J-M to honor former assistant coach
JEFFERSON – Jefferson-Morgan School Board voted Monday to name the girls softball field at the Jefferson-Morgan campus in honor of Chris Dugan, the Rockets’ assistant coach who died from cancer in May.
Informal requests to honor Dugan were made almost immediately after his death by players, parents, fellow coaches, district employees and board members, board President Lisa Mattish said Tuesday.
The requests came, she said, “from people who loved him and from people who didn’t even know him, but who were personally impacted by the strength and unity his battle inspired,” she said.
“He definitely inspired everybody he coached,” Mattish said.
This included not only members of the team, which this year won the school’s first WPIAL softball championship, but the many players he coached during his lifetime. “I’m sure he meant something to all of them,” she said.
Dugan, 45, died of cancer May 15, three days before the Rockets won in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class A playoffs. His daughter, Camryn Dugan, played on the team.
The district intends to honor Dugan during the first home game of the 2015-16 softball season.
“There’s been a lot of thought how to memorialize him and the field,” middle-senior high Principal Joseph Orr said.
“We want something that’s done right and not just done quickly just to do something. Something that is meaningful, is respectful, looks good and stands the test of time,” he said.
One idea would involve erecting a stone or metal pedestal that members of the softball team could touch or embrace before taking the field, he said.
“He (Dugan) was very involved. Unfortunately, it was an extended illness, but he had a profound effect on the team,” Orr said.
In other business, the board approved a change order of $315,840 for the middle-senior high renovation project for the replacement of the windows at the front entrance, atrium and administrative offices.
The windows was not replaced during the last renovation of the school. The middle-senior high was constructed in 1955 and was last renovated about 28 years ago.
The board awarded contracts in May totaling $4.35 million for the renovation project. The work includes the replacement of the roof and the upgrading of the electrical, plumbing and heating and air conditioning systems.
Money for the additional work will come from proceeds of the bonds issued for the project. Money from the bond issue is available because initial bids came in lower the expected.
The board voted to increase lunch prices by 10 cents. Elementary school lunches will now be $2 and middle-senior high lunches $2.10.
The increase is requirement for the district’s continued participation in the federal subsidized lunch program. The federal government earlier had asked districts to bring their regular lunch prices in line with what the federal government pays the districts in free lunch subsidies.
The board voted to hire Hazardous Waste Haulers to dispose of old stored chemicals from the high school chemistry laboratory at a cost of $10,725.15.
The board also hired Pennsylvania Soil and Rock to evaluate the soil under the driveway behind the middle-senior high school and in the area of the auditorium where there has been sinking.