Mar 22, 2019 3 min read

NEW EAGLE – The Ringgold School Board Wednesday accepted the resignation of a curriculum director who was hired late last month and had not yet started in her new position.

The board accepted the resignation of Dr. Michele Dowell, who is currently serving as the acting superintendent in the Belle Vernon Area School District. Late last month, the BVA board accepted Dowell’s resignation in that position for the move to Ringgold, which was to begin May 3. 

Ringgold school officials did not comment as to why Dowell resigned from the curriculum director position; however, a post on the BVA district’s Facebook page early Thursday noted “The Belle Vernon Area School District will have on its agenda for Monday, March 25, an item to hire Dr. Michele Dowell as superintendent for a five-year term, commencing May 1, 2019. The board participated in a lengthy search process coordinated through the PSBA (Pennsylvania School Board Association). The board considered several candidates but decided that the best course for the district was to avoid another change in leadership. Rather, the district will change her title from acting superintendent to superintendent so Dr. Dowell can continue the course she has undertaken the past year. She has led our district through a time of change and will continue to provide solid leadership while working closely with the board and staff.”

Also during the meeting, several paraprofessionals addressed the board noting Ringgold’s salary scale is not on par with other districts.

“Our paraprofessionals start with a salary of $8.50 an hour, and it takes them 19 years to reach $13 an hour — the highest pay rate for the district’s paraprofessionals,” said Bonnie McKinley, one of 38 paraprofessionals who work at Ringgold School District. “Our highest paraprofessionals make $3,000 less than the lowest paid paraprofessionals elsewhere in the state. Who among you tonight would be willing to do your job for 25 percent or less of your current pay?”

McKinley added that Ringgold’s paraprofessionals must represent themselves because they don’t belong to a union or have a written contract.

“We were told a year ago that administration would make changes to our compensation package,” she said. “It seems that it has not been addressed as we were led to believe.”

Superintendent Megan Marie Van Fossan acknowledged that Ringgold has a compensation issue with its paraprofessionals.

“We met with these staff and we will certainly take their proposal into consideration,” said Van Fossan after the meeting. “As we work through our budget this spring, we hope to develop a compensation package for our paraprofessionals that is fair.”

Van Fossan said Ringgold’s paraprofessionals play several key roles, such as providing learning support for students and assisting teachers in the classroom.

“I’m a former special ed teacher, and I know that paraprofessionals are an extremely important resource,” she said. “These folks work hard every day, and they are dedicated to helping our students succeed. We anticipate making some changes to their compensation plan once we develop our new budget.”

In other business, the board voted to purchase eight new 72-passenger school buses from Blue Bird Bus Sales of Pittsburgh. Ringgold will offset the $714,232 total cost by using eight rebates that were awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources Onroad Diesel Rebate Program. Upon purchase of the new buses, Ringgold can redeem rebates of $40,000 for each bus, for a total savings of $320,000. Ringgold will be required to remove the older buses from its fleet and have them destroyed.