en-period day in grades 6 C24) Te0is® Vol. 103 No. 1 i i... Dallas, PA Wednesday, January 8, 1992 i is hia li A a A i. Task fc sugges Dallas stay &it 8-period class days By ERIC FOSTER Post Staff If the Dallas School District's education committee has anything to say about it, the high school will keep an eight-class-period day instead of switching to seven longer class periods next year. On January 6, the committee resented the school board with 8h and a recommendation against changing the classes. According to board member Ellen Nagy, the possibility of switching to a seven-period day has been discussed for the past year. In December the school board voted to change the Middle School's fourth quarter schedule so that it would include two seven-period days, and three eight-period days. Dr. Gilbert Griffiths, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, called the change a er ror step towards having a through 12. In Septemberof 1992, the Middle Sa Si : CLEAN CARVING - Terry Rutter shows fifth grade students at the bar of soap. Rutter, of southern New Jersey, is part of Westmore- Westmoreland Elementary School how to carve waterfowl from a land's artist in residence program. More photos on page 3. Westmoreland students turn soap into art SEhool will switch to a seven-pe- M1 day, according to Griffiths, who is also principal of the Middle School. “We're very concerned about the Middle School kids getting more time in on the basics,” said Nagy of the change. The Education Committee's study, presented by teacher Char- les Preece, showed that many high school students are taking more than seven classes a day, some of By ERIC FOSTER Post Staff The air was filled with the scent of Irish Spring soap - practically to an overpowering degree. But the fifth-grade students at the Westmoreland Elementary School didn't seem to mind as they carved their very own duck heads from the soap, using a wooden popsicle stick to wear away at the bars. Their teacher this day, Terry Rutter of southern New Jersey, has been carving since just about the time he was their age. Carving display. One of them is a-goose with it's mouth open, which is something that Rutter says to his knowledge, only he carves. Rutter arrived at the school on January 6, and will be there until the 10th, giving lectures and hands-on carving classes for children in first through fifth grade. His stay is sponsored and funded by the Westmore- land PTO, with Mary Ann Brown as enrich- ment program coordinator. “I want to model my philosophy after Joe Paterno’s philosophy. the kids, there are two words I don't want them to say — T can’t — because that's negative.” Rutter has been doing school programs for the past three years after getting encour- agement from a teacher friend. “I always had an ability to reach people, especially grade school students,” says Rutter. “I didn't know what the teaching system was until I had him for a best friend. Now I know how hard he works.” So why does Rutter use Irish Spring soap? Because it's green he says, and the ducks which would have to be cut if the school day was changed from eight periods. You have a much greater per- centage of students requesting since he was 12, he specializes in waterfowl, and four of his works have been accepted by the Smithsonian Institute for its folk art Ifyou listen to the sports announcers, the respect he gets is awesome,” says Rutter, clad in a blue Penn State sweatshirt. “I tell the children are carving are Mallard Drakes, or male ducks, which have green heads. And it also has a grain, like wood. courses than actually getting them, even with our present 8-period day,” said Preece. The study also showed that in the past five years, Dallas gradu- ates who have responded to a survey ranked the courses they See CLASS DAYS, pg 12 Christmas tree collection Christmas trees will be col- lected in the following towns: Dallas Township: January 20to24 atthe curbside weather permitting. . Dallas Borough: January 6 331 curbside pickup. The bor- —uagh manager checks every Monday morning and notes house numbers of where trees are “se that crews can pick up the trees. Kingston Township: the week of January 13 at the curbside. GEOGRAPHY WINNERS - Jonathon Bradley, on left, and Michael Casey, sixth-grade students at Lake-Noxen School, recently won prizes in the school-level compeition of the National Geography Bee. Bradley is holding his second-place prize, an inflatable globe; Casey won a geography game as 35 Cents upheld by Federal Court By ERIC FOSTER Post Staff Five mentally handicapped men can now call 236 Church Street in Dallas Township home - for good. For the nine months the men have been living there, the town- ship has battled the group home, claiming it is a business and pro- hibited in a residential area, while the home operator and Associa- tion for Retarded Citizens claimed discrimination. Federal Judge Edwin Kosik put the matter to rest Monday, Janu- ary 6 by