Students faces changes as new school year begins
Hallways that have remained virtually empty for the past three months will once again be filled with the hustle and bustle of students as they begin another academic year this week. And as students and teachers return to the classroom, many come back to renovated classrooms, new administrators and a variety of different initiatives.
Belle Vernon Area High School is doing away with homeroom periods this year, and the district hired a new math teacher, who will teach a course designed to help any students who were not proficient in math on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.
Principal Greg Zborovancik said that the 12-minute period spent in homeroom seemed to be an invitation for students to come in late and some were late to class.
“We think this will cut back tardiness and keep students from loitering in the halls if they know they have to be in class at 7:40,” he said.
He said that the school did meet adequate yearly progress last year, but the teacher was hired for the new course to “make sure they maintain efficiency.”
Students in the California Area School District will find new programs at every grade level according to district superintendent Dr. R. Tim Marks.
Marks said at the elementary level student progress for the state assessment tests will be followed quarterly through a program called 4-Sight. Another program, Writing Wings, is a composition program developed at Johns Hopkins University. Representatives from the university will be visiting the school district throughout the year to see how the program is being implemented, Marks said.
A new tutoring program will be offered in the middle school through the Educational Assistance Program offered by the state, Marks said. The district will be getting $29,000 for the tutoring program.
All eighth grade students will be taking two foreign languages this year. Students will take nine weeks each of German and Spanish.
At the high school level sociology has been added as the eleventh class in the College in High School program. Marks said students will be able to earn a full year of college credit while in high school is they take all of the offered courses.
The district is also offering new opportunities to vocational-technical school students. Marks said that starting this year sophomores will attend the vo-tech in the morning and juniors and seniors will attend in the afternoon.
“That allows the juniors and seniors to get their academics in the morning and do internships in the afternoon,” Marks said.
As part of the new focus on health, nutrition and fitness, ninth and tenth grade students will be taking physical education every other day for the entire year instead of daily for one semester. Juniors and seniors will still take the class for one semester this year. Marks said the expanded physical education program will be in place at all high school grade levels next year.
Students returning to the Carmichaels Area School District will be in for some major changes this year, specifically in the number of programs instituted to try and help kids achieve better academic results.
District Superintendent James Zalar said that in addition to working in conjunction with the county this year on the Greene County Educational Master Plan to try and coincide improved academic performance with economic development, the district will also be implementing four additional programs to try and further enhance academic achievement.
Teachers will now use two assessing programs, DIBLES Assessment Program, for grades K-2, and the Johns Hopkins 4Sight Assessment Tool, for grades 3-8, to monitor student progress and assess what areas need to be developed to meet the toughening state standards.
Students will also have the opportunity to take extra time to try and reach greater academic goals with two additional programs, the Educational Assistance Program and the 21st Century Learning Grant, both of which will provide Carmichaels students with an opportunity for after school tutoring.
“This year is going to be an intense academic planning year,” Zalar said.
In addition to the new programs implemented to help students meet state standards, Zalar said some personnel shifts have also been made with elementary school Principal J. Craig Baily transferring to acting assistant superintendent and elementary teacher Rob Cole assuming the elementary principal duties.
Zalar also noted that students in the elementary school will, for the first time, have the luxury of air conditioning and that all new elementary playground equipment has been installed.
Connellsville Area School District teachers returning to the classroom this week will be utilizing new technology to track student attendance and maintain grades.
Throughout the summer months, personnel have upgraded the district’s technological system with The Logic House program that will allow elementary parents to view their child’s progress via the Internet and teachers to easily record the student’s daily activity in the classroom.
The secondary level implemented the electronic system last year.
District superintendent James Duncan said the program allows the district to efficiently operate.
“It will allow us to communicate with one another,” he said. “Now, if a student is absent, is late or misses a class, that information can be accessed immediately by all the staff.
“Parents will now be able to know immediately if their child is having difficulty in a class or is doing well.”
At Frazier School District, Dr. Dennis Spinella is taking over as superintendent for Dr. Frederick Smeigh, who left the district after 14 years and 32 years of educational experience to take a job with the Pennsylvania Department of Education as a Distinguished Educator, along with Linda Nelson, supervisor of K-12 special education, curriculum and instruction.
Nelson’s position and the position of Barbara Mehalov, middle school principal, have yet to be filled. Both have agreed to work on a per diem basis until people are hired.
Spinella, a Mount Pleasant native, officially begins his work in the district Thursday.
In the Jefferson-Morgan School District, three new administrators will be leading the district. Donna Furnier, longtime federal programs director, was named acting superintendent for the 2005-06 school year while the district seeks a replacement for Dr. Charles Rembold, who retired Aug. 21.
Joy Eggleston, former director of the Community Foundation of Greene County, was hired as business manager, and Adam Swinchock joins the district as technology administrator.
Furnier said the district will share a reading coach and a mathematics coach with the Southeastern Greene School District as part of their participation in the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative, which places one coach in both math and literacy for every 600 students in some of the most high-need school districts in the state.
The Reading First program will continue in the district, while a new K-8 science program, “Science Matters,” will be implemented this school year.
Jeff-Morgan will also use the Johns Hopkins 4Sight assessments this school year, while the district has implemented classroll.com, an online attendance and grading service.
In athletics, Scot Moore begins the year as athletic director, while the first phase of work on the district’s new fieldhouse nears completion, Furnier said.
In the Laurel Highlands School District, work is complete to add four classrooms to the George C. Marshall Elementary School, while work is just beginning on a renovation and addition project at Hutchinson Elementary School that will take place throughout the school year and is expected to be complete next summer.
At the high school, administrators are implementing a freshman seminar program designed to improve student achievement, reduce behavior problems and ease students’ transition from middle school to high school.
Students will take a yearlong freshman seminar class, covering topics like study skills, careers, human relations, social skills and technology, according to Dr. Gary Brain, curriculum director.
Ninth-grade students will be clustered as much as possible in one part of the school, and those students who did not score at proficient or advanced on state standardized tests will take an enhancement course, he said.
Brain said plans for a freshman orientation program have been in the works for four years, and said the program should help many students advance smoothly through high school.
The high school will offer the Academy of Information Technology program this year. The school began offering the Academy of Finance and Academy of Hospitality and Tourism last year.
In the Southeastern Greene School District, curriculum coordinator Annette Powelko said the Mapletown Junior-Senior High School will participate in the High School Coaching Initiative, a $31 million program that will help pay for a math coach and a literacy coach at the high school.
Because of enrollment, the district will share the coaches with the Jefferson-Morgan School District.
These coaches are in addition to a math and literacy coach placed in the district through an agreement with Tri-State Area School Council.
Powelko said the district will implement the Johns Hopkins 4Sight Assessments in grades 3 through 8 to gauge how well students will perform on PSSA tests. The 4Sight assessments are given four times during the year.
The district will continue to offer its after-school tutoring program starting Sept. 19 and will be open to students of all grade levels, she said.
Students attending Menallen Elementary School in the Uniontown Area School District will return to a renovated and expanded facility.
While Menallen work is wrapping up, construction continues on a new Marclay School in Markleysburg to replace the current facility. Work on the new building should wrap up late this year, according to architect plans.
The district has made several administrative changes, effective at the start of the school year. Deborah Rittenhouse, elementary curriculum coordinator, is now K-12 curriculum coordinator, and Carolyn Krepps, supervisor of pupil personnel, has added federal funds coordinator to her title.
Dr. Annette Conti has also joined the district as director of special education.
Herald-Standard staff writers Christine Haines, Joyce Koballa, Josh Krysak, Jenny Susa and Patty Yauger contributed to this report.