MAHANOY CITY - The Mahanoy Area School District will be hosting swimmers from two neighboring districts that no longer have or didn't have their own pool facilities.
The Mahanoy Area school board approved the agenda item as part of the monthly report of district Superintendent Joie L. Green at the June 28 meeting.
The cooperative agreements for the swimming pool use will be with Shenandoah Valley and North Schuylkill school districts for the 2012-13 year.
Due to the need for repairs and upgrades on the swimming pool and the lack of funds to make the improvements, North Schuylkill will close its swimming pool in the next school year. The school district has hopes that it could reopen in a future year after a proposed major renovation project of the almost four-decade-old high school building.
In light of the pool closing, North Schuylkill sought a co-op agreement with Mahanoy Area to allow students interested in continuing their swimming endeavors to do so. Shenandoah Valley does not have a swimming pool and has co-opted with North Schuylkill, both will use Mahanoy Area's natatorium.
During its own budget planning process, Mahanoy Area has also considered closing its pool due to budgetary restraints, but the administration and school board were able to keep the facility operating into the new school year.
Green said after the meeting the proposal was to have the co-op agreement with North Schuylkill, but Shenandoah Valley was added when additional information was received.
"I had to have Shenandoah approved as well as North Schuylkill because our athletic director explained to me that there are Shenandoah Valley students who already swim with North Schuylkill and we wanted to also include them," said Green. "So anybody who already swims with North Schuylkill can come here to swim."
Another co-op agreement was approved for students from Trinity Academy in Shenandoah for the wrestling program.
"There are two students in either seventh or eighth grade - junior high students - who want to come and wrestle with us," said Green. "So, Trinity asked us and we agreed."
The three co-op agreements were approved pending approval of the contract language by district solicitor John Dean.
In other business, the next school board meeting has been moved up from July 26 to July 17 at 6 p.m. in the Large Group Instruction room.
The school board also approved the monthly meeting schedule for the year. The board meets on the fourth Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. in the LGI room. In addition to July, exceptions are Dec. 6, which is for board reorganization, Nov. 19 moved one week early due to Thanksgiving Day and Dec. 20 due to Christmas.
The board also approved the opening of Internet accounts with online auction giant eBay and PayPal to auction technical education equipment/supplies and any other supplies within the district deemed appropriate by the administration.
