2 The Dallas Reporter Dallas, PA Wednesday, November 11, 1992 Dallas students, administration team up to aid Florida school When Hurricane Andrew slammed into Southern Florida it damaged more than just homes and businesses. Many schools were also destroyed or damaged severely. By September 14, 1992 the Dade County school community braved overwhelming adversity and opened their doors for the school year. Homeless, and often hungry students, teachers, staff, and officials did their best to make the best out of the situation. With tents for homes, doubled- up schools, damaged and makeshift facilities, and restructured enrollments the year began. The students, however, were not only without homes, but also school supplies. For example at the Buena Vista Primary Center, a Kindergarten through Second Grade facility servicing five hundred and ninety one children of primarily Hispanic and Black/ Haitian backgrounds, conditions were difficult. Ninety-nine percent of the students were eligible for a free or reduced lunch, and eighty percent spoke English as a second language. Many of these children were living in or on the edge of poverty before the hurricane’s added burdens. At the Royal Palm Elementary School conditions were equally challenging. : The Dallas School District family found reports of the devastation upsetting. Soon the feeling turned to action with the September 28 announcement by Pennsylvania, Dallas’ own Judy Volunteers helped load tons of donated items on trucks for shipment to Florida. Miss * a 4 PENNSYLVANIA «® pod Among other activities, Dallas schools made t-shirts with this design to be shipped to students at the Buena Vista Primary Center in Miami. Fitch, and Dr. Gilbert Griffiths, Assistant Superintendent of Dallas Schools, that “Operation Adopt-A- School” would begin immediately in the Dallas school system. The project was quickly embraced by students and teachers. Mr. Frank Galicki, Principal of the Senior High School stated, “This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to help other students. You hear such negatives about the children of today, and here we have this positive chance to show that our students help others in need.” With volunteer power from administration, staff, faculty, PTO members, and students the project moved ahead. Countless letters seeking donations were folded, stuffed, sealed, and mailed by volunteers from the parent organizations. The ambitious goal was to collect pencils, crayons, story books, rulers, scissors, tablets, and other school supplies for six hundred children. To house each student's supplies back packs were purchased for each child and elementary students spent additional time composing personal letters of encouragement to be placed in each back pack. Soon community members, eager to help, began to contribute monetary donations through service clubs and as individuals to help defray expenses. With the donated funds individual teeshirts were ordered for each “adopted” student. The shirts bear a logo boasting “Kid to Kid” and showing maps of Florida and Pennsylvania intraditional Dallas white and blue. These too were included in the back packs. Further funds were forwarded to the Florida school to help offset some of the needs of the children adopted by Dallas. The thousands of items collected by our Elementary and Middle School students were sorted and packed by five Dallas Senior High Sociology classes under the supervision of their teacher, Mr. Jay Pope. These one hundred and thirty eight student volunteers were eager to lend a hand to the project. On Saturday, October 24 at 7:00 AM volunteers from the administration, faculty, PTO, community gathered to box and load the six hundred parcels for the trip to Florida. This effort was supervised by Diamond Manufacturing Company. Mr. Charles Flack and his brother Mr. Hal - Flack, of Diamond Manufacturing made this whole effort possible by donating a flat .bed truck, wrapping materials, and a driver to take the supplies to Florida at no cost to the District. During the “Flood of '72" the Dallas School District family and community opened their doors and homes to help their neighbors in Wyoming Valley. During the fall of '92 they once again opened their hearts to hurricane victims. Such an effort required coordinated help from the entire school system and the community at large, and left those involved with the realization that caring and working together produces positive results. American Education Week November 16-20 3 a 6 i Sl abn i hie OE Sar pa The Dallas Reporter Dallas, PA Wednesday, November 11, 199 3 utcome-based education wi measure what's really Justwhat does it take to educate students to make them more competitive, useful and productive in society? With complaints that SAT scores are low, dropout rates are up, and that American workers cannot compete, the Pennsylvania State Department of Education is attempting to bring forth sweeping changes in education in the hopes of rectifying those issues. Outcome-Based Education, a system where students would master a set of skills and knowledge in order to graduate rather than taking a prescribed number of courses, is now being phased into 170 of the State's 501 public school systems. Another third will be phased in next year, and the following third the year after. Outcomes are what students should know by graduation day and will be clearly defined by each school district. In the OBE system, the schools organize instructional practice around clearly defined exit outcomes that all students must demonstrate, which then provides opportunities for all students to reach these learning outcomes. Several states have incorporated OBE ideas in legislative directives (Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington). Minnesota defines its version of OBE as: A learner-centered, result-oriented Wolensky nominated as ‘outstanding educator Mr. Jack Wolensky, middle school guidance counselor, has been nominated for Pennsylvania Jaycees Outstanding Young Educator Award. The purpose of the award is to give community-wide recognition to a young educator who through his/her own resources has achieved success and leadership in his/her profession and civic affairs. The person selected as the localJaycee chapter's Outstanding Young Educator will be recognized by the local chapter who will submit him/her in the Pennsylvania Jaycees Outstanding Educator Competition. Upon graduation from Lock Haven University, Mr. Wolensky joined the teaching staff at Dallas Junior High where he initiated an alternative education program for disruptive students. For the past four years, Mr. Wolensky has served as guidance counselor where he has distinguished himself by developing and implementing programs for Dallas students. He devised and teaches the course Self Perception to seventh graders, implemented the “Homework system founded on the belief that all individuals can learn. The following can be found in this system: (1) Whatis tobe learned is clearly identified; (2) Learner's progress is based on demonstrated achievement; (3) Multiple instructional and assessment strategies are available to meet the needs of each learner; (4) Time and assistance are provided for each learner to reach maximum potential. More specifically, OBE is typically characterized as way of defining, designing, delivering, documenting and determining instruction in terms of outcomes. All decisions in OBE emanate from defined outcomes. Parents, educators and attitudes they want students to be able to demonstrate after completing a K-12 education. From the explicitly defined outcomes, the staff will design the directions and structure of the learning experiences. In accordance with this, the staff will also develop resources for implementation, paying particular attention to the alignment of curriculum and assessment. Next, the staff will then deliver the developed resources to the student in the predetermined directions. Last, the staff will document the degree of success and progress toward the defined outcomes for Hotline”, and serves on the student assistance teamand the principal's advisory committee. Mr. Wolensky has been the varsity baseball coach for the past thirteen years. He also teaches an in-service course to teachers entitled “Self-Esteem, Self-Concept, and the Student.” Mr. Wolensky's influence with young people reaches beyond the school. In the community, he has been the coach/general manager JACK WOLENSKY —% ® learned each learner and finally determine the advancement for the individual learner. The schools involved this year in OBE are beginning their respective strategic planning process. Those schools spent the previous year developing that process and then submitted those plans to the State. The Department of Education has indicated that OBE will gradually be phased into each district as that school system plan progresses, and like the Johnson City System, may take ten to fifteen years before the OBE programs are fully into place in each school. What the State has basically done is to create a master list of what students should know by the time they graduate. These are called outcomes. There are fifty-eight to be exact, and they are derived from ten learning groups: communicationss, mathematics, science and technology, environment and ecology, arts and humanities, citizenship, appreciating and understanding others, careereducation and work, wellness and futures, and personal, family and community living. The idea is to make students apply what they have learned to specific situations. It would force them to be problem solvers and use their minds instead of simply choosing between multiple choice answers. of the Back Mountain American Legion Baseball Team for ten years. For the last four years he has served as the director of the Dallas Borough's Summer Recreation Program. Mr. WolenskyisaP.L.A.A. basketball official and President of the Wyoming Valley Baseball Association. Jack and his wife, the former Eugenia Calffrey, reside in Trucksville. 1992-93 Dallas School District Calendar PROGRESS REPORTS DECEMBER 11 FEBRUARY 25 MAY 10 EARLY DISMISSAL DATES JANUARY 18 MAY 6 GRADUATION DAY JUNE 10 FIRST SEMESTER OCT 23 TEACHER'S IN-SERVICE NOV 26-30 THANKSGIVING VACATION DEC 1 - CLASSES RESUME DEC 24-JAN 1 HOLIDAY VACATION JAN 2 - CLASSES RESUME Summary REPORT CARDS K-5 6-12 NOVEMBER 13 NOVEMBER 13 JANUARY 29 JANUARY 29 APRIL 2 APRIL 6 JUNE 10 JUNE 17 PARENT CONFERENCES ELEMENTARY - NOVEMBER 16 - APRIL 19 SECONDARY - NOVEMBER 23 - APRIL 21 SECOND SEMESTER FEB 12 TEACHER'S IN-SERVICE FEB 15 PRESIDENT'S DAY APRIL 8-12 EASTER VACATION 4 APRIL 13-14 SPR BREAK/SNOW DAYS MAY 31 MEMORIAL DAY Schools will be evaluated by Middle States Ass'n The Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association of Colleges and High Schools conducts approximarely two hundred secondary school evaluations annually. Most of these evaluations take place in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland; a lesser number occur in the District of Columbia and outside the continental United States in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Europe, Africa, Asia. Each high school participating in the evaluative process must be visited every ten years for renewed accreditation. Dallas High School's dates of visitation will be on March 8, 9, 10, 11, 1994. (School year 1994-95) A Middle States Association secondary school evaluation requires a carefully designed process for promoting the improvement of programs, services, staffing and facilities of the member schools of the Association. This process also includes the services of a Visiting Committee, which is composed of educators selected from MSA member schools who conduct a comprehensive on site review of all facets of a school's organization and operation. The steering committee plays a vital role in the preparation of the self-study, as well as making preparations for the visiting team. The Dallas High School steering committee that has been selected consists of: Mr. Ed Augustine, Mrs. Patricia Fosko, Mr. Donald Hopkins, Mrs. Helen Hughes, Ms. Audrey Ide, Mrs. Sally Kennard, Mrs. Patricia Russin, Mr. Ron Rybak, Mr. Frank Galicki and Chairperson, Mr. John Turner. Teachers attend school, too On October 23 the Dallas teaching and support staffattended a county wide in-service held at Wilkes University and King's College. Project LEARN II made available hundreds of hours of instruction for more than 4,000 kindergarten through University teachers. This major educational event brought together teachers from five area colleges and universities and 15 area school districts to share with one another what is working in the classroom and to address the challenges education faces as we approach the millenium. Rae Ellen McKee, the 1991 National Teacher of the Year delivered the keynote address at the Kirby Center. LEARN, which is an acronym for the Local Education Action Resource Network, was responsible for the first LEARN event in February 1991. Project LEARN II, whose theme was “Building Educational Communities: Uniting Forces for the Next Journey”, presented sessions dealing with multiculturalism, racism, values and ethnics. The objectives included: bringing people together to improve student learning through new approaches in teaching; addressing issues of national significance as they pertained to our regional situation; bringing teachers and administrators together to discuss common challenges in teaching and learning; motivating educators and learners and building a working partnership between schools and higher education; promoting a partnership among educators, parents, business, and industry to strengthen education.
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