The Schuylkill Haven Area School Board on Wednesday approved a 2023-24 school calendar with a start date of Aug. 23.
“We are going to start the same week as we did this past school year,” said Dr. Shawn Fitzpatrick, superintendent.
Fitzpatrick said the first day of school is scheduled to align with the start of the football season, with the initial game planned for Aug. 25.
“Our band, our cheerleaders, our football players, everybody’s here at a football game that Friday night and it just doesn’t seem right if we don’t have school,” Fitzpatrick said.
The calendar will also allow for five flex days — when students attend school virtually — if school closures exceed the three scheduled snow days.
Additional school closures beyond the allotted flex and snow days will require snow makeup days.
Also at the meeting Wednesday, board members addressed the school’s fundraising rules following a fundraiser by the high school football team that officials said violated school policy.
Board member Crystal McGarry said the team held a fundraiser on Jan. 8 after the football season ended.
“They shouldn’t have had that fundraiser,” said Ty Wartman, high school principal. “You can only fundraise during your season and the summer.”
He said that rule applies to all sports so each team has a fair chance to raise the funds it needs.
Wartman said he thought the football team’s fundraiser happened because the team was granted extra time during the end of the COVID pandemic to fundraise for an annual team trip to Florida in August 2022.
The trip was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
Wartman said he thought those behind the fundraiser weren’t intentionally breaking any rules but likely assumed they also were granted more time to fundraise this year.
In other business, the school board:
• Approved a resolution to keep any potential tax increase below the state maximum of 5.8%.
Business manager Kimberly Umphrey noted the resolution does not mean the board is committed to a tax increase this year.
• Noted that the middle school will hold its first family movie weekend Jan. 21 and 22.
The theater in the middle school auditorium will show one movie per day. The first weekend’s movies are “Lyle, Lyle Crocodile and Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
Tickets are $5, and proceeds will benefit student clubs and programs.
Saturday movies start at 7 p.m., and Sunday movies begin at 3 p.m.
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment