Montrose High School PSSA scores drop

BY PAT FARNELLI

Montrose Area school board discussed falling PSSA scores at the high school Monday (Jan. 8) at the regular meeting at Choconut Valley Elementary School.

Superintendent Michael Ognosky said that the MASD made Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) as a district, and that the Lathrop Street Elementary and Choconut Valley Elementary Schools both attained AYP, but the high school has been placed on a warning list.

Pamela Staats, curriculum chairperson, asked if a meeting could be arranged to address the high school’s assessment and strategies to bring the students’ scores back up to standards. Ognosky said that a meeting will be scheduled.

Public school board meetings were scheduled for 2012. Regular meetings will be held on the second Monday of each month, with the exception of December. The December reorganization meeting will be held on the first Monday.

For the months of January-March and July-September, the meetings will be held at Choconut Valley Elementary School.

For the months of April-June and October-December, the meetings will be held in the Community Learning Center of the Junior-Senior High School.

The board accepted the local audit report for the 2010-11 fiscal year, as submitted by Murphy, Dougherty and Company CPAs of Scranton.

Joseph Gilhool was appointed as head junior high girl’s basketball coach at the cost of $2,695 retroactive to the beginning of the 2011-2012 winter sports season.

Business Manager Michelle Lusk said that the budget process is now underway. In the principals’ reports, Choconut Valley Principal Chris McComb  said that he had met with the elementary faculty and discussed the budget checklist. He noted that the archery program started up on Sunday with 78 kids enrolled.

Lathrop Street Principal Greg Adams said that the “Pie in the Face” fundraiser, organized by Mr. and Mrs. Bennici, has been a big success. This scheme, which allows students to pay to “pie” a faculty member. So far, $900 has been raised.

Technology director Craig Owens said that his department has taken advantage of a new licensing offered by Microsoft. For $900, a new program allows the district to route all email through Microsoft’s spam filters. Of the 4,000 emails the district receives a day, approximately 85 percent of those are spam. Diane Truman said that the emails reaching her desk in the administration office have been cut from 50 or 60 to only two or three a day.

The next school board meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 13 at7 p.m.at the Choconut Valley Elementary School.