Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published January 18, 2023 5:30 A.M. 

(Riverside, Beaver County, Pa) The Riverside School Board met Tuesday evening for their first meeting of the new year. The board kicked off the meeting by making a motion to ratify the actions and approve the minutes of their December meeting. Board member Alexis Pflugh asked for clarification of what exactly “ratify the actions” entailed, and Board President Shawn Plassmeyer replied that it was a recommendation by the Board solicitor Danielle Guarascio , due to legalities being questioned in regard to incumbent board members being properly re-sworn in. The solicitor added that it is a grey area on whether or not re-elected members are required by law to be re-sworn in.

Actions were taken by the board to have the incumbents take oath in front of a notary as a safety net. Plassmeyer relayed that normally they would swear in all of the members, but for some reason he “can’t answer”, they only swore in Alexis Pflugh this time around. Pflugh would like to see all of the members sworn in at once moving forward, and requests that in the future the whole board should be informed of actions taking place. The solicitor says the ratification will correct any wrongdoing and added “this should never happen again”.

A community member addressed the board about the issue stating that not performing these actions in the public eye goes against the constitution. She provided each board member with a copy of the state constitution courtesy of Senator Elder Vogel and says State Representative Aaron Bernstine has copies of the federal constitution on the way.

Plassmeyer stated that they “wracked their brains” to figure out why things took place the way they did, but they were unable to come up with an answer. Pflugh proceeded to make a motion to have the board members restate their oath in front of the public, in which the board voted down 2 to 5.

Later in the hour-long meeting, Alexis Pflugh motioned to suspend a motion to explore receiving bids for various projects at the school. The district received 10 million dollars in grant funding and Pflugh says with the projects stated, they are on track to spend nearly all of it within the first 6-8 months. Board Secretary Devin Walsh stated the board has to spend it within 5 years.

Pflugh says the board is ignoring divots in their State title winning baseball team’s field, in favor of a new science room and other projects that she claims were not appropriately discussed. She added “without a committee to do a thorough investigation, I guess we’ll never know.” Plassmeyer relayed that the field will be addressed.

Also addressed during the meeting was the lack of student representation on the board. The board does not remember the last time they had a student representative and will explore possibilities.