Fort Cherry, Burgettstown get grants for college-ready centers

Fort Cherry and Burgettstown Area school districts were each awarded a $93,250 grant to create college-ready centers at their high schools.
The two-year grant worth a total of $186,500 is a collaboration among the schools, the Benedum Foundation and the Community College of Allegheny County. School officials met Tuesday to discuss how the grant will be implemented. Both districts hope to have the centers up and running in the spring.
The money will be used for computers, software licenses, salaries and benefits for tutors, supplies and travel expenses for the coordinator.
The purpose of the centers is to decrease the number of students who require remediation when entering college, said Fort Cherry director of curriculum Trish Craig. Burgettstown also will use the grant to help students perform better in math, reading and writing, said Assistant Superintendent Amy Rush.
Both districts will use the PLATO Learning Systems software. The program exempts students from lessons about information they already know and reinforces areas where they need help, Rush said. PLATO Learning constructs an educational program that is unique to each student. Each student completes a pre-test that assesses the student’s current knowledge. The system then creates a learning program based on those results.
Burgettstown plans to set up one center at the high school and have a number of classes using it, Rush said. Who uses the software will be decided based on individual student data, Rush said.
Fort Cherry is creating a mobile center so it can be used by more students, given the limitations of space within the high school building, Craig said.
For the 2010-11 school year, the tutoring will be incorporated into the current tutoring program at the high school, Craig said. The program will be evaluated in the spring for implementation during the 2011-12 school year.

U.S. Department of Education issues guidance about prevention of bullying

The U.S. Department of Education issued guidance to schools, colleges and universities Tuesday about how to make sure they prevent bullying.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said there are no new laws or regulations, and that the guidance is to emphasize the importance of bullying prevention. The guidelines make it clear what the obligations of educational institutions are: Stop bullying from happening, fix why it happened and prevent it from happening again, said Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights.
“We think in this country that bullying should not exist,” Duncan said in a conference call Tuesday.
He said the goal is to raise awareness about the steps schools must take to end this “silent epidemic.”
The guidelines include information about bullying and harassment based on race, national origin, sexual and gender-based harassment and disability harassment.
In extreme cases and as a last resort, schools can lose federal funding if they don’t comply, Ali said.
Bullying in schools is widespread and causes a range of problems, from low self- esteem and having trouble in school to acts of violence and suicide, Melody Barnes, White House Domestic Policy Council Director, said in the same teleconference.
She said early next year the White House will host a conference to educate about tools to prevent bullying and to hopefully spark a dialogue about the ways the community can prevent bullying.
“We’re all facing the same challenges,” Duncan said. “We’re going to highlight those who do it well and challenge those with their head in the sand.”
Canonsburg Middle School is one of the schools trying to take a proactive approach, said Principal Greg Taranto.
The school had a kickoff for its Olweus Bullying Prevention Program Friday and will begin classroom sessions next week, he said. Teachers wrote a song and performed it during the kickoff and several students had their own performances as well.
“Teachers did a really nice job with it,” Taranto said. “Kids love it.”
Part of the idea behind the program is to empower bystanders, to let them know that they hold the power to help stop bullying, he said.
Taranto said there was not one incident that led to the implementation of the Olweus program. However, research shows that bullying peaks at the middle school level in grades five through nine, he said. Research also shows Olweus to be an effective way to reduce bullying.
He said the school will use the program to target bullying that happens on school property as well as cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is more viscous than ever and hard to control, Taranto said. The school is also teaching students how to use social networking tools appropriately to help prevent cyberbullying.
The school is not alone in its efforts.
Trinity recently had a stakeholder survey in which teachers and parents named their top concern as bullying.
As a result, Superintendent Paul Kasunich recommended that the district implement the Olweus program in addition to its other bullying prevention efforts.
Trinity School Board heard a presentation about the program and how it would work in the district last week and may vote on whether to use Olweus next month.
Federal resources about bullying prevention are consolidated at www.Bullyinfo.org.

