The plan upon leaving the public work session of the Conneaut School Board of Education Wednesday evening was to set the date of the required public hearing on the school superintendent's recommendation of the 6B Option for Monday, Jan. 23.

That changed when the Conneaut School District lawyer was putting together the legal notice for the hearing, as it appeared to be school board consensus at that work session,to hear the superintendent's reasoning for his recommendation, but then to also report on a modification of Option 1B as was suggested by school director David Schaef. None of the other school directors present at the Jan. 4 work session took exception to.

School directors present at the meeting were Jody Sperry, Don Ellis, Jr., Dr. Walter Thomas, Gina McCauley, Kathleen Hootman, Brian Boyce and David Schaef. Absent were Dr. Carol Bocan and Lorri Drumm.

Option 6B calls for a single high school at Linesville with any overflow of grades 9 - 12 students using the Schafer School building next door for regular type classes, while Schafer Elementary School grades K - 6 students would be divided between Conneaut Lake and Conneaut Valley Elementary Schools for grades K - 4, and the current high schools of Conneaut Lake and Conneaut Valley used as grades 5 - 8 middle schools.

Marcellus Shale and You:

The Supervisory Board of North Shenango Township held a Public Hearing on December 19, 2011, to hear opinion and comment from citizens, land owners and residents on the proposed ordinance for North Shenango and the Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling issue.

Board members present were Bill Emerick and Eloise Settlemyre. Supervisor Jeff Daniels was absent due to health reasons.

Township Secretary Denise Gray took minutes and read the list of names of people who wished to stand and speak.

Each citizen was allotted 3 minutes time to speak and give their opinion.

Supervisor Bill Emerick stated from the beginning that the Board would not be answering questions that night; that this hearing was for the benefit of the public and land owners, to give their opinions and thoughts.

He asked that everyone respect the opinions of others, and to let each talk uninterrupted, as they would like to speak uninterrupted.

The names of the citizens who stood to speak will remain anonymous in this publication, to protect their privacy.

Secretary Gray called the name of the first person on the list.