Local schools juggle changes as classes open
Fall is not yet on the calendar and Labor Day is still a week away but summer vacation is officially over for hundreds of young people with the start today of the 2003-2004 school year. Students throughout the area may expect some changes in the buildings where they attend classes, among the people who teach and guide them and even in the lessons they learn.
Connellsville Area School District is in the midst of ongoing construction work but school officials planned to start the school year on time. Frazier School District leaders announced several days in advance that they were ready, with buildings cleaned and staff in place.
In Belle Vernon Area School District, Robert Nagy has become a familiar administrator but he starts this school year at the helm of the district as superintendent. At Jefferson-Morgan Elementary School, kindergarten students will attend class all day for the first time.
“Job one in Carmichaels Area School District is student achievement and everything we do will go to support that goal for all students,” said Carmichaels Area School District Superintendent James Zalar.
Zalar echoed similar comments made by local school officials who said they are working this year to keep up with the increasing demands of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and related federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Zalar said Carmichaels officials are continuing to align curriculum to the state’s academic standards on which the PSSA is based. He said the district is using a new software program that will put faculty and administration in reach of student information, lesson plans and a variety of other useful data.
Craig Baily takes over as elementary principal on the retirement of Terry Ganocy and several new teachers join the ranks. Regarding facilities, Carmichaels has a new 36-space parking lot next to the high school.
The Brownsville Area high school/middle school has the look of a work in progress, although both schools already underwent $1.4 million worth of renovations this summer. They are in line for another $21 million in renovations this fall.
While both schools this year will have open ceilings to allow for electrical and technological wiring upgrades, the middle school will be left with only brown concrete flooring, due the asbestos removal there.
But Acting Superintendent John R. Joseph said the less than attractive look is a “temporary condition” necessary for a “permanent improvement.” Architect Jeanine Russel of Michael S. Molnar Associates, said the project should begin in November and take two years to complete and she does not anticipate any disruption to class as a result of the renovations.
Academically, the district plans to add a class to its curriculum to better prepare students for the PSSA mathematics and readings tests.
The education department has required that seniors are proficient in reading, writing and mathematics in order to graduate and the PSSA is one way to gauge proficiency. Last year, the district experienced a high number of seniors who failed the test their junior year, so this year, high school Principal Rick Gates said the district is implementing a reading class to help kids who fail the PSSA test.
A few local schools are obligated to offer their students the opportunity to attend another school within the school district after missing one or more NCLB goals. The goals include PSSA test scores, participation in the test-taking, attendance rates at the elementary level and graduation rates in high school. Schools had to meet the requirements overall and also among certain minority subgroups of students like those with special needs, ethnic groups, low-income students and students with limited English language.
Albert Gallatin’s Masontown Elementary School and both middle schools, Central Greene’s Waynesburg Central Elementary School, Connellsville’s high school and two junior high schools and Uniontown’s Benjamin Franklin School and Brownsville’s Central Elementary School are on the state’s School Improvement list, marked for school choice.
Uniontown Superintendent Charles Machesky and Central Greene Superintendent Dr. Jerome Bartley verified their schools’ School Improvement status is under appeal.
“We have instituted new positions, one at Ben Franklin and one at Lafayette School. They are literacy coaches to tie in and focus on PSSA and NCLB,” Machesky said of the district’s efforts to raise student achievement.
Noting a reason many schools throughout the state made the School Improvement list was attendance, Machesky said Uniontown has a new attendance policy that declares a student truant after three days without an excuse and gives the district an opportunity to pursue the truancy with the local district justice.
“The bar has been raised and the stakes are high,” he said.
The district has a new integrated language arts series at the middle school level, a new speech and language position and the possibility of other additions with an influx of students in particular at the elementary level.
Wharton School is open, although renovations continue there. Construction on a new Marclay School and renovations to Menallen School are expected to start in the spring while renovations to the administration building on Iowa Street start this winter.
Central Greene’s high school has a new principal, Al Veverka, and assistant principal, Dave Mason, and the district’s new athletic director is Bob Stephenson. The district also has two additional guidance counselors.
Bartley said the district has in place the state’s Reading First program for elementary students, instituted through a grant of $285,000 a year.
They also have new computers in areas throughout the district and are piloting a new math series for middle and high school students and an early reading program for kindergarten through second grade.
Among the happenings at Laurel Highlands School District, Laurel Highlands Middle School is open for sixth through eighth grades. The middle school replaces the junior high school and features renovations and a new addition of 14 classrooms to the building as well as curriculum tailored to what Principal Harry Joseph called the middle school concept.
“Academically, we’ve been training the staff the past two years while converting to a middle school,” Joseph said.
Joseph said he and Assistant Principal Mary Macar have also worked with the parents’ organization to make this transition.
The change is part of the school district’s strategic plan and involves taking the sixth grades out of the district’s elementary school and moving those 300 some students to the middle school to join another 600 some seventh and eighth graders.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned today and a formal dedication will be held later this fall.
Southeastern Greene School District will continue emphasis on raising students’ academic achievement with the ongoing reading and math project that includes the University of Pittsburgh’s Tri-State School Study Council working with teachers on strategies for math and reading instruction. Superintendent Dr. Philip Savini Jr. said the effort was started in previous years at the elementary school and expands this year to the high school. The school district also has a Science Matters hands-on program that was started in the elementary school and expanded this year to the high school.
A College in the Classroom program is new in the high school in cooperation with California University of Pennsylvania that offers students up to 12 college credits for Spanish, chemistry, history and calculus. Also added to the high school was a block of class time each Tuesday and Thursday for specific PSSA instruction. Savini said the district realized some improvement in PSSA scores.
“The important thing is we’ve been consistent in these programs and made adjustments in staff development and curriculum and we’re seeing results,” he said.
A new face at Bobtown Elementary School is assistant principal Geoffery Snyder.
There are plenty of new faces in the administrative offices of the California Area School District, with a new superintendent, and two new building principals.
Dr. R. Tim Marks is the new superintendent and Brian Jackson the new high school principal. Ray Huffman has taken the job as middle school principal, allowing the district to move the previous middle school principal, Joetta Britvich, into the newly created position of assistant superintendent. The assistant superintendent’s position was created in part to help the district better meet the state academic standards, Marks said, with Britvich concentrating on curriculum development.
One curriculum change this year will be the elimination of the elementary Spanish program that had been in place for the past several years. The program included students in kindergarten through fourth grade, but the teacher who headed the program has taken a job outside the district. Marks said the district is currently assessing the best way to address the foreign language program.
“We know it’s an extremely difficult job finding a certified Spanish teacher,” Marks said.
Britvich said a new program will be added at the middle school level to help reduce bullying. The Caring Habits Adventure of the Month will re-enforce positive behaviors by the students, encouraging them to look out for one another and to be kind to one another.
Bethlehem-Center School District starts classes a little later than others with Thursday the first day back to school for the students.
The district is looking this year at ways to improve students’ scores on the PSSA.
Last year, 81.1 percent of the district’s students scored in the advanced or proficient range on the PSSA tests. Vicki Monas, assistant superintendent, said that the state requires that 35 percent of students in each grade score proficient or higher in math and 45 percent in reading. The district exceeded state requirements, but Monas said they will work with the Tri-State Consortium on developing strategic plans to help improve test scores by developing programs and activities for teachers to help them better prepare students for the tests.
(Editors note: Herald-Standard staff writers Christine Haines and April Straughters contributed to this story)