approving an out-of-court settlement which affirms the men’s right to live in the Church Street home, and prevents the township from “discriminating or treating differently” the residents of the group home. “It affirms our belief that you cannot treat people with mental retardation differently,” said Linda Ross, executive director of the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) of the settlement. The ARC, the five men, their landlord, the Institute for Human Services, which operates the home, and its executive director, Robert Kotsull filed a lawsuit in federal court in August alleging discrimi- nation. The settlement also calls for the township to pay $10,000 to those plaintiffs. Ross said that the award will go toward covering part of the legal fees of Atty. Kim Borland, repre- senting ARC, and Robert Opel and John Kennedy, representing the Human Resources Institute, while See GROUP HOME, pg 12 These students know their way around Mike Casey, Jeff Eyet win in National Geography Bee By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Americans are often chided for their ignorance of world geogra- phy, but some students in the Lake-Lehman School District are showing that the label doesn’tapply to everyone. Sixth grade students Michael Casey and Jeff Eyet recently won the school-level competitions in the National Geographic Society's fourth annual National Geogra- phy Bee. They now have a chance to compete for a $25,000 scholar- ship. ; Caseyisastudentat Lake-Noxen Elementary School; while Eyet attends Lehman-Jackson Elemen- tary. In the school-level competition, students answered oral questions on world geography, based on in- formation from the World Almanac and National Georgaphic WORLD. A field of ten finalists was nar- rowed down to Casey, who placed first, and Jonathan Bradbury, who came in second at Lake-Noxen, Eyet and Samuel Rhodes, first and second place winners at Lehman- Jackson, competed against stu- dents in their homerooms before continuing to semi-finals and fi- nals. Eyet and Casey won a geogra- phy game as first prize, while Rhodes and Bradbury took home aninflatable globe. Armonde Casa- grande and Mrs. Cortegerone, social studies teachers for grades 4-6 at Lake-Noxen and Lehman- Jackson, coordinated the compe- tition. “It was hard! I had to study a lot,” Michael commented. “We had to learn locations of countries, their capitals and spe- cific land formations, as well as their natural resources,” Jeff added. See STUDENTS, pg 12 chief would be appointed. The supervisors created the Calendar.............. 12 Classified........ 10-11 Edilorials................ 4 Obituaries.............. 9 first prize. (Post photo/Grace R. Dove) Police report..........2 Property transfers..2 SPOS... ...cc...co ns 9 Community By GRACE R. DOVE Events Post Staff The Jackson Township Board of Supervisors did not appoint a full- time chief of police at its regular meeting Monday night, as origi- nally had been expected. Chair- man Joe Stager said that four applications for the position had been received, but noone had been interviewed yet. He could not give a time frame for when the new VIETNAM VETERANS MEET- ING- Wed., Jan. 8, 7 PM, Dallas American Legion, Route 415. All veterans invited. CALL 675-5211 wr FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING position of full-time police chief, who would work a 47-1/2 hour week at a yearly salary of $20,000 plus health insurance and holi- days, at the December 2, 1991 meeting. The part-time chief's position, which had been held under verbal contract by Donald Jones for the past 18 years, was eliminated. Jones had worked a 12-hour week and was on call 24 hours a day, at a yearly salary of $9,000. Evans stated at the December 2 meeting that the supervisors wanted a full-time police chief due to the township's increase in popu- lation, which has been calculated at 23% from preliminary estimates from the 1990 Census. Evans reported that he had received a letter from Jones’ legal counsel, Attorney Peter Savage. Savage stated in his letter that Jones is entitled to a written state- ment of any charges against him and a public hearing before he can be dismissed. Savage's letter also stated that any attempts to re- move or demote Jones will result in litigation againstJackson Town- ship. ; The supervisors authorized At- torney Evans to request that Jones and Attorney Savage supply af- fadavits to support their allega- tions of political overtones and Jackson police chief threatens suit if he's fired abuse of political power in the elimi- nation of his position. Jones had stated at the Decem- ber 2 meeting that he was not consulted on the change in the police department, and that the change had not been discussed at a public meeting. Jones said that he had been delivered an ultima- tum to either accept or reject the new position without adequate time See JACKSON, pg 12
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers