeting.
Director Thomas Day suggested that the district should be proactive about that this matter and encourage the community to contact their legislators. Jeff Hellrung mentioned that there are published position papers on the matter and suggested that an email could be sent out to the community with one of the papers attached.
Community members could then contact the board with feedback.
Hellrung said that the School Board is reaching out to local legislators to invite them to future school board meetings to answer questions. Eric Roe, State Representative for the Pennsylvania 158th District is scheduled to attend the May 15, 2017 School Board meeting.
When the time came for resident comments, Holly Manzone — a former school board director — of Pocopson Township came forward and expressed her concerns about district administrations alleged failure to solve the bullying issues.
Jean Best of East Marlborough came forward and voiced her concerns about spending. She said that specific details on the costs of programs, including long term costs and metrics, should be made more readily available to taxpayers.
Jerry from East Marlborough had questions about changes being considered to the school start time. He said he thought that there should be more opportunity for public comment on this issue before a decision is made. Assistant Superintendent John Nolan reiterated that the committee will be holding evening meetings around the district, attending PTO meetings and meeting with the transportation department to solicit feedback before a final decision is made. The Communications committee will be looking into the possibility digitally recording the Curriculum & Educational Technology meetings and making them available to the public in the future.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the bill list for January 2017 in the amount of $822,043.34. Also, approved was the Patton Middle School Rooftop HVAC Unit Replacement by Reynolds Energy Services in the amount of $2,378,700 and the Hillendale Elementary School Storage Building done by Lancaster Pole Buildings in the amount of $16,639.
