Center Area and Monaca Merger Update

Merger date could be sooner than first thought

By Michael Pound, Times Staff Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 10:10 PM EDT
CENTER TWP. — When officials from the Center Area and Monaca school districts traveled to Harrisburg earlier this month, they were told that the effective date of a long-discussed merger between the two districts is actually much closer than they believed.

State education officials told Daniel Matsook and Michael Thomas that the merger would take effect upon the approval of the state education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak — an OK that would likely come in September, after the next meeting of the Pennsylvania Board of Education.

At a meeting of the two districts’ merger committees Tuesday night, Matsook, Center’s superintendent, said that announcement gives the two school boards the ability to prepare a joint budget, work on a governance plan and address all the other details of the merger.

And there’s plenty of work to do. Thomas, Monaca’s superintendent, outlined 10 broad tasks that require involvement of board members. Some — like determining how a combined board would be composed — must be done quickly; others — such as preparing a transition plan — would likely continue for the full three years it will take to fully combine the districts.

The others include determining a high school schedule, writing operating procedures for the merged boards, preparing a new policy manual and hiring procedures, standardizing union contracts and addressing the new district’s name, colors and mascot.

“There is other work to be done, but these are the tasks that require immediate attention,” Thomas said. “I would think that governance, staffing and budget are the things that we will spend the most time on in the near future.”