Trinity residents advise school district consultant

By Dawn Goodman
Staff Writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
About 70 people attended a meeting Thursday to talk to a consultant about how improve the Trinity Area School District.
Consultant Jim Manley described it as a positive discussion and said that the audience had a lot of good suggestions and dialogue during the two-hour meeting.
He said parents brought up the need to have a vision for Trinity’s future and to make sure that every one is working toward that vision.
Parents had a variety of questions, ranging from students being stimulated intellectually to creating orderly and caring school environments to high school reform.
Manley it was a discussion about the kindergarten through 12th grade system.
“It was great to see that kind of turnout,” he said. “It was almost like a symposium on education.”
He’s already visited all Trinity elementary schools and will spend time at the middle school and high school over the next two weeks.
He spoke with teacher leaders, administrators and parents while visiting each elementary school. Manley will do the same at the middle and high school. He is also asking for middle and high school student input.
The board hired Manley to come up with suggestions for improving the district. He plans to have recommendations for the board in early March.
Manley said he will establish four or five priorities the district can complete in 2010 and will give specifics about how those priorities can be implemented.
He said concerned citizens who couldn’t attend Thursday night’s meeting can contact him with questions or concerns at jcmanley@consolidated.net. They can also call the district administration office at 724-223-2000 to get in touch with him.

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PNA: Trinity policy violates state law

By Dawn Goodman
Staff writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
Trinity Area School Board’s policy that permits just five people to speak at public meetings violates the state Sunshine Law, according to a Pennsylvania Newspaper Association solicitor.
Three weeks ago, the board allowed more than five people to speak when hundreds showed up in support of athletic director Ed Dalton, food services director Thomas Sabol and the fall athletic coaches.
However, at last week’s meeting, the board didn’t waive the requirement and only five people were permitted to speak after board President Tom Bodnovich pointed out that the policy was approved under a previous board. The policy was adopted on Dec. 5, 2002, and the most recent revision was April 20, 2006.
“It conflicts with the plain letter of the Sunshine Act as well as its intent,” said association attorney Melissa Melewsky. “I don’t think it’s going to pass judicial scrutiny.”
Melewsky said it’s not the first time she’s heard of the issue coming up, but most agencies choose not to approve a policy of that nature.
“They need to take a long, hard look at whether it’s legal,” she said.
Whether it’s illegal is ultimately up to a judge to decide, but it doesn’t seem right since the law requires that governing bodies give residents and taxpayers a reasonable opportunity to speak, said Kim de Bourbon, executive director for the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition.
“I would think that certainly violates the spirit of the law,” she said.
Board member Sandra Clutter said the present board didn’t create the policy, but if it is illegal, it should be changed. If it’s legal, it should remain as long as a majority of the board can waive the five-person requirement, she said.
After a reporter questioned Clutter about the policy, she said she contacted district solicitor Dennis Makel and asked him to review it and give the board a recommendation.
Board member Scott Day also said it should be referred to the school board policy committee for review.

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No police officer needed at Holy Family school

By a 4-1 vote, supervisors in South Strabane Township have permitted a special needs school to continue to operate without a full-time police officer.

The Holy Family Learning Center, 1530 Hillcrest Ave., has operated for more than a year without an officer in the building during school hours.

At Tuesday’s meeting the board reviewed 14 calls for police response between October and December with Dr. Pamela Kovacs, executive director at the school.

The number of calls were misleading, Kovacs said, noting that two were service calls for a false alarm and another call when school was not in session.

Canon-Mac crowd supports principal

CANONSBURG - Hundreds of residents, parents and students attended the Canon-McMillan School Board meeting Monday night, with dozens of them pleading with the board to keep high school Principal David Helinski.

There were so many in attendance that they spilled out of the doors and onto the sidewalks at the district administration building, causing discussion about whether to have a special meeting to hear public comment on another night so everyone could hear everyone else speak. The board decided to hear the public Monday night.

