WSHS Continues Exploring Heritage Conference Move

by Nathan Lasher

During a meeting of the Armstrong School District (ASD) Board of Directors held Monday evening, West Shamokin High School Principal Kirk Lorigan asked the Board for permission to begin gathering community feedback regarding the movement of his school’s athletic programs from the WPIAL to the Heritage Conference.

“The letter that I have distributed [to the Board] is a letter that I have drafted and would like consensus to go ahead and send out from me to the parents and guardians of the students of West Shamokin High School asking for them to fill out a brief survey at the bottom of the page to let me know if their child participates in academic or athletic competitions, what those are, and are the parents and community in favor of a move for all of our sports from the WPIAL to the Heritage Conference,” said Lorigan. “Once we get this back, which I have a due date of next Thursday because I would send this out pretty directly if we have consensus, hopefully we get a good sample. That sample would then give us some data to bring back and discuss at the Open Caucus in November. I also have received a phone call based on the article that was in the paper today. We had talked about community feedback, and I did receive a call. So, any calls that I am getting I am going to document what the basis of those conversations are both pros and cons.”

Board Vice President Dr. James Solak asked if it would be possible for Lorigan to also host a community meeting in the WSHS Auditorium, in addition to his letter, in order to receive input from business owners as well as other entities in the community. Solak felt that the letter alone would only gather the feedback of parents and not others in the community that may be affected by the move.

“I can set that up for some evening in early November as well and combine that information,” said Lorigan. “I’ll invite the local businesses and put it in the newspapers to let them know to come out and have a meeting, and we’ll see what kind of feedback we get from that as well.”

Board Member Steven Kozuch asked Lorigan if there was a general consensus among all of the coaches and players at WSHS regarding the move.

“I believe we have a few, one or two, at each end of the spectrum,” replied Lorigan. “Some are leaning one way and a couple are leaning another way, but I know that the coaches that are out there are all willing to do what’s best for the entire sports program. At this point in time, for me to tell you they’re all saying, ‘yeah, let’s head,’ they’re not saying that.”

Lorigan explained that he had given the Board a report containing information from the coaching staff in September.

“They had a chart, basically a breakdown, of what some of the pros and cons were of my conversations with each individual head coach,” said Lorigan. “If you didn’t receive that, I can see that you get a copy of it.”

At the end of the discussion, Kozuch expressed that he would like to see the breakdown.

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1 Comment

• By gutch1001, October 27, 2010 @ 8:35 PM

  Solak asked for a community meeting? This is a very interesting suggestion. Did he ever host a community meeting?

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