(Story and photos by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Curtis Walsh)

(Chippewa Township, PA)  As I arrived at Blackhawk High School, the parking lot was nearly full as a crowd of approximately 75 individuals worked there way into the school, filling the hallways.  The 3 hour long meeting started off with a long presentation by Superintendent Dr. Robert Postupac on the district plans for returning to school.  He stated that as of the moment the district will not require students to be masked or vaccinated.  The Board said they believe the requirement of vaccines for students would be an unnecessary liability and the benefits don’t outweigh the risks.  The plan is for the school to be open 5 days a week at full capacity with mask wearing being anyone’s choice, both in school and on school transportation.  The superintendent assured that the district will not tolerate any negative behavior to anyone wearing or not wearing masks.  He also noted that the district will continue to not participate in any type of contact tracing, stating that the Dept. of Health threatened to shut down one of their buildings this past year and went as far as trying to make the district perform contact tracing of students families over weekends. One board member stated that he is “a little bit afraid of government right now”  which prompted a big applause from the public.  When it became time for public comments, many took to the podium.  Some examples of statements people made were comments about segregation between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, requests for certain signage regarding masks and social distancing to be taken down, and some going as far as to say the mask wearing was child abuse.  There were also concerns of school security, with parents stating it was too easy to take their child from school, without having to show their uncovered face or any type of identification.  Students of the district voiced their opinions as well with a 9th grader saying that virtual learning caused her grades to plummet and masks gave her headaches, while a 4th grader stated he didn’t have anyone at home to help him with school, and that it was too easy for him to play video games rather than do his school work.  One parent challenged the school board to use only a school issued iPad moving forward, stating that her 14 year old said he “forgot what it feels like to write with a pencil”.  Multiple students are also said to be repeating their grade.  After around 2 and a half hours of public comments, the normal meeting resumed.  The June bills were paid with a general fund budget of $199,894.97, Capitol Projects Fund at $20,897.72, and the cafeteria fund of $89,663.96.  The board approved a 5 year extension for Dr. Robert Postupac after an executive session, and hired Robert Puskas as assistant high school principal. Zach Hayward was hired as athletic director.  The purchase of 10 cafeteria tables was also approved at a cost of $11,306.50.