One by one, for nearly two hours, parents and students regaled the board with reasons why Helinski should stay. He cares about students, he respects students and demands they respect him and other adults. He enforces rules like the dress code and no smoking policy. They said he is a strong leader who has gone above and beyond the call of duty for students.

"He's being accused of a lot," said 12th-grader Kacey Jobkar as she stood outside with her friends waiting for the meeting to start. "He's going through a lot. But I've known him since the fourth grade and he's been there for me since the fourth grade."

Find out what happened at the meeting at www.observer-reporter.com.

Mummy at Reading museum finally has a face

READING, Pa. (AP) — After 80 years on display at the Reading Public Museum, Nefrina finally has a face.
The bust of the 2,300-year-old mummy, created more than three years ago by forensic artist Frank Bender, was unveiled to a standing-room-only crowd in the museum recently.
“It’s always nice to be where the public can appreciate my work and learn about the history of Egypt as well as provide an opportunity to educate the young,” said Bender, 68, of Philadelphia shortly after the unveiling.
Jonathan Elias, 51, Harrisburg, director of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, part of a team promoting mummy restoration projects, praised Bender for his skill as an artist and his forensics insights.
“This work is not only a work of forensic art, but a classical work of art as sculpture,” Elias said. “Frank talked a lot about his forensic work tonight, but he is a classically trained artist and this sculpture shows that.”
Bender is internationally known for his forensic work in facial reconstruction to help solve murders. He gave a hour-long presentation outlining that work before the formal unveiling of the Nefrina bust.
“I’m an artist, but I wanted to serve the public with my art,” Bender said. “Basically, I live my whole life on intuition and go with the flow.”
The unveiling of the Nefrina sculpture brought audible sighs of appreciation from an audience of more than 150 people.
The cream-color bust shows a woman with a serene smile, and was created to give life and personality to the gaunt, leathery mummy that has delighted Reading Public Museum visitors since 1930.
Nefrina was the daughter of people who worked in the temple of the fertility god Min. She died of a badly treated hip fracture in the third century B.C.
For years after the mummy arrived in Reading, most people assumed it was that of a man. A set of X-rays in 1972 showed otherwise.
Over the past several years, Nefrina has been CT-scanned and studied widely, leading to several new findings such as her fake ears and the medicinal poultice near the hip fracture that was intended to heal her in the afterlife.
A team from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg created a polymer replica of her skull, based on the CT scan images.
Bender created the bust from that skull, much as he has done for murder victims and others — including a woman whose remains were found in 1988 in a shallow grave at French Creek State Park.
Nefrina’s bust was completed in 2006, but budget problems and other priorities delayed its unveiling. Several weeks ago, former museum Director Ronald C. Roth had the bust placed in a showcase for the new “Nefrina’s World” exhibit, but covered it with a cloth pending the unveiling.
Forensic artists like Bender begin with a skull, using the theory that faces are unique because skulls are unique.
Then they add other experts’ information about the victim’s race, gender and age and background since they also shape the subject’s features.
Because the depth of the facial tissues for those characteristics is generally known, the artists apply clay to that thickness to re-create the face.
Bender has said he originally was planning to give the final Nefrina bust a bald head to be fitted with a wig. Instead, he sculpted the hair as well.
© 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Forty states apply for federal Race to the Top grants

Forty states and the District of Columbia applied for the first round of $4 billion in the Race to the Top Fund competition, which pits states against each other for desperately needed money, bragging rights, and leverage to implement controversial education reforms such as merit pay for teachers, Education Week reports.

The 10 states that did not apply by the first round’s Jan. 19 deadline were: Alaska, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Washington. Those states that did not apply, and any losing states from the first round, will be able to compete in the second round of competition, which is set for June.

“This exceeded our expectations,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who has made Race to the Top the most high-profile piece of his education reform agenda, said in a statement. “We received word from 40 states that they intended to apply, and thought there might be some drop-off. There wasn’t.”

Of the 10 states that did not apply in the first round, most did not come as a surprise. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, leveled sharp criticism at the Obama administration earlier this month, declaring his state would not compete for fear of a “federal takeover” of schools.

Rural states such as Montana and North Dakota had expressed reluctance because of the competition’s focus on education strategies they say may not work in their states, such as charter schools.

And Maryland state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick wants to seek legislative changes—to make it more difficult for teachers to get tenure and to link teacher evaluations to student test scores—before applying for the federal grants.

The current Race to the Top program is funded by $4 billion in one-time money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic-stimulus package passed by Congress last year. Today’s deadline comes as President Barack Obama announced his plans to seek $1.35 billion from Congress in his fiscal 2011 budget request to extend Race to the Top for another year and open it up to school districts. ("Obama to Seek $1.35 Billion Race to Top Expansion," January 19, 2010.)

Vehicle search upsets Peters teachers' union

By Terri T. Johnson,
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com

McMURRAY – When the Peters Township School District conducted a search of student vehicles in the high school parking lot on Dec. 9, employees’ vehicles were also inspected.
The search for drugs and other contraband yielded nothing, but it upset representatives of the teachers’ union.
Paul Sutherland, president of the Peters Township Federation of Teachers, addressed the school board Tuesday about what Sutherland called an illegal search.
In addition to police, trained dogs from several surrounding departments were involved. The search was not done in response to any incident.
At the time, Shelly Belcher, district spokeswoman, called the event a “proactive approach” to letting the students know illegal items are not acceptable in the schools.
During the search, the school was locked down.
Sutherland told the board he felt the search violated the constitutional right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. A union attorney has been notified, Sutherland told the board.
There was no response to Sutherland’s comments by any board member, Superintendent Dr. Nina Zetty or the board solicitor, Jack Cambest.
Sutherland said the search that involved not just teachers, but students and all district personnel parked in the lot, was “embarrassing and humiliating” to the teachers. He said teachers were asked to leave their classrooms to speak with police about the search.
That, Sutherland said, suggests illegal activity by the teachers and that students “finding fault” with a teacher has become “an intramural activity.”
Searching teachers’ vehicles now makes their jobs “much harder and unnecessarily so,” he remarked.
The union wants the district to apologize and to work to restore the teachers’ reputations.
Sutherland called the search “foolish” as teachers are well aware of the district’s policies regarding contraband, drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Participating Race to the Top schools

Participating school districts (those marked with asterisks have at least one school that will participate in the RTTT Turnaround Initiative):

ABINGTON SD

ALIQUIPPA SD**

ALLEGHENY VALLEY SD

ALLENTOWN CITY SD

ARMSTRONG SD

BALD EAGLE AREA SD

BANGOR AREA SD

BELLWOOD-ANTIS SD

BETHLEHEM AREA SD

BIG SPRING SD

BLACKLICK VALLEY SD

BROCKWAY AREA SD

BURRELL SD

CATASAUQUA AREA SD

CENTRAL BUCKS SD

CENTRAL CAMBRIA SD

CENTRAL GREENE SD

CENTRAL YORK SD

CHESTER-UPLAND SD**

CHICHESTER SD

CLAIRTON CITY SD**

COATESVILLE AREA SD

CORNELL SD**

CRESTWOOD SD

CURWENSVILLE AREA SD

DALLAS SD

DERRY AREA SD

DUQUESNE CITY SD**

EAST ALLEGHENY SD**

EAST LYCOMING SD

EAST STROUDSBURG AREA SD

ELIZABETH FORWARD SD

ERIE CITY SD**

FANNETT-METAL SD

FORT LEBOEUF SD

FRAZIER SD

GIRARD SD

GLENDALE SD

GREATER LATROBE SD

GREENSBURG SALEM SD

HARBOR CREEK SD

HARMONY AREA SD

HARRISBURG CITY SD**

HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP SD

HAZLETON AREA SD**

HERMITAGE SD

HOLLIDAYSBURG AREA SD

INDIANA AREA SD

INTERBORO SD

IROQUOIS SD

JEANNETTE CITY SD

JENKINTOWN SD

JIM THORPE AREA SD

KANE AREA SD

KISKI AREA SD

KUTZTOWN AREA SD

LANCASTER SD**

LEBANON SD**

LEHIGHTON AREA SD

MARION CENTER AREA SD

MARPLE NEWTOWN SD

MCKEESPORT AREA SD**

MEYERSDALE AREA SD

MIDLAND BOROUGH SD

MINERSVILLE AREA SD

MOHAWK AREA SD

MONESSEN CITY SD

MONTGOMERY AREA SD

MONTOURSVILLE AREA SD

MORRISVILLE BOROUGH SD

MOUNT UNION AREA SD**

MUHLENBERG SD

NEW BRIGHTON AREA SD

NEW KENSINGTON-ARNOLD SD

NORRISTOWN SD**

NORTH EAST SD

NORTHERN BEDFORD COUNTY SD

NORTHERN CAMBRIA SD

OCTORARA AREA SD

OXFORD AREA SD

PANTHER VALLEY SD

PENN CAMBRIA SD

PENN HILLS SD**

PENNCREST SD

PENN-DELCO SD

PERKIOMEN VALLEY SD

PHILADELPHIA CITY SD**

PITTSBURGH SD**

PITTSTON AREA SD

PLEASANT VALLEY SD

POTTSGROVE SD

POTTSVILLE AREA SD

QUAKER VALLEY SD

QUAKERTOWN COMMUNITY SD

READING SD**

RIVERVIEW SD

SALISBURY-ELK LICK SD

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN AREA SD

SCRANTON CITY SD

SHARON CITY SD

SOUTH PARK SD

SOUTH WESTERN SD

SOUTHEAST DELCO SD**

SOUTHERN YORK CO SD

SPRING COVE SD

SPRING-FORD AREA SD

TURKEYFOOT VALLEY AREA SD**

TUSSEY MOUNTAIN SD

UNION CITY AREA SD

UPPER DARBY SD**

UPPER MORELAND TOWNSHIP SD

WARREN COUNTY SD

WEATHERLY AREA SD

WEST ALLEGHENY SD

WEST YORK AREA SD

WILLIAM PENN SD**

WILLIAMSPORT AREA SD

WILSON SD

WISSAHICKON SD

YORK CITY SD**


Participating Charter Schools


Ad Prima CS

Alliance for Progress CS

Antonia Pantoja Community CS

Architecture and Design CHS

Bear Creek Community CS

Belmont Academy CS

Boys Latin of Philadelphia CS

Center for Student Learning CS at Pennsbury

Chester Community CS

Christopher Columbus CS

Commonwealth Connections Academy CS

Crispus Attucks Youthbuild CS

Delaware Valley CHS

Erin Dudley Forbes CS

First Phila CS for Literacy

Franklin Towne CES

Franklin Towne CHS

Freire CS

Global Leadership Academy CS

Green Woods CS

Hardy Williams Academy CS

Independence CS

Khepera CS

KIPP Academy Charter School

KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory Chart

Laboratory CS

Lehigh Valley CHS for the Performing Arts

Lincoln CS

Lincoln Leadership Academy CS

Lincoln Park Performing Arts CS

Manchester Academic CS

Maritime Academy Charter School

MAST Community Charter School

Mastery CS--Shoemaker Campus

Montessori Regional CS

New Foundations CS

New Hope Academy CS

New Media Technology CS

Nueva Esperanza Academy CS

Pennsylvania Cyber CS

People for People CS

Philadelphia Harambee Inst CS

Philadelphia Performing Arts CS

Planet Abacus CS

Pocono Mountain Charter School

Propel CS-East

Propel CS-Homestead

Propel CS-McKeesport

Propel CS--Montour

Renaissance Acad-Edison CS

Roberto Clemente CS

Russell Byers CS

Sankofa Freedom Academy CS

Tacony Academy CS

Tuscarora Blended Learning CS

Universal Institute CS

Urban League of Pittsburgh CS

West Oak Lane CS

West Phila. Achievement CES
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education

