By Joe Pinchot
HERMITAGE — Hermitage School Board approved a new club Monday, the Hickory High School Delta Group, without the hesitation that ended up blocking the club earlier in the year.
Although the club�s proposed constitution is unchanged from March, school board members who expressed problems with it last time asked Superintendent Dr. Daniel Bell to help the club work out the kinks.
The club said it is dedicated to �enhancing the school�s climate for diversity, multiculturalism and social justice.�
While a student described Delta Group as a gay-straight alliance club in a July issue of Pittsburgh City Paper, Bell said the club is not limited to matters of sexual orientation. He noted that one of the advisers, Cheryl Martuccio, is an English as a second language teacher who, for the most part, will be working with students from other countries.
The group�s focus is equal representation under the law, dealing with all the forms that inequality could take, Bell said.
A message left last week with the other adviser, social studies teacher Tracey Flynn, was not returned. No one spoke at the Monday school board meeting concerning the group.
In March, school board member Dr. Morren J. Greenburg said the constitution has conflicts between the club�s proposed parliamentary process and Robert�s Rules of Order, which the club said it would follow. He also said there were grammatical mistakes and apparent misplaced phrases.
�It�s nothing big,� he said of his concerns, noting that Bell will work to clear them up.
He added that he had talked to some students about the club.
Also in March, school board member Alan Warren had asked for the striking of references to specific people in the constitution in favor of their positions. Although those references remain, �I don�t see anything out of line with it,� he said of the group Monday.
Ms. Martuccio and Ms. Flynn will be paid $225 each.
