(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Following a month of not having meetings (due to the Easter holiday), the New Brighton Area School Board met on Monday evening to begin putting pieces together for the 2023-24 school year.

Thirty staff members for summer school at New Brighton were approved unanimously approved by the board, based on the enrollment needs for the summer classes. Of those thirty, twelve were hired for high school classes, five for the middle school, and seven for the elementary school. The staff also consists of two special education teachers and four instructional assistants.

Additionally, the board approved seven new coaching hires in the athletic department, including three varsity head coaches: Lance Frederick (golf), Wes Remley (volleyball), and Michael Campbell (cross country). Also approved were one-year contract renewals to lease classroom space for the Head Start and Tiny Tots programs, a five-year Affiliation Agreement for student teaching between New Brighton and Duquesne University, and adoption of a budget for the Beaver County Career & Technology Center in the amount of $6,915,699.00.

The biggest move of the evening, however, came when the board authorized Superintendent Dr. Joseph Guarino to hire a School Police Officer (SPO) in consultation with school board president John Ludwig. Dr. Guarino said that the move had become necessary due to issues finding help through the New Brighton Police Department.

“We want to keep that through the borough,” Guarino said, “but they’ve been posting off and on since January that they’ve had zero candidates. So we’re at the point that we had to try make a shift. The Borough knows we’re doing it; they know that they still have an SRO, we have an SPO. They know that we posted both, and they’re supportive of us moving in that direction if we need to.”

The next New Brighton School Board meeting is scheduled for May 8 at 7:30 PM.