BVA, Monessen officials discuss meeting

By EMILY BENNETT DILULLO
ebennett@yourmvi.com
Officials from Monessen City and Belle Vernon Area school districts clarified details surrounding a Sept. 11 discussion about school merger talks and possible collaborations between the neighboring districts.
Monessen Superintendent Dr. Leanne Spazak said she felt comments made by board president Roberta Bergstedt at Tuesday’s business meeting about the Sept. 11 discussion may have been perceived as negative toward BVA officials.
Spazak clarified the conversation with BVA was entirely initiated by Monessen officials.
“…We did initiate the meeting,” Spazak said. “We were doing what we thought was fiscally responsible.”
Spazak said a community member made a comment that BVA had expressed interest in the discussions. Spazak regarded this interaction as “hearsay.”
“There was nobody that ever contacted us about that,” she clarified.
In a statement from BVA school board officials to the Mon Valley Independent, officials said, “…The meeting with me, Dr. Michele Dowell, as superintendent, and Lou Rood, as president was requested by Monessen officials, not us…We want to make it abundantly clear that we did not initiate the meeting. We responded out of courtesy and as a good neighbor.”
Spazak said she, along with Bergstedt, had a “good conversation” with BVA during the Sept. 11 meeting and said the districts communicated about “some other things we could do to save money for both districts.”
Among other topics discussed were alternative education, transportation and sharing resources.
BVA’s statement detailed the district’s concern about Bergstedt “putting a misleading spin” on the matters discussed in the meeting, and said the statements made at the meeting painted BVA as “an aggressor and seeking to somehow view a merger as advantageous to our school community.”
Spazak said Bergstedt’s statements were not meant to smear BVA or its administration.

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