On Aug. 14, the Hamburg Area School Board voted 6-0 to hire two Licensed Practical Nurses at a rate of $20 per hour to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of one of the district’s certified school nurses.
Hiring two LPN’s, at the same cost as a certified school nurse, will allow the district to increase coverage without increasing costs, said Hamburg Area Superintendent Richard Mextorf.
An agreement was reached between school directors and the teachers’ union to increase the rate to $20 from $13.
The increase was necessary because LPN’s fall in the category of support staff, which has a rate of $13 which would be unattractive to applicants, according to Mextorf.
The district, which has about 2,200 students, would still have two certified school nurses which would fill the state mandate of having one certified nurse per 1,500 students.
The increase in nursing coverage will allow the district to have a nurse in every building, every day, starting with the first day of school, said Mextorf.
In other news, school board voted 6-0 to increase school lunch prices by .10 to $2.80 for secondary schools and $2.60 for elementary schools for the 2017-18 school year.
The increases are due to increased costs for staffing, food and supplies, according to David Shefter, food services coordinator.
School districts are required to follow mandates from the National School Lunch Program and receive federal subsidies for the amount of free and reduced lunches the district provides.
The level of free and reduced lunches in the district is about 38 percent, said Shefter, who estimated Hamburg Area’s percentage to be middle-high in Berks County.
Breakfast prices for the new school year are $1.80 for secondary schools and $1.70 for elementary schools. About 1,800 meals are produced daily.
In other news, the school board hired Karly Ripko of Fleetwood and Shirley Poon of Wyomissing as special education elementary teachers and Kristin Barata of Lenhartsville as a long-term substitute teacher for kindergarten.
The next meeting of school board is Monday, Aug. 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the James A. Gilmartin Community Room.
