Oct
10
October 2008
October 10, 2008 | | 3 Comments
October 2008
Superintendent’s Corner
Several times during the school year, an opportunity affords itself for district personnel to attend various civic meetings and present information on the district. During these presentations, district statistics and demographics are often presented to describe in vivid detail the population that is being served. Over the past several years of doing these community presentations, some groups have directed the question back to the district as to what they could do to help. In some cases, this has led to team-building with second parties in order to provide services to students in areas where they may have found particular challenges.
One particular group that has been active this school year is Faith In Action, which is a group of individuals from the Community Mennonite Fellowship Church, that decided to undertake activities within the community and the district. Building principals were sent a notification of the group’s willingness to complete some work on the district property. A list of items to be addressed was provided by each principal. Several requests centered on providing more aesthetic pleasing areas in the district. For example, three groups descended upon the school the weekend of September 27th. One group worked at Montandon painting a classroom there utilized by one of the social service groups. A second group was at the High School and landscaped in front of the marquee. A third group was at Baugher Elementary completing the landscaping in front of Baugher Elementary and another group painted several classrooms and offices.
All of these individuals donated their time and effort, as well as any items necessary to make the beautification of the district take place. Even though these individuals may not have had direct interaction with students, their collective efforts to address the visual issues through their work do not go unnoticed by students and staff. This is just one example of the district and community working together in an effort to allow the district and the community to interact in a positive manner that is beneficial to residents of the community and the students served.
Comments
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Dr . Clark
My daughter is in fourth grade at White Deer and there are 26 students in her class . I feel like her class would benefit from a teachers-aide. She needs some extra help in math( not remedial help) and I feel like she is not getting it because her class is too big. There are only 2 fourth grade teachers and next year there are only 2 fifth grade teachers. I don’t think that it is fair that we are going to have to deal with large class sizes for the next two years when the PDE has just increased the budget for education.
I have really enjoyed the new landscaping effort at Baugher Elementary. Not only is it nice to look at, but it also prevents students from cutting under the railing and down the slope before and after school. On rainy days this was certainly a problem as the grass became slippery. Kudos to the group for making a difference for our schools.
Class size is always an issue that is watched closely. Before hiring a classroom aide to assist in a classroom, the principal would report an accurate count to superintendent. The information would be shared with the school board to make a determination of adding a class aide. Looking at past history on this issue, the district has added a classroom aide when a class size would peak at 30 or more students. The district will continue to monitor these numbers.