(2/25) The Fairfield Area High School football program is a story of sports’ past. During their meeting in February, the Gettysburg Area School Board unanimously voted to accept Fairfield Area High School football players into the district’s program.
In December, the Fairfield board voted 7-2 to develop a cooperative football agreement with Gettysburg Area School District for three years. Fairfield Athletic Director Keith Bruck said in November that he and High School Principal Brian McDowell do not believe the district has enough students to support football. Enrollment has decreased annually for 20 years, Bruck said.
Gettysburg Athletic Director Kody Godsey suggested that the district calculate the total cost of the program and divide it by the number of players to determine the amount to charge Fairfield per player.
Godsey said Gettysburg and Fairfield would be committed to a cooperative agreement for at least two years. After two years, the schools could ask the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association for permission to dissolve it. After four years, they can independently decide whether to renew.
The Fairfield board also discussed whether to construct a school calendar based on the total number of hours or the number of days.
Pennsylvania law, as of the 2023-24 school year, allows districts to craft their calendar based on 180 days or 990 hours for secondary school and 900 hours for elementary school.
Superintendent Thomas Haupt presented the board with two options for 2025-26, one that had 180 days and another that had 1,108 hours for secondary and 949 for elementary.
Assistant Superintendent Aaron Taylor said the hour-based calendar gives students 175 school days. The other five days would be used for professional development. Teachers are contractually obligated to be in school 186 days per year. Taylor and Haupt said professional development is a critical component of improving student performance.
Haupt said both calendars give the district flexibility on whether to call traditional snow days or remote learning days. Haupt said community sentiment is divided over the two options. Neither option extends the school year due to snow days unless there are 23 instructional days lost.
"We would have to have a pretty dang gone bad winter to take a month off of school," Board Vice President Jack Liller said. "Not saying it’s not going to happen."
After much discussion, the board favored the hours-based calendar. They will formally vote on the proposal later this month.
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