Board approves work for emergency measures, accepts dugouts at West
By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times
The Downingtown Middle School Future Cities team receives recognition from the school board.
DOWNINGTOWN – The school board approved $591,550 in upgrades to generators at various schools at Wednesday night’s meeting.
The work, which will take place at Bradford Heights, Lionville, and Shamona Creek Elementary Schools, will include providing emergency power to PA systems, ATC panels, Aiphone Door Master Controllers, and front door intercom systems.
Also regarding work to be done, the district will accept the construction of two dugouts at West’s softball field. The dugouts are being donated by “Strikeouts for Katie”, a fundraising softball tournament held in memory of Katie Castaldi. The district will incur no costs for the dugouts.
To help further improve the district, the board approved the purchase of 20 Dell Latitude 3340 Laptops at a total cost of $17,665.80. District Superintendent Dr. Larry Mussoline said that the laptops come at the lowest available price for an “enterprise system.” He also said that the laptops will be used as a trial and compared to the previously purchased iPads to influence future technology decisions in the district.
In other news, the district will renew an agreement with Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. for employee benefits consultation. The agreement will cost $113,800.
In order to offset district expenditures, the board approved multiple revenue sources on Wednesday night. The lease of the Weaver property will be extended another year at $18,500.
East’s Victoria Pan receives The Gold Key award for her poem “Life is a School Day”.
The district will participate in the Demand Response Program again in 2015. The program generated $50,331.30 for DASD in 2014.
District officials also announced that checks from Columbia Gas Transmission have been received at a total of just over $512,000. The checks are to compensate for easements in Columbia’s pipeline project.
On the student body front, the board approved the creation of three new clubs. STEM will see the creation of a Woodworking Society that will use projects to teach students skills. The club will be funded through the selling of works produced. The Downingtown East Gay/Straight Alliance aims to educate the school community about LGBT issues. And a Downingtown Rugby Club will receive a trial run through the 2015-16 school year.
During the superintendent’s report, the district recognized the accomplishments of an individual student as well as a couple of teams of students.
East sophomore Victoria Pan won top prize in the Philadelphia Writing Project’s annual competition for her poem “Life is a School Day”. Pan beat out over 680 other submissions in the contest judged by teachers, writers, and literary professionals.
Lionville Middle School’s Future Cities team placed second in the 2015 competition.
After receiving her recognition, Pan thanked her English teacher.
“She’s always there for me, not just in academics,” said Pan.
Students on the Lionville and Downingtown Middle School Future Cities teams also earned recognition. Out of 50 Philadelphia area middle schools, Lionville placed second in the competition, and Downingtown took third in 2015’s Future Cities Compeition.
Lionville Principal Jonathan Ross said that the district has become a “perennial powerhouse” in the competition with one of the schools making the finals every year that the district has participated. Ross praised the students involved for sacrificing lunches and days off to work on competition material.
