Board OKs changes with sports

The Struthers Veterans Memorial Committee gave the school board 25,525.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- The city school board approved joining the three-division, 16-team All American Conference, effective July 1, 2008.
Superintendent Sandra DiBacco said the 2008 effective date is necessary because several schools have commitments they can't get out of until that time. She said superintendents are expected to adopt a constitution for the new all-sports conference March 7.
DiBacco said the schools in the All American Conference, which consists of Metro Athletic Conference and Trumbull Athletic (TAC-8) Conference members, plus Beaver Local, include: Red Division (larger schools) -- Howland, Canfield, Poland, Beaver Local and Niles; White Division (midsize schools) -- Cortland Lakeview, Liberty, Salem, Struthers and Hubbard; Blue Division (smaller schools) -- Champion, Girard, Brookfield, Campbell, LaBrae and Newton Falls.
Leftover funds
In other action at its meeting Tuesday, the board accepted 25,525 from the Struthers Veterans Memorial Committee left over from some 74,000 raised to build the memorial located on Struthers High School property.
Eugene Yuhas, chairman of the memorial committee, said at Tuesday's board meeting that "carefully watching our spending" and the generosity and volunteer help from the community allowed the project to be completed for about 41,233. Yuhas thanked the school officials for their cooperation and suggested interest on the 25,525, and any additional money raised through the sale of memorial bricks, be used for the upkeep of the memorial.
In other action, DiBacco informed the board that the cost of repairing water damage at the Middle School, caused when a heater coil froze and broke Feb. 13 when school was canceled because of low temperatures, will be 9,300. She said the damage was confined to three rooms and some equipment but said that if a custodian had not discovered the break during a building check, the damage would have been more extensive.
alcorn@vindy.com