a 2 l The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, August 9, 1995 3 Ks School board rushes DL A By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff -'2 DALLAS - The school board : * has $100,000 in its pocket and two months to spend it. _ At the August 7 committee-of- ‘the-whole meeting, the board E ‘@ discussed ways to use the money, left over from a bond issue, which must be spent on capital improve- ments by September 30. It has already upgraded all district fa- cilities to comply with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires all public facilities to give persons in wheel- chairs and facing other physical challenges free access. Superintendent Gerald Wycal- lis said repainting certain areas, installing a new drainage system at the tennis court and buying portable bleachers were several options. He asked the board for more suggestions for its August 14 meeting. .-The board also discussed coach Jay. -Pope’s request to send the girls’ softball team to Florida for a b 4p Spring training camp during - Easter break. Each girl would pay “for her own travel and expenses. ‘Thre- team’s 20 members would ‘miss two days of school, while : Pope would miss his parent con- ferences. “It's a concentrated program, ‘with the girls playing two games a day against teams from all around ‘the country,” Wycallis said. “They ‘would encounter pitching styles different from anything they have seen here in the Valley.” Ellen Nagy noted the students ‘today have “a level of sophistica- be 0 Fe fo po Nh «« to spend $100,000 tion, travel and worldliness” and don't simply want to go anywhere for training. “Wait a minute!” broke in Clar- ence Michael. “First you want to go around changing the students’ schedules to give them more time in class and increase their educa- tional fervor. Now you want to let them miss two days of classes by sending them to softball camp. Is this a truly valuable educational experience? What ever happened to classroom time? If this is such a good thing, I'll volunteer chaper- one the soccer field trip to Can- adal” “That's during the summer, not during school,” someone piped up. The board decided to allow Pope's request, providing he re- schedules all his parent confer- ences before he leaves. Wycallis also outlined several grant proposals which the teach- ers submitted to him and asked the board to review them. A suggestion from the elemen- tary school proposed hiring two full-time aides to work with stu- dents to improve math skills, Wycallis said. Two suggestions for high school advanced place- ment courses involved buying more graphic calculators and adding a fall field trip for the American Literature classes. Two other suggestions dealt with gadg- ets — setting up a language lab, which Wycallis said would run way over budget, and setting up a multi-media room with FAX ma- chines and more Internet connec- tions in the high school. Kingston Township issues » « 39 zoning permits Kingston Township zoning offi- ‘cer Ben Gorey issued 39 permits ‘and - collected $2,235 in zoning fees during July. | The largest project is a home “valued at $132,779 at 19 Maple Leaf Drive, built by Mack Con- struction. Three permits were issued for home additions to D. Laity at 99 Davis St., valued at $27,985, tod. McAndrew at 89 Village Drive, “valued at $34,210, and to D. Federici at 81 S. Pioneer Ave., valued at $30,000. » e Intersection (continued from page 1) andi concrete islands defining both : rightturn lanes will also be added. ‘Fritsky expects to have all road - work finished by the end of Octo- ' ber; weather permitting. * The final step, installing the traffic light, could come as early .as the beginning of November or ‘as late as next spring, depending on when the signal is ready. Each ‘signal is custom-made, Fritsky said. Because most of the work will be done on the side of the high- ‘way, Fritsky expects very few new traffic patterns at the intersec- tion. This phase of the highway improvement project is estimated to cost $383,017. Other work, which hasn't been scheduled yet, will add new traffic lights and turning lanes at the intersections of Route 309 with Hillside Road, Carverton/Church Road, Franklin Street, Main Road at Offset Paperback and Center Hill/Upper Demunds Road and Route 415 at East Center Hill Road at Pickett's Charge and Dallas Corners. Lake Twp. recycling center open Aug. 12 i» ® \ § pt The voluntary recycling drop-off center for Lake Township will be » "accepting recyclables August 12, from 10-12 noon at the township building. The following items may be dropped off: aluminum and bi-metal ‘cans, clear, brown, and green glass, plastic #1 and #2 only. No motor oil containers can be accepted. Ea LAND SHARK HI ¢ Black/White Adult Sizes $3971 $3577 Children's... TIRE SHARK FOOTBALL SHOES... JF YOU CAN'T SWIM WITH THE BIG FISH, STAY ON THE BENCH... SPEED SHARK 3/4 LAND Sng Low Black/White & White/Black Black/Whit dig 1-6 Adul Sizes 6'/2-1 917 $3597 Children's... $3297 Teachers continued from page 1) icki, who refused further com- ment. The high school teachers fore- see several problems in imple- menting a four-period day. In order for it to work properly, they would —_ all be required to undergo special training, Wagner said. “You simply can't lecture at the class for 85 minutes. You need to use other teaching methods,” he said. “You have tovary whatyou're doing in order to keep their (the students) attention.” According to Wagner's calcula- tions, science students could lose at least 50 hours of subject mate- rial per year. His biology students presently meet six periods per week for the entire 36 weeks of school, for a total of 180 hours. With the four- period day, all students would meet five 85-minute periods per week for 18 weeks, for a total of 127 1/2 hours, losing 52 1/2 hours of classroom instruction. A student taking one science course per year could lose 210 hours over four years. “We'd have to sharply reduce the amount of material we're teaching,” Wagner said. “The other teachers told me they would be able to cover only 75 percent of the material they're presently working on. We could never cover all the material required for the advanced placement courses. It would be like teaching from a video or the CIiff notes instead of covering an entire novel or play.” “I think we should discuss it logically with the teachers and address their concerns.’ Joseph Kunec School board member With such a total change loom- ing in their students’ futures, high school teachers want more con- crete information to consider be- fore deciding for or against inten- sified scheduling, Wagner said. They want to know how it will help the students develop mar- ketable skills, how will it affect college placement test scores and how it will affect low level ability students. “The board doesn't have any concrete data to back up their claims of success,” Wagner said. “We'll be glad to consider more information on the subject, but haven't been given any yet. If I approached the board with an idea and no concrete data to back it up, you'd laugh at me. We need more reasons than ‘the students like it’ or ‘we have a bigger Honor Roll.’You can have a bigger Honor Roll without intensified schedul- ing — all you have to do is make your tests easier.” At a committee-of-the-whole meeting August 7, Wycallis said he has “documented evidence” from Wassowe, Colorado, the first school district in the country to use intensified scheduling. “It was featured on television,” he said. “The teachers interviewed said they would never go back to regular scheduling. I also distrib- uted some magazine articles to the board.” Wycallis describes the four- period day as “having great po- tential.” “It’s a great opportunity for the staff to energize themselves, to vary their classroom activities and maintain the students’ interest.” The one key component which makes intensified scheduling work is the application of theory to practical use, Wycallis said. “That's concept versus con- tent,” Wagner said. “A concept is that depending on how compli- cated a life form they are, different animals’ body structures and systems will be different. The content is how animals’ body structures and systems look, work and differ from one another. If a doctor works on me, he had better know what my stomach looks like, not just that I have one and it's different from a bird's.” Several board members at the August 7 meeting strongly favored intensified scheduling, while oth- _ ers still had questions. - wo os | by 3 John George wanted to Jnew how many area districts ise implemented it. Wycallis rattled off a list — Wyoming Valley West, Hanover Area and Pittston Area — who were considering it for next year. Other than West Side Tech, which uses a modified intensive sched- ule, no other local district has it, he said. Ernest Ashbridge and Ellen Nagy liked what they have seen on visits and at a special board meeting at which guidance coun- selors fromHatboro-Horsham and Towanda school districts de- scribed their schools’ intensified schedule in glowing terms. “I think anyone who saw them would be impressed,” Ashbridge said. Nagy suggested the board should discuss intensified sched- uling and vote on it at the August 14 meeting. She added she was “disappointed” to learn so many teachers are reluctant to imple- ment the four-period day. “I think we should discuss it logically with the teachers and address their concerns,” said Joseph Kunec, a board member who is also a retired teacher. The board should vote on it as soon as possible because imple- menting it would require a full year's preparation, Galicki noted. He will ask all department heads to contact their teachers this week and ask their views on the four- period day. He will report to the board at its August 14 meeting. fn J |= {3 ip is] Misericordia It's not too late! to register for the fall semester. Whether you're interested i past ¢ isi Colles Misericordia's convenient day, evening, and weekend formats it's never ‘been easier. We offer undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as certification programs. ) With a variety of majors to choose from, now'is the time to choose College Miserigs Get started now-call or write for more information. 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