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SELINSGROVE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTBOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORSMINUTES OF MEETING – SEPTEMBER 5, 2006The regular monthly meeting of the Selinsgrove Area School District’s Board of Directorswas held on Tuesday evening, September 5, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Selinsgrove Area Middle School, 401 North Eighteenth Street, Selinsgrove, PA 17870-1198.The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by the President, Mr. Eric L. Rowe.The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was recited by all of those in attendance.Following the pledge to the flag, a moment of silence was held in honor of Pfc. JustinDreese.A roll call indicated a quorum with the following members present: Mr. Larry D.Augustine, Mr. Thomas A. Badman, Mr. David E. Hostetter, Mr. Robert M. Klingler, Jr., Mrs.Cynthia J. O’Hora, Mr. Eric L. Rowe, Mr. Paul F. Spiegel, Jr., and non-voting member, Dr.Frederick C. Johnson, Superintendent. Mr. William D. Robinson and Mr. Jeffrey P. Whitman,Board Members, were absent.Others present were as follows:Mr. John Bohle – Assistant Middle School PrincipalMr. Chad Cohrs – Director of Curriculum and InstructionMr. Peter Geipel – Technology Coordinator Mr. Terry Heintzelman – Intermediate School PrincipalMr. Jeffrey Hummel – Business Manager Mrs. Lorinda Krause – Elementary Schools PrincipalMr. Charles Longwell – Assistant High School PrincipalMr. Reed Messmore – High School PrincipalMr. Kevin Oswald – Director of Food ServicesMr. Kurt Pyle – Middle School PrincipalMrs. Cindy Vennie – Director of Special EducationMrs. Claudia Beaver – Recording SecretaryMr. Thomas Clark, Esq. – School Board Solicitor Mr. Ryan Boyer Miss Kelly JimisonMs. Vickie KingMs. Sandy KlebonMs. Linda R. Wasser It was moved by Mr. Badman and seconded by Mr. Spiegel to approve the General FundBills List dated August 28, 2006. (a copy of the list to be attached and made a part of the officialminutes) Roll call vote:Mr. Badman – Aye Mr. Rowe – AyeMr. Hostetter – Aye Mr. Spiegel – AyeMr. Klingler – Aye Mr. Augustine – AyeMrs. O’Hora – AyeMotion carried: 7 Ayes – 0 No – 2 AbsentMr. Rowe announced that the next Regular Monthly Meeting of the Board will be held onMonday, September 18, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in Room A103.
 
2Dr. Johnson expressed thanks and appreciation to the Administrative Team, custodialpersonnel, and district staff for the smooth start of the school year. He indicated that he has acopy of the most recent edition of the Science in Motion newsletter if anyone would like a copy.Mr. Hummel reported that PDE has come out with the Act 1 index for the next budgetyear. He explained that the base adjustment is 3.4%. Our market value aid ratio allows for anadjusted 4.3% increase, which means the ceiling on the real estate tax increase for next year will be about 2.71 mills. Mr. Rowe questioned if this was without a referendum? Mr. Hummelresponded that it was without a referendum.Mrs. Krause reported that kindergarten orientation at Jackson-Penn got off to a bad startbecause of all the glass. Fortunately, the maintenance and custodial staff cleaned up the glassbefore the start of the school year. Mrs. Krause reported that she has received many positivecomments from parents about the new doors at Jackson-Penn Elementary and the fact that thebuilding will now be more secure. She noted that the doors have now been painted a vibrantblue. Mrs. Krause reported that the first meeting of the combined K-2 PTSO will be held onThursday, September 7, 2006. Mrs. Krause commented that she has STAT photos of the largepavers which are to be delivered tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. She noted that the wall foundation is upand they will be working on that this week. Once the wall is up, Shaffer’s Landscaping willcomplete their work. Mr. Rowe questioned how transportation of “walkers” for the afternoonkindergarten is being handled. Mrs. Krause explained that bussing is provided from SelinsgroveElementary to Jackson-Penn Elementary for those students, but that many parents areproviding their own transportation. At the end of the day, they are then bussed back toSelinsgrove Elementary and released to their parents.Mr. Heintzelman reported that orientation for third, fourth, and fifth grade went smoothlywith a good turnout. He expressed thanks to the parent volunteers who served as tour guidesfor the third grade orientation. Mr. Heintzelman noted that differentiated instruction training washeld in August for all teachers. He thanked Mrs. Vennie for providing a name that turned out tobe a great contact and provided the differentiated instruction training for them. Mr. Heintzelmanreported that they will be utilizing Study Island this year at the grade five level, which was pilotedlast year for fifth grade. He indicated that PSSA scores demonstrated a significant increasewhere Study Island was used, and therefore, this year every fifth grade math class will beutilizing Study Island. However, this ties up one lab every morning making it unavailable for anyone else to use. He reported that DIBELS reading testing will be held later this week for third grade students. Mr. Heintzelman noted that overall it was a very smooth start of the schoolyear at the Intermediate School, but was not totally uneventful.Mr. Pyle commented that the Middle School also had a very smooth opening of theschool year. He reported that sixth grade orientation was held on August 24
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withapproximately 80% of the student population in attendance. Mr. Rowe questioned if sixth gradeorientation was held during the day? Mr. Pyle responded that it has always been held duringthe day, but it used to be a full day and was called Transition Camp with students participatingin the morning and parents joining for the afternoon session. He explained that it was scaledback this year to two hours and only the students participated. Mr. Pyle reported that newstudent orientation for grades 7 and 8 was held in the evening on August 24
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. He reported thatPicture day was held today. Mr. Pyle also reported that the Targeted Reading program is upand running and that they are also using Study Island. He expressed thanks to his staff for theall the hard work that went into getting the building ready for the start of school.Mr. Messmore commented that the High School had a smooth opening as well. Heexpressed thanks to Mr. Varner and his staff, and Mr. Kauffman and his staff, as well as theclerical staff, and cafeteria staff for getting everything ready for the start of school.