Corrected version: Most Washington, Greene districts not eligible for latest federal grant

Corrected Version: Central Greene School District is the only Washington or Greene county district that is eligible for the latest competitive federal grant for school reform worth $4.35 billion, according to a teachers’ union spokesman.
Like the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Pennsylvania State Education Association tracked the number of districts that applied for the Race to the Top grant. PDE anticipates having a final count early next week.
Pennsylvania districts had to submit a memorandum of understanding to the state by Wednesday if they wanted to participate.
PSEA spokesman David Broderic estimated Friday that roughly 100 districts out of 500 across the state, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading and Allentown, signed the memorandum of understanding for the program. The documents required the signature of each district superintendent, school board president and teachers’ union president. None in Washington and Greene had all three signatures, Broderic said.

W&J students volunteer in honor of MLK

By Dawn Goodman
Staff Writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
Christina Chianelli’s New Year’s resolution was to volunteer.
So on Friday, she found herself at Washington Crown Center, separating items for the Washington Women’s Shelter. Some of the donated items will stay with the shelter, while others will go to Interfaith Hospitality Network and the City Mission. Some will go to Haiti for victims of the recent earthquake.
“I just wanted to get involved in volunteering and I don’t have classes today,” said Chianelli, a Washington & Jefferson College freshman from Pittsburgh.
Students nationwide are volunteering to honor the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. W&J organized several events where students and staff could volunteer.
This is an opportunity to reflect on the inspirational words of King, Teanca Shepherd, W&J assistant dean of student life and director of diversity programs and multicultural affairs, said in a news release.
Chianelli wasn’t alone at the shelter’s donation site at the mall.
Molly Anthony, a freshman from Greensburg, and Heather Painter, a freshman from Pittsburgh, also helped sort items.
“I thought it would be interesting to help the women’s shelter,” Anthony said. “I thought it would be really cool to help out little kids.”
Painter’s church has always helped out the women’s shelter so she wanted to volunteer there Friday.
“I was curious what happens with it,” she said. “I know it’s a nice thing to do.”
Lisa Hannum, prevention education coordinator for the shelter, said it’s the first time W&J students have volunteered as part of the MLK event.
It’s the fourth year the shelter has had a remote site for donations over the holidays and the shelter now knows to keep it open until the King holiday so college students can help, she said.
“I think it’s great,” Hannum said. “We’re counting on them.”
Nonprofits are typically understaffed, Hannum said.
“This is a great help,” she said.

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State attorney general files suit against computer school

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania attorney general is suing a recently closed computer training school in an effort to recover fees for former students.
Attorney General Tom Corbett said Thursday he was seeking restitution and a prohibition against ComputerTraining.com operating in Pennsylvania. It closed last month.
The lawsuit says the company ran training and certification programs at facilities in Bensalem, King of Prussia, Lancaster and Pittsburgh. Those entities are also defendants.
Corbett says the schools should have known they were taking money but probably weren’t going to be able to provide services.
The company’s Web site includes a message about being shut down and provides the phone numbers of educational regulators in various states. The phone number at its Hunt Valley, Md., headquarters played a recording but did not take messages.
© 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Burgettstown discusses sink problem

Burgettstown School Board members and administrators discussed Monday what to do about elementary school sinks that have standing water.
Board member Harry Sabatassi said he brought the matter to the attention of Superintendent Deborah Jackson, after someone told him about it. He said he visited the school with a witness and saw mold in the sinks.
However, board member Tom Repole said it’s not possible for there to be mold in sinks if they are used regularly, as the elementary sinks are.
Paul Kannenberg, Burgettstown building and grounds supervisor, said the sinks are cleaned nightly and all standing water removed. He said the sinks have been tested for mold and none has been found.
Principal Melissa Mankey said there are between 10 and 12 sinks in the third-grade wing and the first-grade wing that have the standing water problems. She said she was made aware of it in October. She said all of the sinks are operational.
Kannenberg said the standing water occurs because there was an error in the installation of the sinks when the school was built in the early 1990s.
“We looked for quick fixes and we can’t find any,” he said.
Kannenberg said repair options include lifting the sinks, which would make them higher for small children, or tearing out the plumbing and lowering it to the sink level.
President Merle Ayres suggested the district have a plumber look at the sinks and determine a price for the repair.

