SCRANTON – With the goal of better preparing students for life after high school, whether they intend to enter the workforce or continue their education, English department chairs from Scranton and West Scranton high schools provided the board of directors with information about a proposed pilot program in the district. Department chairs Chris Mazzino from West Scranton High School and Lynn Huggler at Scranton High School worked with Director Atty. Jason Shrive to develop the career and college readiness course. It is intended to address the need of “all students who are going to head out into career or college areas who are not necessarily on the (Advanced Placement) or honors-level track,” Mazzino explained during the board’s work session on March 26. The current English curriculum is front-loaded with literature, but there is not much time to address crucial skills such as writing, speaking, and listening, according to Mazzino. Nationally, Mazzino said, “we’re sending our kids out… but they’re not necessarily skilled in critical thinking. “This would prepare them beyond the regular-level classroom.”
The course will involve data collection through preand postprogram tests to determine if there is a greater need to expand the program or further integrate it into the general curriculum. It will be geared towards juniors and seniors who need “more intense attention” to develop communication skills. “If we make them better in college or in the workforce, that helps all of us as a community,” Huggler said. The new course reasonably should not cause the need for a newly created position. “We really didn’t think it should cost our district anything but two classrooms,” Mazzino said in addressing questions about if and how existing staff could absorb the new course into their schedule. Shrive said that if the measure is approved at Monday’s board meeting, it will be placed on students’ course selection sheets for the start of the 2012-13 school year. He stressed that the pilot program is a response to a need in the curriculum and not a reaction to teacher or student performance.
In other business:
• Officials may approve a collective bargaining agreement with the maintenance and clerical union on Monday.
• Board solicitor Atty. John Minora will offer direction to the board on how to go about selling the former Lincoln-Jackson and John Marshall elementary schools, which were closed at the end of the 2010-11 school year and consolidated into the new Isaac Tripp Elementary School. A few procedures on selling the properties exist, Minora said.
• The board has moved its April meeting to the Career Technology Center, 3201 Rockwell Ave., Scranton. The meeting will begin Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Open Seat Draws 14
Fourteen Scranton residents have
submitted their resumes for
consideration for a seat left open
by the resignation of Brian Jeff-
ers in March. They are:
- Thomas Borthwick, North
Sumner Avenue; - Michael Costello, Hollow Ave-
nue; - James Dougher, Pen-Y-Bryn
Drive; - James Freethy, Jackson Street;
- James Igoe, North Webster
Avenue; - Daniel LaMagna, Peller Avenue;
- Armand Martinelli, Sloan
Street; - Joseph Matyjevich, Farr Street;
- Mark McAndrew, St. Ann
Street; - Sarene Stoker O’Malley, Moltke
Avenue; - Mario Savinelli, North Cameron
Avenue; - Thomas Schuster, North Main
Avenue; - James Timlin, Doud Avenue;
- and Martin Wazowicz, Columbia
Street.