BY TOM FONTANA
Correspondent

“It’s not going to be just book-in, check-out anymore,” according to Mountain View High School librarian Peter Regeski.

Mountain View school directors were presented with a new library curriculum at their meeting Monday night, Aug. 26.

Regeski and elementary librarian Corrine McNabb told the board their plan is to collaborate with teachers on research for class projects to help students become “critical thinkers, effective readers, active listeners, and responsible citizens.”

The new curriculum the librarians asked the board to consider involves more interaction between the librarians and teachers in the classroom.

“The library will be a place where students learn the 21st Century tools we have for access to information,” Regeski stated. “These include not only books, but the Internet, data bases, and interviewing techniques
The librarians called the new curriculum ‘inquiry-based,’ focusing on what teachers feel students should know at the end of a project beyond the information they gathered.

“We will be involved in more direct instruction with the students,” McNabb explained. “We will be working in conjunction with teachers to help students become conscious of the steps to obtaining that information.”
The librarians summarized the new curriculum as basically “teaching students to think.”

The board was given copies of the plan to review and consider for approval at its next meeting.

Baseball coach Ernie Griffis asked the board to consider approval for the junior varsity and varsity baseball teams to attend a spring training camp in South Carolina in 2014.

“Our teams are always at a disadvantage when the spring baseball season starts,” Griffis told the board, “because of our inability to get on a field before games begin.”

He suggested that the solution is to allow the teams to travel to the Cal Ripkin Baseball Academy at Myrtle Beach, where they would spend 5 days (Wednesday through Sunday) with the opportunity to practice on a field.

“The plan would be to spend the first week of practice in our gym working on hitting and other fundamental skills,” he explained, “then five days on a field in the southern location.”

The cost of the trip would be paid through team fundraisers, and vans would be used to transport the players. Coaches and parents would be asked to serve as chaperones. Student participation would depend on academic and discipline standing at the time.

“Many other local schools are able to do similar things with their programs,” Griffis added, which gives them a head start on the competition each spring. I want to see our program have that same advantage.”

Board members indicated they would need to consider the proposal before making a decision.

In other business, the board:
*approved the hiring of Kevin Frank Haugland of Bushkill as K-12 music teacher.

*heard the first reading of two proposed district polcies on student dress and grooming, and use of electronic devices (both posted on the district website).

*approved the following supplemental positions: mentors Jamie Janesky, Brandi Miller, and Brion Stone, and Ryne Luce as assistant boys’ varsity basketball coach.

*approved the Elementary Computer Curriculum.