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Wol. 95, No. 44
25 Cents
differ slightly
in statewide
By PAMELA AARON
Staff Correspondent
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Following the
release of a survey conducted by
the Pennsylvania School Boards
Association studying the back-
grounds and characteristics of
school directors across the state of
Pennsylvania, The Dallas Post con-
ducted a random survey of its own,
studying the backgrounds and char-
acteristics of members of both the
Dallas and Lake-Lehman School
Boards.
Survey forms were mailed to all
members of both local school
boards, asking the school directors
to complete the forms and return
i. them to The Dallas Post. All survey
prms were to be completed anony-
ously.
Following are the results from
both the statewide survey conducted
by the Pennsylvania School Boards
Association and the local survey
conducted by The Dallas Post.
The Dallas Post reminds readers
that all members of the Dallas and
Lake-Lehman School Boards did not
respond to the survey form. The
results here have been compiled
only from those local school direc-
tors who complete the survey ques-
tionnaire.)
Characteristics of members of the
Dallas and Lake-Lehman School
Boards differ somewhat from those
of school directors across the state
of Pennsylvania, according to a
survey conducted recently by The
Dallas Post.
Contrary to statewide statistics,
compiled by the Pennsylvania
School Boards Association, the two
local school boards differ in that
their school directors are not
Ciainly college graduates and do not
| earn over $50,000 per year.
Research conducted at the Penn-
ysylvania School Boards Association
Wiooking into the backgrounds and
characteristics of 4,509 school board
members shows that a profile of
today’s School Board member is:
male, Protestant, Republican, Cau-
casian, married and between the
ages of 40 and 49, has two children
who attend or have attended public
Honored teachers
survey
schools, is a college graduate or
higher with a family income of
$50,000 and has four or less years
experience on the school board. He
spends between 11 and 20 hours per
month on school board activities.
The findings of the statewide
survey indicate that board members
have become increasingly more
mobile with a tendency to have
more education and a greater
income than in the past.
Other significant findings of the
study were:
- The number of women on school
boards continues to increase from
the 1980 level to 20 percent of the
1984 level of 27 percent.
- The two largest occupational
classifications for these women are
homemaker (13.8 percent) and
office supervisor, manager or exec-
utive (9.2 percent).
- The ‘‘educational” classifica-
tions included teachers, administra-
tors, higher education and other
school employees, these having
increased from 7.6 percent in 1980 to
8.4 percent in 1984.
- Most school directors, surveyed
were Republican and Protestant.
- As many as 65 percent of school
board directors had four years of
board service or less, representing
the trend toward leadership change
that is evidenced itself over the
years. Only 12 percent of those stu-
died reported to have more than 10
years experience as a school direc-
tor.
- The percentage of school direc-
tors spending more than 20 hours a
month on school board activities
rose over the 1980 figures, from 44
percent to the current 54 percent.
- More than half of all school
board members surveyed (60 per-
cent) were college graduates with
78 percent havihig had at leasi some
college training.
Results of an informal poll taken
of members of both the Dallas and
Lake-Lehman School Boards, the
following information was obtained:
- Most local school directors were
male with only two out of the group
surveyed being female.
- The majority were high school
(See SCHOOL, page 10)
Dallas Post/Ed Campbell
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
Horseback riding and winning in
competition have been pati of Ténia
Spencer’s life since she was a child:
“I have been riding all my life,”
said 19-year old Tonja. ‘When I was
a child, I lived near the Mohawk
and loved animals, so I guess riding
just came naturally. My grand-
mother bought me my first horse, a
pony. From that time, I kept buying
and selling, until about 10 years
ago, when I bought Pokey, a bay
gelding.”
Pokey is a registered quarter
Dallas Post/Joan Kingsbury
By JOAN KINGSBURY
Staff Correspondent
Three Back Mountain teachers
have been recognized for their
excellence in teaching by College
Misericordia’s Education Depart-
ment. The teachers, alumni of the
college, are Marietta Toole, first
grade teacher Lehman-Jackson Ele-
mentary School; Joann Drayer,
learning disabilities teacher, West-
moreland Elementary School; and
Maureen Whalen, English teacher,
Dallas senior high school.
Marietta Toole has been an ele-
mentary teacher for 18 years with
10 of those years being spent teach-
ing third grade. Her husband,
Michael, is the home-school visitor
for Lake-Lehman School District.
The couple has a daughter Erin, age
6, a first grade student at Lehman-
Jackson Elementary School. The
Tooles live in Meadowcrest Manor
on Chase Road. *
Marietta firmly believes in teach-
ing the basics, but likes to add color
and enrichment to her teaching
program. She believes a teacher
“must be firm but compassionate,
trying to emphasize the postive.”
During National Book Week, her
students were encouraged to bring
in stuffed animals relating to books
they have enjoyed reading. Marietta
feels special projects such as these
are remembered by students after
horse which Tonja rode in competi-
tion for the past 10 years, competi-
tion in which she won 10 trophies
and about 250 ribbons.
