BOX 33
RY Cn
Ia
or 97, No. 48
25 Cents
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By JOHN HOINSKI
Staff Writer
Due to a lack of practice time,
the Dallas Junior High School
will not present its annual
formal Christmas Program this
year.
The announcement of the can-
cellation was made by Florence
Sherwood, junior and senior
v
Night held a few weeks ago.
Sherwood, along with the
school’s other music teachers
Steve Saive and Reese Pelton,
agreed there was not enough
time to stage a concert and that
an informal program will be
held instead. That program will
be held on Wednesday, Dec. 17,
at a time yet to be determined,
and will only be open to the
families, relatives and friends
of the students.
“We want to at least have
something for the kids and par-
ents,”” Sherwood said. ‘‘But
there is a big difference
between putting on a concert
and an informal program.’’
It is the first time the concert
has been canceled for such rea-
sons and the three music teach-
- Ruth Orloski I Like Township
ers that the last. da :
ers say it’s because of cramped
conditions at the school and
flawed scheduling.
“It doesn’t sound as bad as it
is until you come up here and
see for yourself,” Pelton said.
“We have taught in hallways
and some other places. But I
would say scheduling is the
main problem.”
Says Saive,‘‘Sometimes they
scheduled the three of us for the
same roorns at the same time.”
He also says he has had to
cancel his class about four
times while Sherwood says
some of her classes had to be
dismissed early so students
could put chairs away they had
been using or because of poor
teaching conditions,
Sherwood had been conducting
classes in. a dimly lit cold area
behind the stage, but says con-
ditions have improved some-
what when she informed school
superintendent Gerald Wycallis
about the problem. Two radia-
tors have: since been turned on,
but poor ‘lighting still exists.
“Everybody is trying to work
together to straighten things out
and they are working on cor-
recting the problems,” Sher-
wood addled.
Madrigal dancer
will be better. At least if they
gave us another room.”
Ever since the closing of the
Dallas Township Elementary
school last year, parents and
teachers have voiced their con-
cern over what they say is an
overcrowding problem in the
Dallas school district.
In 1983, both the Trucksville
and the Dallas Elementary
schools were closed because of
declining enrollments and better
utilization of space with the
Dallas Post/Jane Renn
districts other schools. Last
Year the Dallas School Board
also voted to close the Dallas
Township elementary school
because of poor and unsafe con-
ditions that existed at that facil-
ity.
Potzer
pushes
for COG
Seen as a way of bringing
and as an economical move,
Kingston Township manager
Fred Potzer says he would
eventually like to see a Council
of Governments formed in the
Back Mountain.
The concept would be to form
one separate governing body,
consisting of one member from
each of the Back Mountain gov-
ernments, for the purpose of
providing services and purchas-
ing materials and other goods in
volume. This would, in essence,
help reduce costs of materials
for which individual communi-
ties would normally have to pay
more. Those communities would
also retain their respective gov-
erning bodies under the Council
of Governments idea.
“I haven’t been approached
by anybody yet on it, but I think
it would be a good idea,” Potzer
said. ‘“Especially now with fed-
eral revenue sharing funds
being cut. It would be a good
way to cut down on expenses.
And, if nothing else, it would be
a way of getting leaders from
the Back Mountain together to
discuss our problems.
“But the first step would be to
expand Joint-Purchasing (road
materials and other items),”
Potzer explained. “Then, if they
wanted to expand it to code
enforcement services (zoning,
planning, etc.) that could also
be done.”
Potzer said Dallas Borough,
Dallas Township and Kingston
Township have already jointly
purchased road materials over
the past few years with Frank-
lin Township participating last
year. Lake Township has
already expressed interest in
joining the group next year. But
Potzer would like to see the idea
of joint purchasing expand even
further.
“It could be like a forum for
our leaders back here, and it
could be as simple as a Joint
Purchasing group or as some-
thing more elaborate.”
Greg Williams, Municipal
Consultant for the Pennsylvania
Department of Community
Affairs, says that organization
has guided such groups in the
(See COG, page 10)
By JOHN HOINSKI
Staff Writer
Kathy Gregory, a Junior High
teacher in the Lake-Lehman
School District, received
national recognition in 1984
when her Earth and Space Sci-
ence course was ranked as one
of the top eight programs in the
nation.
Now, through a unique nation-
wide teleteaching project in
which classes are taught by
telephone, students from Utah
and Loyalsock will have a
chance to benefit from her
course.
“It’s going to be a real chal-
lenge,”’ Gregory said. ‘You
won’t be able to see those stu-
dents so it‘s going to seem kind
of awkward. But, I have
attended classes that help
teachers prepare for this type of
teaching. In fact, I just attended
a meeting in Danville where we
hooked up with Utah and spoke
to the people who started the
program.’’
The project, entitled the Penn-
sylvania Teleteaching Project
(formerly the Utah-Mansfield
Project), basically allows a
teacher to present learning
material to other students in
other schools anywhere in the
nation by using a direct tele-
phone line linked from the loca-
tion being taught to those class-
rooms.
Using a computer as a chalk-
board, Gregory will be able to
send her material to children in
Heber City, Utah and to stu-
dents in Loyalsock, who will
also have one 25-inch computer
in the front of the classroom,
where Gregory’s material will
reappear. Another device will
also allow the Lake-Lehman
teacher to send black and white
pictures to those classrooms.
“It’s not teaching by televi-
sion,” Gregory explained. “The
students will hear my voice. It
is actually team-teaching. There
will be an instructor in those
classes who will act as my eyes
and ears. They will be observ-
ing the students to see if they
are getting the material. This
way they can stop me and ask
me to go back over something.
“The objective of the program
is to fulfill a need,” she contin-
ued. “(It is designed) to provide
students with a course that their
particular school doesn’t have
and for schools that do not have
the facilities or teachers to pro-
vide.”
Gregory, who will be teaching
astrology and geology when the
project begins in January, will
be simultaneously teaching six
students in her own class along
with three in Utah and one or
two in Loyalsock.
In the spring, Gregory will
then fly to Heber City for proba-
bly two school days where she
will meet those students she had
been teaching and present a
teleteaching course from Utah
to Lehman.
The project has been success-
ful’ in Utah where it started a
few years ago and expanded to
Pennsylvania last year when
Dr. Dennis Wydra from Mans-
field bacame interested in it.
Wydra then examined the cur-
(See LINKS, page 10)