| EE ————— Sunday, May 1, 2011 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 A ~ Township Planning” from the LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICT Budget cuts force ‘drastic changes’ to curriculum By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com The school board faced “dras- tic” changes to the district’s curri- culum at a meeting Wednesday night in response to expected cuts in the district’s state funds. The board unanimously voted to cut two educational programs and make changes to three others in order to “teach students how to think, not what to think,” said Director of Curriculum Instruc- tion and Assessment Tracey Ha- lowich. Most of the restructuring fo- cused on graduation require ments, and two lower-level pro- grams — elementary technology and exploratory foreign language for junior high students — will be cut completely. Halowich said more technolo- gy usage will be incorporated in- to the elementary curriculum in order to compensate for the class cut. High school science require- ments will increase from 3 to 4 credits in order for students to The board unanimously voted to cut two educational programs and make changes to three others in order to “teach students how to think, not what to think.” Most of the restructuring fo- cused on graduation requirements, and two lower-level programs - elementary technology and exploratory foreign language for junior high students - will be cut completely. graduate. An environmental sci- ence class will be added to the curriculum, and a lab period for the biology class will be eliminat- ed with a plan to incorporate lab time within regular class time. Students will also need more credits in math to graduate — the credit requirement will increase from 3 to 3.5, and Halowich said the credit requirement will in- crease to 4 in the 2012-13 academ- ic year. A personal finance class will be added to accommodate the need for more credits. Critical thinking courses will be added at the junior and senior high levels. High school students will no longer have the option to take a speech tourse, and Halow- ich said the requirements of that class, including public speaking and presentation skills, will be expected in core classes. A Rosetta Stone foreign lan- guage independent study option will be available to students in grades 10 through 12, and Halow- ich said the year-long program will be offered to 50 students next year on a first come, first served basis. Students will be able to choose any language be- sides Spanish and French, which are already taught in the district. The social studies curriculum will have a decrease in its credit requirements — from 4 to 3.5. The psychology and sociology elec- tives will still be an option for stu- See CHANGES, Page 11 LEHMAN TOWNSHIP Issue of signs IS addressed By CAMILLE FIOTI Dallas Post Correspondent '} Township supervisors pointed ut at Monday's regular meeting that the township has an ordi- nance prohibiting the posting of political campaign signs in the right of way on any township road. “They’re starting to pile up,” said supervisor Doug Ide. The ordinance also states that no more than two political signs are allowed on private properties and the signs cannot be larger than six square feet. Signs posted illegally have been removed by township officials and can be picked up at the police depart- ment. At last month’s meeting, a resi- dent asked the supervisors if the township has an ordinance that prohibits demonstrations or pro- tests at military funerals. Solicitor Peter Savage said the state prohibits any kind of pro- tests or demonstrations less than 500 feet from a church, cemetery or anywhere that a funeral ser- vice is held for civilians or the military. Federal regulations set the boundaries up to 300 feet for military, with no boundary re- strictions for civilians. In other business ... ¢ Supervisor Ray Iwanoski an- nounced that the Back Mountain Community Partnership recently ron the award of “Excellence in Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. e The board voted to hir Christy Marie Elias of Trucks- ville as a part-time police officer. Elias, who works for the Dallas Township Police Department, will be the township’s first female officer. e Approved a temporary per- mit to Pikes Creek Raceway to hold a wine festival on May 7. ness to the resource. Misericordia students and members of the Back Mountain Business Association walk the Back Mountain Trail through Trucksville. CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK PHOTOS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Misericordia students and members of the Back Mountain Business Association met to walk the Back Mountain Trail through Trucksville, hoping to bring more aware- MU students lead trail walk wo Misericordia University students took the lead in keeping local walking paths clean while promoting the beauty of the Back Mountain at an event called “Rails to Trails:A Walk in l Nature.” Kathryn Semcheski, of Trucksville and Jillian Bowen, of - Port Monmouth, N.J. met participants on April 19 at the Luzerne entrance of the 4.2-mile Back Mountain Trail. The group walked the trail to Kingston Township near Pizza Perfect. Reps. Karen Boback (R-Co- lumbia/Luzerne/Wyoming) and Sandra Major (R-Susque- hanna/Wyoming/Wayne) have announced the May schedule for visits to Tunkhannock by the Department of Veterans Af- fairs’ mobile veterans center, which provides services to vet- erans and their families. The mobile vet center is scheduled to visit the area of the Route 29 and Route 6 By- pass in Tunkhannock (across the street from Gay’s True Val- ue), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, May 2. It will be available at Bo- back’s office, located at 6 Cross Country Complex in Tunkhan- Reps. Boback and Major announce May schedule for mobile veterans center to Tunkhannock nock from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, May 16. Appointments for mobile vet- erans center services are not required. HARPIN" ON THINGS | bought myself a Blueberry, or a Raspberry or some kind of berry As I am unwillingly slipping in- to middle age, the age where am young to some and old to others, where the memories of past com- petition and victo- the morn- ing pain of injuries suffered, I am find- ing it is becoming increas- ingly hard to break old habits. Yet, in order to keep up with the world and to thwart off the effects of my self-diagnosed disease CRS (can’t remember squat), conces- sions have to be made. A while ago, one of these Blackberry phone things was added to my ar- senal of reporter notepads, pock- HEFFERNAN et calendar, stick-it notes and, of course, the Mrs. (who doesn’t forget anything) which keep track of my daily life and future events. I remember purchasing the Blueberry — er, I mean Blackber- ry - from some kid at the phone store whose fingers were a blur as they flew from key to key dur- ing setup. This procedure took no more than three minutes dur- ing which he rattled off a con- stant litany of instructions. It sounded like an M60 machine gun spitting out three round bursts as I could only catch every third word or so: rat-tat-push, rat- tat-hertz, rat-tat-send. This kid should have applied for a speed talking position for one of those out of town TV com- mercials that end with “available at stores in Wilksbar.” Smiling, he handed me the phone, which he had turned off and asked if I had any questions. “Yea,” I responded. “How do I turn it on?” No sense of humor, not even a hint of a smile. So I took the phone and box with in- structions and left. Since that day, I have learned that this Raspberry — er, I mean Blackberry - can do almost every- thing but start the coffee maker in the morning and I am sure someone is working on that. One of the advantages I have found is getting e-mails for the business and being able to respond to an inquiry within minutes. The sender does not need to know that I am on the trout stream and not at work. The calendar feature gives me a gentle buzz and vibration any- where between 15 minutes and 12 hours in advance of an event or appointment which is much nic- er than the reminder usually giv- en by the Mrs. What I am not so happy about is that everyone wants to text in- stead of talk. What happened to the days of a phone conversation starting off with pleasantries then getting to business? Or sit- ting with friends on the porch watching the sunset and talking about the days’ events? I have watched youngsters standing on opposite ends of a gymnasium texting each other instead of walking a hundred feet. One young man was punch- ing the buttons on his phone so hard I asked what he was doing. He said he was arguing with his girlfriend. He did that by putting certain words in capital letters. I received another blank stare with that one. I have gone back and forth with texts to people but, after the third question and answer ex- change, I ask them to send me a phone number. I get tired of pull- ing off the road to answer a text because it makes me miss curfew and irritates the Mrs. Attempting to decipher the new text language is keeping my brain active but I have had to re- wrerghjiopnmkwerklosazrty- sort to TALKING to my friend’s daughter, Cierra Yonchik to get a better handle on things. She ex- plained the “lol” laughing out loud, “btw” by the way, “omg” oh my gosh and “ttyl” talk to you lat- er. Having some fun, I asked if she knew what these letters stood for and she didn’t: “dyhh?” do you have homework? “nc” no clue, “gmtp” give me the phone and “yg” you're grounded. Even the Mrs. is getting into texting, although on a very limit- ed basis. I figure the reason for the limits is that her friends can’tfigure out what she’s text- ing. I have but it took research in- to how the Allies cracked the Enigma Code in WWII. See, she has these nice nails and, instead of taking the chance of chipping one, she uses the entire print ar- ea of her thumb. Her texts come through like this with no spaces or punctua- tion: ukiogw3euikkloklovb- wedvb!ngassdxrtyertqasdfgdf- guioxcvb. This translates to: “I will be home late, bad traffic.” Ev- ery third letter is what she is aim- ing for but now and then a num- ber or symbol is thrown in for good measure. Usually, we just call each other since we both pre- fer to actually talk with people. ATTA BOY ... The “Atta Boy” of the week goes to Brett and Bartt Slocum of Slocum Insurance in Dallas. Their father Bruce started the business in the 60s and they con- tinue to provide quality insur- ance with personal service to ar- ea residents. Atta Boy, Brett and Bartt. Harp Heffernan was the associ ate publisher, outdoor editor and chief photographer of the Sun- day Independent, a newspaper that was in his family for 87 years in Wilkes-Barre. You can e-mail him at news@muydallas- post.com.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers