Nov 24, 2014 3 min read

ROGERSVILLE – West Greene School Board hired consultants Thursday to investigate the cause of the collapse of the retaining wall constructed as part of the new elementary center project.

The board approved two motions following an executive session that was held after the board had completed its agenda Thursday night.

The board “accepted” Donald Green of Michael Baker International LLC as an independent consultant to the district; The Hayes Design Group, project architect; and ACA, a subconsultant that designed the wall.

Green will also develop a plan to redesign or reconstruct the wall. The district will not pay for Green’s services, according to the motion.

To review Green’s work, the board hired its own “peer review” consultants, Christopher W. Samios and Kevin Brissette of Pennsylvania Soil and Rock Inc.

The board discussed the wall only briefly during the meeting. When asked by a member of the audience the status of the wall, board member Chad Scott said the district can’t do anything until it determines the cause of the wall’s failure and has plans to repair it.

“We’re in the process of determining what went wrong, how it went wrong and where the responsibility lies,” said board President Regina MacDowell.

The retaining wall, which runs about 760 feet behind the new school and at its highest point reaches 31 feet, collapsed the night of Nov. 13.

District Superintendent Thelma Szarell said Friday the wall has been checked daily and doesn’t appear to have moved any farther.

The wall does not appear to be any danger to the new school. Though the new elementary building is almost completed, the district has been planning not to begin using it for classes until next school year.

In other business, middle-senior high school Principal Scott Sakai gave a report on the recently released state school performance profile. The high school received the lowest academic score of high schools in Greene and Washington counties.

Sakai said administrators and staff in the school “do not take this lightly.” He reviewed the various aspects of the report, noting not only in which categories the district’s scores dropped but also in which areas they improved.

“While we are the lowest in Washington and Greene counties, I don’t feel this is a fair assessment,” he said. “We are showing increases in many categories.”

The board approved two substitute bus managers for Petermann Transportation, one of whom will be stationed at the bus garage when manager Bill Parnham cannot be present because he is driving a bus.

Parnham told the board the company had problems finding drivers because of the need for drivers with commercial driver’s licenses in the natural gas industry. He has been driving as a substitute, which leaves no manager at the garage.

Board members said the district would like a manager at the garage to handle any problems or emergencies and pointed out the managerial position is included in the district’s contract with the busing company.

The board voted to open the head varsity football and assistant varsity football coaching positions and the head varsity girls volleyball and assistant varsity girls volleyball coaching positions.

It was reported the district has begun receiving the new furniture for the elementary center. Jennifer Brady of the Springhill-Freeport Parent Organization told the board her group and the parent organization from the Graysville school are working to form a combined parent organization for the new elementary center.