WEATHERSFIELD SCHOOLS District gets grant to replace backboard cranks

An incoming board member asked that busing be restored.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- The Weathersfield School District has received a $13,367 grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to replace old cranks used to raise or lower the high school gym backboards with new mechanical ones.
Dan Kiger, school maintenance supervisor, applied for the safety grant through the bureau.
The old hand cranks are used to raise and lower the backboards for basketball. Chips and dust fly off of them, making it necessary for workers to wear safety glasses, schools Superintendent Rocco Adduci said at Wednesday's board meeting.
Adduci said the new mechanical cranks will improve safety and prevent an on-the-job injury.
Request on busing cuts
Fred McCandless, board member-elect, asked the board to change its mind and not cut busing in January. McCandless suggested the board to cut curriculum instead.
Twenty to 30 residents attended the meeting, and McCandless said he thought the safety of the children was most important.
The school board, however, did not change its mind.
The board acted at a special meeting on Nov. 12 to cut busing for all but kindergartners through eighth-graders who live more than two miles from their school after voters turned down a 9.5-mill, five-year emergency levy to generate $919,360 a year on Nov. 4.
Six bus drivers will be laid off starting Jan. 5.
The board also handled these matters:
UGave first reading to a policy to change the district's open-enrollment policy from allowing only pupils from adjacent districts to attend school here to making the open enrollment statewide.
UAccepted these donations: $815 from DeSalvo Construction Inc., Liberty, to the Joe Lane Sports Complex and $7,500 for the sports complex from Mineral Ridge Athletic Association.