ELDRED — The Otto-Eldred School board received a letter of resignation from current high school principal, Harley Ramsey at the board meeting Tuesday evening, as he has accepted a position with the St. Marys school district.

Although the board met at the elementary technology center, most attended via video conference. Ramsey’s letter of resignation was read to the board with many mixed emotions. The board approved his resignation to be effective June 30th.

Superintendent Matthew Splain offered this statement on Ramsey’s resignation: “It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Ramsey over the past nine years. He has played an integral role in many of the improvements made during his time at Otto-Eldred. As difficult as it is for a principal in a small, rural school to be an educational leader, he definitely demonstrated that it could be done. He worked tirelessly to see that every student had every opportunity and also to be sure staff was supported appropriately. He held high expectations not only for our staff and students, but also for himself. We wish him the best of luck at St. Marys, they have made a great hire.”

President of the O-E school board Cynthia Murphy offered this comment: “As a board, we want to thank Mr. Ramsey for his professionalism, dedication and leadership. Over the past 9 years, Harley has shown what a commitment to excellence in education looks like. His efforts and leadership have provided opportunities for our students to access education that they may not have had in the past. We wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”

Meanwhile, the board also accepted a resignation from Kelly Bruno who held an Eldred/Ceres Township board seat. Following the acceptance of Bruno’s resignation, the board approved and swore in Lance Baker as her replacement. Baker was a former math teacher at Otto-Eldred who retired in 2017.

During administrative reports, Ramsey updated the board on preparations for the end of school year. Lockers have been emptied, bagged, and labeled. Distribution is currently happening. There is a plan in place to distribute art and shop projects on May 28th and 29th. All this will happen in conjunction with device and textbook return. All teachers have worked through cleaning out their rooms and the maintenance department is currently preparing rooms for the next academic year.

Final graduation ceremony plans are well underway. This year’s graduation ceremony will be held virtual on May 29th at 7 p.m. A virtual version of all awards and scholarship ceremonies are also in developmental stages, and information will soon be available.

Director of Instruction and Curriculum, Melissa Merry, reported that work has begun with their Teacher in the Workplace Grant (TIW) beginning with a book discussion focusing on Project Based Learning. The district’s PAsmart Grant has continued and they are hoping to be able to reschedule the Computer Science & STEM Fair in the 2020-2021 school year.

Merry commented, “Our teachers, students and families should be commended for their efforts during our remote learning; high participation numbers are still being seen in many of our online databases. We have been able to provide a sound educational experience with very little notice and preparation to do so.”

Merry added, “Looking ahead to the 2020-2021 school year, we have begun to develop a platform for standardized delivery of instruction to be utilized throughout the district. Our goal is to create a consistent approach for delivering instruction that would benefit our staff, students and families if the need for remote instruction should arise.”

In new business, Hamlin Bank and Trust was approved at the depositories for the district. Christian Mattie III was approved as the district solicitor at an hourly rate of $140 and a $1,500 retainer. It was noted that this was the first increase in fees for many years. Buffamante Whipple Buttefaro, PC were approved as local auditors for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

Staffing updates included a letter of resignation for retirement from Timothy Decker. Decker will retire with 34 years of service at O-E. This was approved and effective June 5th.

A preliminary 2020-2021 General Fund Operating Budget was reviewed and approved with projected expenditures of $11,919,445, projected revenues of $11,143,554 and a budget gap of $775,891.

Splain gave a possible projected expense of impacts from COVID 19 with brief discussions on using CARES Act funding. These will be discussed more as guidelines and directions from state are given.