Vol. 117 No. 35 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 August 27 - Sept. 2, 2006 SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS AND LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS Dog trainer s passion taking her overseas By DAVE KONOPKI Post Editor KINGSTON TWP. — Nikki Banfield has a passion. A passion to teach. A pas- sion to train. A passion to love. A passion for animals. The Trucksville woman’s passion will take her out of the country for most of the next four years as she attends the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine on the Island of St. Kitt’s in the Caribbean. The longtime dog train- er left for the school earlier this week. “I've always had the passion,” said Banfield, as she packed her bags. “I think it started in the womb. I'm sure I'll be able to make a nice living after I grad- uate. But it has nothing to do with mon- ey. Some people are motivated by it and there’s nothing wrong with it. I'm just passionate about animals.” Banfield certainly hasn’t taken the traditional road to veterinary school. She will be 52 years old when she completes her studies — almost 55 if she wants to work in the field of animal be- havior. The 48-year-old single woman — she says her children are her four Ger- man shepherds Terisla, Hertha, Ka- mots and Bitsy — has been training Ger- man shepherds for decades and has worked as the naturalist at Moon Lake County Park in Plymouth Township. “Veterinary school is going to be a lot of hard work and studying,” said Ban- field, who earned an undergraduate de- gree in biology and master’s degree in See PASSION, Page 8 FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Veterinary school student Nikki Banfield poses with her four “children” - Terisla, Hertha, Kamots and Bitsy. Fine swine & good spirits By GENELLE HOBAN Post Correspondent KINGSTON TWP. — It might have been the main course, but pork was just one of the countless varieties of nosh available during the 13th annual pig roast at the Back Mountain Harvest Assembly Church in Trucksville. “We had 300 trays of food donated by mem- bers of the church,” said Paul Saneholtz, co- chairman of the event. “We had macaroni sal- ad, pasta salad and every kind of dessert you could think of.” The event had so much food left over they planned to donate it to a shelter, according to Saneholtz who hoped the intention was car- ried out. Approximately 800 people attended the event on the church grounds on Carverton Road. There was no admission charge. i “It’s our gift back to the community,” Sane- oltz said. The event began when the Rev. Dan Miller first came to the church. During his first year as pastor he said there were only about 30 mem- bers in the church. “It was my idea, I jut thought we needed to reach out to the community and we did, and now we have about 600 people attending ser- vices on a Sunday morning,” he said. Miller also said the purpose of the event is See PIG ROAST, Page 8 John Elenchik watches over the cooking of the pork. Charlie Ma- karewicz bites into an ear of roast- ed corn at the commu- nity-wide pig roast. PHOTOS FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK — e corn at the Back Mountain Harvest Assembly pig roast. Billy Robbins looks for approval before he has dessert. “It's kind of like a funeral for sum- mer, where the community comes together.” The Rev. Dan Miller Aw shucks, getting the corn ready is no sweat for Glenn Miller. Contracts expire at Dallas, LL By DAVE KONOPKI Post Editor All of the back-to-school shopping has been completed. The buses are gassed up and ready to go. And the classrooms are squeaky clean. The Dallas and Lake-Lehman school dis- tricts are ready to begin the 2006-07 school year. But they’ll do so without a new teach- ers contract. The current contracts for both districts end Aug. 31. The respective contract nego- tiations began in February, but it doesn’t appear as though new contracts are going to be approved in the near future. At Dallas, a state mediator has gotten involved in the negotiations. But that doesn’t mean optimism is run- ning high. “No, not at all,” said Dallas school board member Maureen Matiska, when asked if she was optimistic a new contract could be worked out soon. “We've been meeting since February and we haven’t made pro- gress. I'm hoping that before the end of this school year, we'll have a contract. I'd like to see one before the end of the (calendar) year, but I'm not sure if that will be done.” Attempts by The Post to contact teachers union representatives at both school dis- tricts were not successful. At Dallas, the three biggest contract is- sues are health care premiums, salary in- creases and early retirement incentives, said Matiska. The teachers currently do not pay any part of their health care premiums. The costs of the most popular plans are $17,841 for an HMO family plan and $16,994 for a traditional plan, according to business manager Grant Palfey. “Right now, (the teachers) pay nothing,” said Matiska, one of four school board di- rectors who are members of a negotiating committee. That’s also the situation at Lake-Leh- man, said school board member Mark Kor- noski. “They have the Rolls Royce of health care plans,” he said. “They don’t want to hear anything about a co-pay. In other jobs, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t contribute to their health care. Let’s just say if my heath care was costing $18,000 a year, I'd be thrilled if I only had to pay $2,000 a year.” Kornoski says he’s been a little frustrated by the status of the talks. “We're at a stalemate right now,” he said. “The school board committee is willing to sit down and meet at anytime. We haven’t gotten one tangible offer and we've met three or four times since February.” The school board member is also con- cerned about the rising salary increases. “They're asking for seven-year contract and at the end, some teachers will be mak- ing more than $100,000,” he said. “That’s not going to fly with the taxpayers. We don’t have the tax base they have in larger school districts.” : But despite the frustration and concerns, Kornoski believes a fair contract can be ne- gotiated. “Pm optimistic,” he said. “We have a bunch of great teachers. I think we can sit down and hammer out a contract that can benefit both sides.” And that’s the goal at Dallas, as well, says Matiska. “Obviously, I want to see a contract that’s acceptable to both sides,” she said. “We have some longstanding faculty members who are very happy in the district. One of my roles has been to listen to them and come to some kind of agreement. I still think that’s possible.” Inside The Post 8 Pages, 1 Section Puzzles Church Obituaries How To Reach Us News: 829-7248 thepost@leader.net Advertising: 829-7101 Subscriptions/Delivery: 829-5000
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