SUNBURY -- A month after receiving a $270,000 state grant, the Shikellamy School District was recently awarded another state grant for $339,000.
The "Classrooms for the Future" grant will be used to purchase computer hardware and software designed to enhance student learning in the four core studies -- science, math, social studies and English -- according to Pamela Emery, the district's director of education.
The technology is not meant to act as a crutch for teachers, she said, but as a tool to improve their curriculum.
Joanne Lauer, the district's technology coordinator, said the state emphasizes "It's not a technology grant. It's an instructional grant."
The district is also required to hire a "coach," who will assist teachers in the implementation of the technology.
The position is part time, Ms. Lauer told school board members Thursday night. But Shikellamy is hoping to share a coach with a neighboring school district, such as Selinsgrove, who would split time between both districts.
The cost of hiring the coach, who earns $30,000 a year at each district, is not part of the grant, but is rather picked up by the state.
Ms. Lauer said the district is working with the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit to identify the ideal candidate to be the district's technology coach.
"The coach is supposed to be somebody who understands teaching technology in the classroom," she said.
In other business:
n Superintendent Alan Lonoconus said the district's curriculum coordinating council will be off the ground soon.
The council, consisting of school board members, administration and teachers, will be focused on examining and improving the district's curriculum.
"It will be a vehicle in which we continually review our curriculum," he said. "Obviously there won't be wholesale changes every time we review things. ... But I think we're going to make some changes in the next couple years."
Ms. Emery said the council will meet on a bimonthly basis.
n The district will use some of the money from the Project 720 state grant it was awarded last month to overhaul its program for high school graduation projects.
In the new program, freshmen will be assigned to a teacher who will be their mentor for the next four years, Shikellamy High School Principal Terry Roden said.
Each teacher will work with about four students.
As freshmen, students will do research to help them find a career path, using a software program that identifies their interests and makes suggestions on possible choices, Ms. Emery said.
In their sophomore and junior years, the students will continue to research their chosen career and may do a job shadow, she said.
As seniors, they will be required to present their findings to a panel of teachers, as well as to other students.
n Some of the schools in the district are changing the way teachers are evaluated.
The old way of conducting teacher evaluations was for an administrator to visit a teacher's classroom, with advance notice, a couple of times a year, for 40 minutes at a time, Ms. Emery said.
"It's a dog and pony show. It's very staged," she said.
Administrators at Sunbury Middle School have started a new program, dropping in unannounced on teachers for five to nine minutes at a time, several times throughout the year.
"You start to get a picture of what happens in that classroom," said middle school Principal Mike Hubicki. "I really believe, in the short time I've worked with this, it's a method we're really going to be able to gather information."
The information gathered through the observations will be shared with the teacher periodically, including both negative and positive feedback.
"We also want to reinforce good teaching," Mr. Lonoconus said. "As educators, we don't know how to brag about what we're doing here."
Because the program is new, the district is allowing teachers to opt out of these walk-through observations, Ms. Emery said. But they are encouraging other schools in the district to follow the middle school's lead.
Following their meeting, the school board went into executive session to discuss a personnel issue.
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