The Gateway school board decided Tuesday against doing business with a company its solicitor partially owns that would have provided temperature checks to students and staff every day before entering buildings.

The 7-1 vote, with one abstention, came after discussions about whether temperature checks are necessary. Board member Paul Caliari voted to hire Mobile Health Services and board member Scott Gallagher abstained.

Caliari and Gallagher were not immediately available to comment.

“The whole idea of temperature taking is questionable,” said Katherine Bishop, a school district nurse, addressing the board Tuesday. She said high temperatures could mean the person is suffering a symptom from any number of ailments, including covid-19.

“So a temperature check is not necessarily going to show you what you want to know,” she said.

Board member Valerie Warning asked Bishop what she recommends the district does. As a response, Bishop said the decision is up to the administration and the board, but that Mobile Health Services quote seems high.

MHS said it would check the temperatures of every student and staff member before entering the buildings for $88,200 over a nine-week contract, or $9,800 per week. Bruce Dice, the district’s solicitor, is listed as the company’s vice president and his statement of financial interests states he owns one-third of the company.

Warning had said she worried Dice’s position with the company would pose a conflict of interest last week.

But board president Mary Beth Cirucci said the company’s price tag was the biggest reason for not hiring them.

“Most of the money would have been spent on labor and I think everyone agrees that it would be better spent on technology,” she said in an email.

The move followed a vote approving the spending of a little more than $356,000 in grant funds for items covered by a federal Covid-19 Health and Safety grant. Items to be purchased include 15,000 surgical face masks, 4,000 face shields, plastic partitions and 110 infrared thermometers.

Despite purchasing thermometers, the school district does not plan to perform daily checks for students, Cirucci said.

“The thermometers being purchased are to use for the nurses and to have on hand for sports teams as well as preparing for any mandates that may potentially come later from the state,” she said.

Penn Hills school board hired MHS to perform temperature checks of students and staff by using 15 technicians spread out over its three schools. The company is charging the school district $5,095 per week for the service.

Dice also serves Penn Hills School District.

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