Pittston Area School District continues early work on Primary Center expansion

YATESVILLE — It wasn’t mentioned during the meeting other than a brief statement noting topics covered in an executive session included “gathering information for financing a potential capital project,” but Pittston Area School Board continues to explore options to expand the Primary Center, Superintendent Kevin Booth said after the meeting.

The idea of adding eight classrooms came up a few months ago, but no official action has been taken other than to have Quad 3 Group Inc. look into options and try to estimate a cost. Booth said that process has become tricky with inflation and supply chain problems this year.

The board has also talked about financing the project, either by establishing a line of credit at a bank or floating a bond to borrow money. Booth said initially a rough estimate was $5 million to $8 million which could be handled with a line of credit, but it may have increased enough to make a bond the better deal for the district.

Much of the district’s current bond debt will be settled by 2026-27, Booth said, making it easier to arrange financing that wouldn’t increase the districts annual debt payments. The original plan called for 8 classrooms so fifth grade could be moved from the Middle School, but as the district researched the option adding 10 classrooms and two storage rooms started looking like another viable choice.

Booth said the expansion is necessary because the Primary Center and Middle School have been getting crowded since the Kindergarten Center was closed and grades moved to the other two schools. He expects a firmer proposal may be available in December or January for board consideration.

During the voting session, the board created the position of Human Resources/Benefits Coordinator and appointed Jill Dietrich. Booth said Deitrich had been doing the work but as a union employee, and the board felt it would present less of a potential conflict if she were moved to an “Act 93” position. Act 93 is the state law setting how agreements are made with non-union administrative staff. Booth said the salary was set at $38,000.

The board also:

• Appointed Lori Kozlowski as assistant boys swim coach and Mason Gross as varsity assistant lacrosse coach.

• Accepted the retirement of educational assistant Deborah Vols effective June 2, 2023, director of guidance/academic and career readiness coordinator Coreen Milazzo effective June 30, 2023, and changed the retirement date of Katie Martin from Feb. 1, 2023 to Dec. 2, 2022.

• Accepted the resignation of part-time business office secretary Carina Fortini effective Nov. 10.

• Appointed Dr. Salvatore Infantino as school dentist for the current school year at a cost of 75 cents per examination.

• Appointed Kerri Domoracki as educational assistant at the high school.