Bentworth hires scholarship coordinator

Bentworth School District students now will have someone to help them find scholarships for college.
The board voted last week to hire Kristy Smydo as the district’s scholarship coordinator.
The district received a $25,000 state grant to pay for the position and ancillary expenses, said Superintendent Charles Baker. Smydo will be paid $20,000.
Smydo was hired because Bentworth was familiar with similar work she performed in other districts, Baker said. While guidance counselors are aware of generalities, there are specifics about scholarship searches that the district knew Smydo was well-versed in, he said.
She will do more than search for scholarships. She will help students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is required to be completed before students can get aid. She will contact specific students about scholarships that might meet their needs, Baker said. She also will meet with parents.
Smydo will have a flexible schedule and will work some evenings if that works best for parents, he said.
She will help students who want to continue any post-secondary education, he said.
She will begin the job immediately and the position will last for one year. If she is successful, Bentworth will seek other funding sources for her position or determine if the district can pay for it out of its own budget, Baker said.
The board also hired E. Emily Bryan-Reeder as a middle school librarian with a salary of $35,974.

Canon-Mac discusses options for swap agreements

CANONSBURG – A financial adviser told Canon-McMillan School Board Monday night to put out a request for proposals to determine the cost of different options for the district’s swap agreements.
The district still has two fixed payor swaps, which are financial agreements used to hedge interest rate risk by synthetically fixing a variable rate. One of them has an exercise date of Dec. 1, 2010, and the other’s is Dec. 1, 2012. The amount of the transaction for the 2010 swap is $23,195,000. The other is $11,755,000.
Scott E. Shearer, managing director of the PFM Group, told the board it has a few options. It can terminate the swap, it can enter into the swap or it can find some kind of middle ground.
Board members said they wanted to know the financial impact of each option before making a decision. Shearer said the RFP would give them the information they are seeking.
There would be a termination fee if the board ended the swap agreement and then sold bonds at a low fixed interest rate. If the board continues with the swap, the rate would become variable, depending on market conditions, he said. He said the current rate is 5.673 percent, but it would probably jump to at least 7 percent.
Canon-McMillan already terminated two of its constant maturity swap agreements, allowing the district to make about $400,000 by getting out of the agreements.

Classroom helps create atmosphere for French students

CLAYSVILLE - Christine Shymchyk's class is more than four walls and a floor inside a brick-and-mortar building.

When you walk into the McGuffey High School French teacher's room, you smell creamy pumpkin and are surrounded by soft lighting.

Her whole room is decorated in a French theme.

She takes pictures of all of her students and puts them on the wall in one corner "to help them get a sense of ownership in the room."

Another area is dedicated to the French Club. There's a section on French food and another that displays flags of each country whose language is French.

Behind her desk is a black-and-white program from the ballet, "Swan Lake," she saw while she lived in Paris.

Shymchyk, who has taught at McGuffey for three years, said she takes to heart one of the most basic lessons she learned about teaching.

"You need to create a warm, welcoming environment for your students to be a successful teacher," she said. "When it's a soothing, happy place, they perform better. They like being here."

She said her favorite part is the pictures of her students.

"I love watching them grow, especially those I have for a few years," she said.

Right now, she has a fall theme of decorations, but she will change them for the holidays and again for spring.

Students will help make decorations to celebrate Mardi Gras, and those, too, will hang around the room.

When she first came to McGuffey, she said adults and students alike would suck in their breath when they saw her room.

Now, she said, everyone is used to it.

"I like to make it cozy for them and me," she said, adding that when students are feeling comfortable, she can get the curriculum through to them better.

Ninth-grader Cassandra Westfall, whose French name is Sophie, said Shymchyk's class feels warmer and smells better than others.

"When I first walked in, I was like 'Wow! This is amazing!'" the French II student recalled.

Most rooms are four just white walls, said freshman Brady Reitmeyer.

But not this one.

"It makes it very comfortable," said the student, whose French name is Jean-Pierre. "It spiffs it up."

The classroom feels more like a home environment, said Philip Maccarato, whose French name is Maurice.

"It helps you relax and makes you want to learn at the same time," the ninth-grader said.

Shymchyk said it's especially true when they are working with technology.

She said she likes to create authentic learning environments by allowing students to apply the lessons to themselves.

For example, her French II class just finished a digital story in which they brought in pictures of their family, added that to music and had to talk about it in French.

"They enjoy it," she said. "They get to express themselves."

She said she uses new technology, but not to the exclusivity of other styles, such as flash cards and the overhead projector.

"I think the technology is a good essential because we're only going to use it more in the future," said ninth-grader Bobbi Santek, whose French name is Solange.

All of the technology fits in with Shymchyk's decorations.

"It's all even. It's all equal," Bobbi said of the decorations. "We love every part of the room."

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