Wyoming Area board talks about turf, comp time

EXETER — At its Tuesday night work meeting, the Wyoming Area School Board discussed use of the school’s turf because of a request by the West Pittston Rams to use the field for its games.

Board member Carl Yorina said that, based on his training in turf maintenance, as few as 15 minutes constituted “use” of a grass turf field and that anything over 50 uses in a season would cause irreparable damage to the field.

He complimented the Wyoming Area field saying, “That field is gorgeous. It’s the nicest in the area.”

Yorina asked district athletic director, Joe Pizano, if the district was using the field more than 50 times a season. Pizano said it was.

Board President John Bolin noted some of the requests for travel to competitions and events included requests for compensatory time by a teacher. He had not remembered seeing this before, he said.

Superintendent Raymond Bernardi said teachers were entitled, by contract, to comp time if they worked past the regular school day. Some teachers requested comp time and some did not, he added.

The board discussed the requests and how they were administered. Board member Frank Casarella said he would like to know how the district’s contract read on the subject.

During resident remarks, union president Melissa Dolman read to the board the section of the contract on compensatory time. According to the contract, teachers receive compensatory time if they work longer than the school day if there is a mutual agreement between them and the superintendent.

A representative from the auditing firm Bonita and Rainey gave a brief presentation about the company’s audit of the school district’s fiscal year ending in 2012.

Business Manager Tom Melone said he was pleased with the report, noting the district had received the highest rating.