Charleroi school to partner with local business
CHARLEROI – For the second year in a row, Charleroi Area High School students will partner with a local company to use critical thinking, creativity and collaboration to find solutions to a problem it faces.
This school year that company is Ductmate Industries, headquartered in Charleroi, which is the largest producer of heating, air conditioning, and ventilation accessories in North America.
High school juniors and seniors, under the director of teacher Tawnie Wilson, will brainstorm ideas to make the company a zero-waste facility as part of a semester-long class. Charleroi Area School Board received a presentation on the program at Tuesday’s meeting.
Last year, students worked with the local company Model Cleaners on a marketing plan. This year, students will be working toward finding a a disposal solution for the byproduct of the polywaste sealant that is used in sealing the joints of ductwork. The non-hazardous byproduct will not break down in a landfill and it expands if shredded.
Currently, the company disposes of the product at a waste-to-energy facility near Niagara Falls, N.Y., where the product is incinerated and used to produce energy.
Katie Hager, workforce development manager for Ductmate said, “Our company is committed to becoming a zero-waste to landfill facility. We could just throw it away in a landfill, but that is not what we consider to be the right solution.”
“They will be looking at different possibilities, such as altering the chemical reaction to reduce the amount of byproduct and conceptualizing alternative uses for the byproduct. This gives them the opportunity to explore concepts such as chemistry, marketing and finance in evaluating the potential solutions,” she added.
The shipping and incineration of the product is expensive and the company would like to find another use or disposal method and keep it local, added Hager.
“This is a great opportunity for our students to put all of the skills of critical thinking, creativity and collaboration to a hands-on, practical use,” said Superintendent Ed Zelich.
In other news, the board approved a motion to submit a claim in a class action lawsuit against Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. The district will recoup about $6,000, or .3 percent of the settlement of $2.8 million.
Solicitor Todd Pappasergi said that in a class action suit, a party can either join the class and get a percentage of the total settlement or sue individually.
“The district decided to join the class action suit. The district felt that it would be about the same result if sued individually with the legal fees that would be incurred,” said Zelich.
The Albert Gallatin School District filed the class the action lawsuit again PA Cyber School for charging school districts for 4-year-old kindergarten students. Charleroi paid PA Cyber School $22,000 between February 2008 and June 2012 for such expenses.
“Our policy states that to enter kindergarten, students have to be 5 by July 1. This was against our school policy. This affected districts statewide,” said Zelich.