Austintown school district in need of athletic director

The board will study what to do with some of its buildings.

AUSTINTOWN — The school district is looking for a new athletic director as Joe Nohra moves on to become an assistant principal at Fitch High School.

The school board voted at its Thursday meeting to approve a two-year contract for Nohra at a salary of $68,457.

The board is continuing its search to fill his old position after a candidate decided he didn’t want it, said Superintendent Doug Heuer.

Depending on a candidate’s years of administrative experience, the position will pay $62,380 to $68,450, Heuer said.

Also at its meeting, the board voted to hire Vincent Colaluca, director of curriculum and instruction, as a regular employee of the district.

The district had used Colaluca’s services, beginning last year, through the Mahoning County Educational Services Center.

Colaluca’s two-year contract pays a salary of $82,400 a year. It had cost $4,800 more to employ him through the educational services center, but the district could use funding through grants to pay for part of his salary. Heuer said that even though the district will no longer be able to do that, hiring him outright ensures he’ll be available for Austintown and no other districts.

Money for study

The board also voted to spend $10,000 on a study of how to maintain, improve and use the district’s five elementary schools and Frank Ohl Intermediate school. R.G. Carbone Construction Management, which also worked on the new Austintown Middle School on Raccoon Road, will do the study.

The study will look at the costs of maintaining buildings, improving them or possibly even closing one down, the superintendent said.

If the study results in any work that R.G. Carbone is eventually involved in, the company will roll the cost of the study into that work, Heuer added.