Audit report shows Canon-Mac is in the black

For the first time in 11 years, the Canon-McMillan School District spent less than it budgeted, according to auditor Steve Cypher.
Canon-McMillan budgeted $54,606,075 for the 2008-09 school year and spent $54,246,165, according to the Cypher and Cypher report.
Cypher presented the audit for the school year ending June 30, 2009, to the school board Monday night.
“There was a routine pattern of budgeting a lot less than we were going to spend,” Cypher said.
Five years ago, the board realized that and began to make changes, some of them painful, he said.
Decisions in the past year have also been critical, he said. They include hiring a financial adviser to help with the swap agreements, getting rid of two swap agreements and not spending money the district received for those agreements.
The law requires that school districts be audited annually as a check on how money is spent. Cypher said his opinion of the Canon-McMillan audit is unqualified, which is exactly what the district wants. Anything else would be financial catastrophe, he said.
Because the district received more than $500,000 from the federal government, Cypher has to audit internal controls and compliance with the law. He said there were no instances of non-compliance and that the internal controls are fine.
In the short term, the district’s fund balance, or savings, is fine, he said. However, in the long term it’s projected to be a negative $2.2 million, Cypher said.
“This will weigh heavily on your ability to borrow,” he said, adding that it will mean a higher interest rate.
This audit came several months after the state auditor general completed an audit of the district and determined Canon-McMillan had deficit fund balances for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 school years.
The office recommended that the district monitor expenses more closely, use monthly budget status reports to scrutinize expenses and provide for a systemic reduction of the deficit.
Department heads have been told that deficit spending is not permitted and that any item not budgeted must be approved by the school board.

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Boy Scouts reminisce about past 100 years in honor of anniversary

By Dawn Goodman
Staff Writer
After David Hull and his sons sat through a Boy Scout meeting in the early 1960s, the boys wanted to join.
“The boys loved it,” the McMurray resident recalled.
The only problem was the scoutmaster of that particular troop had a limit of 40 boys, and there were already 40 in it.
Hull’s sons could get on a waiting list, but they didn’t want to wait.
So he talked to his wife and his church and decided to start his own troop.
He still remembers the words of another scoutmaster during Hull’s first training session: “You’ll never do anything more important in your life.”
After decades of volunteering and working for the Scouts, Hull said that’s true.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Without question.”
Hull was voted the top scoutmaster on the east coast. After 11 years of volunteering, he went to work for the Scouts and now has a roomful of memories.
“I just had a great time,” he said. “My dear wife (Miriam) helped me all the way through.”
He has five Eagle Scouts in his family. Boys become Eagle Scouts by earning merit badges and completing a community service project.
Four out of every 100 scouts in the Greater Pittsburgh area become an Eagle Scout, said Bruce McDowell, director of special projects for the Scouts. He said that is higher than the national average.
Hull is one of many in the area who reminisced in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, which is Feb. 8.
As the Scouts celebrate, the organization wants to look back and forward at the same time, McDowell said. Throughout the year, national and local events will be held to celebrate the anniversary. The anniversary theme is “Celebrating the Adventure; Continuing the Journey.
“It’s a nice moment to reflect and a nice moment to move forward,” McDowell said.

Trinity consultant explains how he will review district

A consultant is reviewing Trinity School District operations and plans to report his findings to the board and community in February.
In December, the school board hired James Manley, who worked in education for almost 42 years, most recently as superintendent Pine-Richland School District, to review curriculum and other areas of the district.
Manley gave a presentation at Thursday’s school board meeting, detailing exactly what he wants to review and how he will do it.
He said he’s looking for ways to enhance student achievement. His report will explain what Trinity does well and how the district can improve.
Manley said he will review a number of areas, including leadership, governance, vision, core values, curriculum, instruction, technology education, school climate, whether the school is conducive to learning, accountability and use of data.
He is spending Tuesdays and Thursdays in the district and will spend time at each school. He will talk with principals, go in classrooms and talk with teachers and parents. Manley plans to meet with parents and students in the evening for those who don’t have time to meet with him during the day.
He also hopes to include middle and high school students in the discussions.

Trinity rescinds decisions about fall coaches, athletic director

Trinity School Board unanimously rescinded Thursday it decisions to open all fall sports coaching positions and not renew the contracts of the food services director and athletic director.
The decisions in December created a firestorm in the community as students had protests and community members held rallies.
Acting Superintendent James Dick said board listened to the community but that was not reason that the decision was rescinded.
“What they did was against school policy,” Dick said, adding that the board was under the misimpression that it had to make a decision about the coaches and directors at the December meeting. By policy, they should not have been voted on at that meeting, he said.

Washington gets good marks for cleanliness

Washington Business manager Rick Mancini said the district had spot checks for cleanliness at the high school on Dec. 20.
Brad Langerman of Steratore Supply swabbed desks and water fountains in each custodian’s area to determine the amount of bacteria, Mancini said.
A reading of under 50 is considered “hospital clean,” while 51-99 is clean and safe, he said. Seven locations were 26 or under, including two that were zero. One fountain came back with a reading of 118.
Mancini said the custodian cleaned that fountain before an event so that’s why there were higher levels of bacteria on the fountain. The district has been stressing cleaning desktops and doorknobs because of H1N1, or swine, flu, he said. Mancini anticipates that Washington Park School will be checked this month.

Should popular movies about historical events be shown in class?

The Washington Post guest discussing the topic is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a professor at the University of Virginia.

By Daniel Willingham
Should history teachers show popular movies of historical events?

On the one hand, movies might get students interested in historical events in a way that books and other resources do not. On the other hand, screenwriters and directors are often willing to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of a good story.

What if students learn from the movies, but what they learn is inaccurate? If teachers warned students about the accuracy problem, would that be enough, or would the movie be so vivid that students would still learn the inaccuracies?

Andrew Butler and a research team at Washington University in St. Louis recently studied this problem.

They had undergraduates read nine texts (which were always accurate). For six of the texts, there was an accompanying film clip; three were fully accurate, but three had an inaccuracy and thus contradicted the text.

For example, in “The Last Samurai,” an American military advisor is hired by the Emperor of Japan in the 1870s to help quash a rebellion. In truth, the emperor hired French advisors, not Americans.

Some of the subjects got a general warning about potential inaccuracies in Hollywood movies. Some got the same warning but the inaccuracy in a particular film clip was specified, and the correct information was provided. Some of the subjects were not given any warning at all.

A week later, all of the subjects returned to the laboratory and took a test of their knowledge for the information in the texts. (e.g., “From what country did Emperor Meiji hire military advisors to help the Imperial Japanese army put down the Satsuma Rebellion?”)

The first finding was that watching the 2003 film in addition to reading the text led to better memory than reading the text alone. That’s not surprising, because subjects experienced the information twice, rather than once.

The second finding was that students rated the texts as more interesting if they also saw an accompanying movie. Thus, the movie clips did have the effect of drawing students into the material.

Third, watching the movies led people to remember the incorrect information at fairly high levels. Between a third and half of the time, people answered a question by using the inaccurate information from the movie, rather than accurate information from the text.

Fourth, the warning was effective only if it was specific. Thus, alerting people that Hollywood movies often contain inaccuracies had no effect. People still frequently reported the incorrect information from the film. But the specific warning—“the advisors were French, not American as the movie depicts”— worked. Students remembered the accurate information if given that warning.

This is only one study, but it provides provisional (and useful) information for the classroom.

Teachers may dislike the idea of using movies in their classrooms that contain inaccuracies, but if they decide to show them to students, they can negate the danger that students will misremember the incorrect information by providing specific information about what is inaccurate.