Connellsville board approves personnel moves, vendor purchases and policy readings; hires JROTC instructor under DoD agreement

The Connellsville Area School District board approved a series of routine and substantive items at its Sept. 16 meeting, including personnel actions, vendor purchases and policy readings.

Personnel and hires: The board approved numerous leaves of absence (medical, childcare and disability leaves) and ratified multiple resignations and retirements presented during the personnel portion of the agenda. The board approved the conditional hire of Colonel David Davis as the district’s JROTC instructor, effective Aug. 19, 2025, for the 2025–26 school year, “in accordance with the agreement with the Department of Defense” and contingent on required credentialing, physical examination, TB test, drug screening, required clearances and compliance with board policy 303 and Pennsylvania Department of Education regulations. Several long‑term and emergency substitute approvals and additions to substitute lists were also approved, contingent on background checks.

Purchases and contracts: The board authorized a purchase of 40 Lenovo laptops from GovConnect at a cost of $30,700; approved adding applicant tracking and staff onboarding modules to the CSIU financial software at a cost of $2,996.25 for 2025–26; and authorized travel requests for multiple staff members to attend professional conferences (Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials and others), with costs specified in individual motions. The board approved agreements with outside providers in special education, including the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit and Penn Highlands Connersville Regional Center for Autism, and approved service contracts with Hoffman Academy for therapeutic learning environment services at a stated per‑day instructional rate.

Policies: The board took a formal vote to approve the second reading of these policies: 11 (principles of governance and leadership); 222 (tobacco and vaping products); 227 (controlled substances and paraphernalia); and 903 (public comment and board meetings). The board also approved first readings of policies 707 (use of school facilities) and 815.1 (use of generative artificial intelligence in education), moving them forward in the review process.

Voting: The motions on these items were presented as moved and seconded and carried by the board. The minutes reflect routine “Aye”/“Opposed” confirmations for the motions; the transcript records the motions passing with “Motion carries,” but the meeting audio did not include recorded roll‑call tallies in the excerpt.

Implementation notes: Several approvals were explicitly contingent on receipt of required documentation (credentialing, background checks, completed contracts), and some travel or software costs were to be covered by particular grants or budgets (for example, Carl Perkins grant funds for career/technical travel and CMS/DHS technical assistance funding for Medicaid‑related travel). No item was tabled or failed during the meeting excerpt.