Crawford Central approves new MAMS leaders, travel, clubs

Oct. 25—VERNON TOWNSHIP — A quick Crawford Central School Board voting meeting Monday included approval of new clubs and a variety of school-related trips as well as the appointment of new leadership for Meadville Area Middle School (MAMS).

Board members voted 8-0 to approve Jonathan Frye, previously assistant principal at MAMS, as the school's interim principal. Board member Melissa Burnett was absent from the meeting.

After the meeting, Superintendent Tom Washington said that Frye's interim status would be reevaluated at the end of the school year.

"For the time being, he's appointed as the principal," Washington said, "and we'll see how things go for the remainder of the year. Then the board will make a decision."

The principal position comes with an annual salary of $125,866. Frye also serves as athletic director at the school.

Also appointed by a vote of 8-0 was Stephanie Sandrock, a literacy instruction coach at the school, who will take over as interim assistant principal, filling the vacancy left by Frye's promotion. The assistant principal position comes with a salary of $86,841.

The moves come after the resignation of Scott Lynch, who had been MAMS principal for more than a decade and assistant principal before that. Washington estimated that Lynch had been with the district for more than 20 years.

Lynch "left for personal reasons," Washington said. The resignation became effective Oct. 10, according to the schedule of 15 district resignations approved by the board Monday.

A variety of student groups in the district will be traveling in the upcoming months, though none will go farther than the Cochranton Junior-Senior High marching band. Board members unanimously approved the band's January trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The trip will cost the district just $300 — the cost of two substitutes needed to fill in for two teachers on the trip when the group returns very late on Jan. 23, according to Washington.

Band members will tour four Disney theme parks during the four-day trip that will be funded by the Cochranton Cardinal Music Boosters and the band members themselves.

"For many of our students," band director Carl Miller said in seeking board approval for the trip, "this may be a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity."

Musicians at Meadville Area Senior High (MASH) will be traveling as well, though the trips approved Monday for Pennsylvania Music Educators Association events won't take them out of the state. The MASH Chorus will head to Warren in January; the orchestra will go to Brookville the same month; and the band will go to Erie in February. Combined, travel for the three three-day trips will cost the district $4,900.

Like the Cochranton marching band, the MASH softball team will head south. The team's spring trip in March will take them to Wilmington, North Carolina, which was also the destination for their spring training trip last year, according to coach Renee Ashton's letter seeking approval for the travel.

The trip will be funded by the Meadville Softball Boosters and will include two school study sessions to soften the impact of team members missing three days of classes. The trip will also include several outdoor practices, attendance at a college softball game, and clinics with a former Major League Baseball player.

Both Crawford Central high schools had new clubs approved as well.

At Cochranton, the latest extracurricular opportunity is the Technology Club, which will broaden student opportunities to explore things such as Dell certification, device repair and online meetings with guest speakers, according to the letter seeking approval for the club from Cochranton student Aiden Irwin and faculty adviser Rob Cierniakoski.

At MASH, the newest club involves one of the oldest recreational activities: the Chess Club.

In their letter seeking club approval, MASH students Marco Petrarca and Elena Grace Reese surveyed the board and then played to their own strengths, noting the increasing popularity of chess during the pandemic due to interest in online chess and Netflix's popular series "The Queen's Gambit."

"It is our desire to create a space for learning, practicing, and mastering not only chess, but critical thinking skills," Petrarca and Reese wrote in a gambit of their own. "Our primary goals do not lie in the game itself, but rather in the creativity, the love of learning, and the fostering of new relationships that this fascinating game makes so easy."

Board members offered no comments as they conceded the argument, voting 8-0 to approve the club.

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.