SHARPSVILLE, PA. School computer consultant is hired

SHARPSVILLE, Pa. -- The Sharpsville Area School Board has decided it will be cheaper to hire a consultant to oversee the district's computer system than to hire a full-time employee to do the job.
The board voted Monday to hire Star Tech Inc. of Hermitage for $42,200 a year.
Dr. Derry Stufft, superintendent, said Sharpsville used to have an employee who ran its computer network but the position is now vacant. Hiring a consultant is less costly, he said.
In other business, the board terminated a lease agreement with the Advanced Charter Enterprise School, a charter school created by Mercer County's 12 public school districts, which began this fall.
Sharpsville had planned to lease 20,000 square feet in its vacant South Pymatuning Elementary building to the charter school for $90,000 a year, but a fire there May 31 damaged the structure, preventing the charter school from moving in.
Stufft said the charter program decided to move into the Mercer County Career Center just north of Mercer instead and the lease arrangement is no longer needed.