 
3Mrs. O’Hora commented that September 17
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is Constitution Day, and will be recognizedon the 18
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this year. As a district, we are required by law to teach a constitutional lesson onthat date. She questioned Dr. Johnson if the law requires legal documentation. Dr. Johnsonresponded that he is not aware that legal documentation is required. He noted that he didreceive information regarding this day which he forwarded to the building principals. Mr.Messmore acknowledged that they are complying with the requirement.Mr. Cohrs gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Pennsylvania System of StateAssessment (PSSA) results for the 2005-2006 school year. He explained that PSSAs are givenin grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 in the spring of each year in the areas of math and reading.The scores are reported in four (4) categories: advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic.He noted that the goal is for all students to be proficient or advanced. Mr. Cohrs compared our district’s average with the state average in each grade and subject. In summary, the district ismeeting all required proficiency requirements of NCLB legislation; however, the scores mustimprove even more. Mr. Cohrs listed the following improvement actions for 2006-2007:utilization of a Math Coach at first and second grades; utilization of Study Island Software ingrade five; utilization of 4Sight Benchmark Assessments at grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11; and,increase math requirements at the High School through the Strategic Planning process. Hementioned that he will be making a presentation at the next Board meeting regarding theStrategic Planning process. Mr. Cohrs also reviewed a chart showing 2006 SAT resultscomparing our district with the state and national average. (a copy of the presentation to beattached and made a part of the official minutes)Discussion was held regarding the data presented by Mr. Cohrs. Mr. Spiegel questionedregarding the apparent disconnect between the better than average SAT scores as compared tothe PSSA scores. Mr. Cohrs responded that he believes that one reason could be that thosestudents who are scoring low on PSSA’s are not taking the SAT’s. Mrs. O’Hora questionedwhat the roadblocks are to student success on PSSA’s. Mr. Cohrs responded that theroadblocks are instructional time and opportunities for remediation. Mr. Spiegel questioned howmuch of a factor parental involvement, or lack thereof, affects scores. Mr. Cohrs noted thatresearch shows that parental involvement is a key in education period. Therefore, he wouldexpect higher PSSA scores with more parental involvement. Discussion was held regardingopportunities that the district provides for parents to become more involved. Dr. Johnsoncommented that one of his personal management goals for 2006-2007 is math. He plans toresearch the amount of time specifically directed to math instruction and work with the principalsto improve our math scores this year. He added that the theme for this year is “We must accentmath everyday.” Dr. Johnson explained that in order to increase instructional time, we will needto narrow the curriculum. Mrs. O’Hora questioned if the state summary indicated specific placeswhere the district faired better or if there were specific weaknesses? Mr. Cohrs noted that thestate has not yet provided us with the summarized details. He added that he expects to receiveit sometime this week. He referred the Board to a handout showing a four-year comparison of results of the 17 districts in the CSIU. Mr. Cohrs cautioned to not just look at the results to see if the district went up or down, but to look at proficiency percentages and compare it to the other districts as well. He explained that although we may have improved our proficiency percentage,we may have gone down or, in some cases, we didn’t improve but we moved up in the ranking.(a copy of the CSIU summary to be attached and made a part of the official minutes)Mr. Oswald commented on the smooth opening of the school year also. He reportedthat lunches are being provided at Jackson-Penn Elementary to ESL classes and interestedteachers. Mr. Hostetter questioned breakfast participation. Mr. Oswald responded that theschools with higher Free & Reduced enrollment, experience higher breakfast participation.
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