EXPLAINER: Lives at stake in tense Ugandan presidential vote

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Police: Edwardsville man punched officer twice in leg during arrest

HANOVER TWP. &mdash; Hanover Area School District Superintendent Nathan Barrett announced plans for a Jan. 14 &ldquo;community night&rdquo; to discuss the &ldquo;possible return of students to in-person instruction&rdquo; during Monday&rsquo;s brief School Board meeting. The board also voted to keep any tax increase this year within a state-set limit.
				Barrett said he didn&rsquo;t want to take up any more of the School Board&rsquo;s time discussing the issue of learning modes. In the past he has had lengthy Zoom sessions with participating residents regarding the subject.
				Like most local districts, Hanover Area has been in full-remote mode since cases of COVID-19 began to soar in Luzerne County about two months ago. The state recommends, though does not require, that districts in a county deemed to be at &ldquo;substantial&rdquo; transmission rate use remote-only learning, and the county has been at substantial for months.
				A county is deemed substantial if the incident rate per 100,000 residents in the last seven days is at or above 100, or if 10% or more tests come back positive. The state releases data on those factors for all 67 counties every Friday. The most recent data from last week showed Luzerne County with an incidence rate of 460.6 per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of 17.2%.
				The tax limit vote occurs each year. The state sets an annual maximum property tax increase for each district that can only be exceeded with a voter referendum in the spring primary or by getting state approval for a narrow list of exceptions. Opting for a referendum requires drawing up a preliminary budget early enough for voters to review before the primary. If a board promises to stay within the limit, it has more time legally to draw up a budget.
				Hanover Area&rsquo;s limit for the 2021-22 fiscal year is a maximum increase of 4.3%
				The voting session involved only a handful of items, all approved, including final readings of board policies, an amended agreement with Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center for athletic trainer services, entering an agreement with the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority for construction of a stream bank restoration project, and an agreement with Ruth M. Wisenburn for bilingual speech/language evaluations at a rate of $500 per evaluation.

Hanover Area Superintendent sets Jan. 14 talk on student return to schools