Wellsville: School employees help others

Board of Education hears praise for transportation superintendent Dave Saunders COVID-19 response and accomplishment.

WELLSVILLE - At Monday night’s board of education Zoom meeting School Business Executive Emily Peavey told the board that transportation officer Dave Saunders had completed certification requirements. Saunders has been employed by the district for 20 years and has spent the last 20 years as the head of the department.

Peavey also noted Saunders’ positive response to COVID-19. She commended him for helping with contact tracing. She also said that Saunders has helped his employees by offering and sometimes purchasing food for those isolating due to COVID-19.

“I’m humbled to know this man,” she said.

School Superintendent David Foster, conducting the meeting, told the board that school administrators and staff had received a thank you from three local nursing homes- Wellsville Manor, Manor Home and Highland which benefitted from a “dress down day” at the school. Each of the three facilities received $150 which was utilized to provide snacks and pizza and “stuff like that” for the staff and administrators he said.

Foster also informed the board that long-time elementary school AIS Math Teacher Carol Tompkins will be retiring and that Nate Kewley will be moving into the assistant principal position.

Peavey recommended that the district continue its association with Auctions International Inc., a business that specializes in auctioning school equipment.

“We do get a pretty good result with them. We got $5,000 more for a bus than we would have gotten by using them,” she said.

In addition to approving a new safety plan, the board also approved the members of the district’s new Emergency Response Team – Peavey, Chad Green, Erica Afftuck, Bryan Gamache and Dalton Ketchner.

The next meeting of the board will take place on Jan. 4. If the meeting is conducted on Zoom, members of the public who wish to attend, should contact the school superintendent at 596-2170 to obtain a link.