Tonja’s latest achievement was in
tha State 4-H competition. In order
# ‘qualify, she first entered the
County competition at the Lehman
Horse Show Grounds wher she took
three second places — in the quad-
rangle, cloverleaf, and pole bend-
ing, all times races. This advanced
her to the District competition at
Dalton where she placed first in the
three events. The top two riders
advanced to the State competition
where Tonja competed against
(See TONJA, page 10)
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
Lake-Lehman School Directors
finally hired Dwight Barbacci as a
full-time physical education teacher
at the regular school board meeting
held last Tuesday. Barbacci was
hired at an annual salary of $13,400.
The motion to appoint Thomas A.
Williams, son of director Tom Wil-
liams, failed, however, for the fifth
consecutive meeting. Voting in
favor of appointing Williams were
Joseph Jones, Donald Jones, Gilbert
Tough and Daniel Hudzik. Voting
against Williams’ appointment were
Bing Wolfe, Martin Noon and Ed
Mark. Allen Keiper was absent and
Tom Williams, father of the teach-
ing candidate, abstained from
voting, thus following school policy.
Fourth grade parents in the audi-
ence spoke in favor of Williams and
expressed concern if he were to be
replaced during the course of the
school year. Williams is presently
teaching as a substitute in the
Lehman-Jackson Elementary
School.
Christina Conrad, fourth grade
student, spoke on behalf of Williams
and told the board members that for
the first time she is not only learn-
ing math, but enjoying it under
Williams’ instruction. She said that
after reading in a local paper that
the board did not appoint Williams
at the last meeting, she questioned
the action and her parents
explained why he was not hired.
The student asked the board to
reconsider and stated that not
everyone is alike. She said just as
she is not the same as her brothers
and sisters, Williams is not necesar-
ily like his father. She presented a
petitien to the board requesting that
Williams be appointed.
Director Bing Wolfe told the
youngster he had to refute her
remarks, that he believed she was
misinformed and his remarks drew
unfavorable reaction from taxpay-
ers in the audience.
The board appointed Robert Rob-
erts as assistant girls’ basketball
coach. The board members also
approved the job descripion for the
in-school suspension monitor. The
DWIGHT BARBACCI
description is to be sent to the state
for approval and instructor certifi-
cation. A resolution to approve the
band’s trip to Atlanta, Ga. in May,
1985, was approved in addition to a
$3,000 donation to help defray costs.
A resolution for the high school’s ski
club’s trip to Quebec also was
approved. :
Resolutions of Recognition were
approved for the Lake-Lehman High
School Band and Director John Mil-
iauskas for taking the Atlantic
Coast Championship and to the
Lehman Mini Football players and
their coaches for winning their
league title.
Recognition also. ‘was given to
Marietta Toole, who was named
ericordia, and to Katherine Gregory
for her students Science Project.
The board approved the use of the
junior and senior high school gyms
by teams of the Penn State Wilkes-
Barre Campus.
Robert Kunkle, elementary school
principal at Lake-Noxen Elemen-
tary School, was given approval to
hire an instructional aide for first
grade at Lake-Noxen.
Dallas Post/Joan Kingsbury
they have left elementary school.
Marietta says, “It is rewarding to
see how much and how far you can
take a first grade. I'enjoy seeing the
success of each student.”
Joann Drayer is a special educa-
tion teacher employed by the Luz-
erne Intermediate Unit. She has
been teaching out of the Westmore-
land School for 11 years.
Joann Lives in Askam with her
husband, Michael, a public relations
man, and their daughter, Aimee.
Aimee is a second grader at St.
Aloysius School.
Joann is a member of the PSEA.
Joann’s class includes children from
grades 1-4 with learning disabilities.
She gets great satisfaction from
seeing the children accomplish
things. “When the light bulb turns
on for them its pretty special,” she
says.
Joann, too, enjoys special projects
with her class. A recent project was
“Make Someone Happy’ and each
night the children had to do some-
thing nice for someone else for
homework, helping them to see that
when you make someone happy, you
also make yourself happy./
Maureen Whalen’s love of English
and her desire to help others to
enjoy this subject were deciding
factors in her becoming a teacher.
A resident of Kingston, Maureen’s
husband, Ned, is a teacher at
Coughlin High School. The Whalens
have two children, Kelly, a second
grade student at the Chester Street
School and Ned, a student at Little
Peoples Nursery School.
Maureen enjoys teaching in the
high school setting where she has
been bringing English alive for her
students for 14 years. Teaching
mostly junior and senior classes,
Maureen especially enjoys teaching
writing courses, encouraging more
interest in written expression.
Inside The Post
Calendar .............. 20
Classified ..... 17,18,19
Commentary ........ 4
Cookbook ........... lr
Obituaries ............. 2
People ................... 6
School ............ oe 1
Sports ....... .... 1,3,9,10