BROCTON SCHOOLS
Interim elementary principal appointed
BROCTON — Brenda Peters, of Springville, has been appointed interim elementary school principal and director of special education in the Brocton Central School District to succeed W. Scott Rudnicki, who resigned after holding that post for the past three years.
The Board of Education at its meeting Thursday night accepted Rudnicki’s resignation with regret. Rudnicki begins a new position Monday as director of special education and student services in the Alden Central School District.
Peters will be paid $400 a day. Peters recently retired as superintendent of Springville-Griffith Institute School District, a position she held for five years. Peters said she would remain in the Brocton post until the board selects someone permanently, which, she said, would not be her.
She begins Sept. 2, the day before school starts.
Board President Susan Hardy said Erie 2 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Board of Cooperative Educational Services District Superintendent Robert Guiffreda will set up an early September meeting of the Brocton and Fredonia Central school boards to discuss four proposals received for the creation of a district merger feasibility study.
“We’re expecting this to move along fairly quickly,” she said.
The Fredonia and Brocton school boards, upon the request of its taxpayers, are exploring the idea of consolidating the two school districts. The feasibility study bids were returned Aug. 15 to Guiffreda’s office. Both districts have been experiencing declining student enrollment.
Brocton Superintendent Jack Skahill said the state needs to give school districts alternatives to sharing services other than consolidation, such as regional high schools. The only option offered now by the state is consolidation.
In other business, the board approved the hiring of two teachers, Ashley Turpin as elementary school teacher in the area of computers, and Maria McFeely as physical education/ health teacher.
The board appointed former board member Thomas DeJoe to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of Kathy Peters until the regular election next May.
The board’s next meeting is at 7 p. m. Sept. 4 in the high school conference room.
