5 Things to Know About What's Going on at Spring-Ford

The Spring-Ford Area School District's board of education met for a work session on Monday night, its first meeting of the month to field presentations and committee reports, as well as address upcoming issues. Principal of the 5/6 grade center Edward Smith gave a presentation on the state of the school and director of curriculum and instruction Johnna Weller gave a presentation on the PSSA testing and Adequate Yearly Progress [AYP] statistics. Also, student representative Elizabeth Brady gave her perspective on what's happening in the schools. Here are the top five highlights of what the three had to say.

1. Schools to use less paper - At the beginning of the meeting, board president Joseph Ciresi made the public aware of the future initiative of posting the meeting agenda on the wall (via projector) at every meeting instead of producing a long paper copy. The agenda will still be posted online, as well. Ciresi said the initiative is to save paper and cut back on expenses.

2. Smith notes SF 5/6 center the second largest in the district - "I always open meetings with parents by saying that I'm the proud principal o the " Smith said.

The center's 1,254 students makes it the second largest in the district. The fifth graders, Smith said, are comprised of 24 homerooms with 25 students in each, and the sixth graders are in 28 homerooms with 24 students in each.

"We had a very smooth opening," said Smith. "A huge part of that pertains to classroom placements. We got our first request about placement in January and begin the process in April."

Smith thanked the guidance counselors and principals at the sending schools as well as his own for all the hard work done over the course of the summer to ensure proper placement across the board.

3. Three ways to determine success in PSSAs and AYP - Weller's presentation pertained to explaining the AYP process as well as comparing numbers to state averages. She said there are three ways that the AYP is measured, which are gathered by the state:

• Participation Target: 95-percent. Weller said the school's goal is 100 and had 99-percent in 2011.
• Attendance Rate Target: 90-percent. It was just over 96-percent in 2011.
• Graduation Rate: 85-percent. It was just over 96-percent in 2011.
• Performance is also measured, with 100-percent proficiency being a target nationally by 2014 in both reading and math.
• This year's proficiency target is 67 for math and 72 for reading.

4. Spring-Ford meets the standards - According to Weller, Spring-Ford met 2011 targets in all categories except the Individualized Education Program [IEP] subgroup at the 11th grade level.

Spring-Ford's overall scores surpassed state averages in all categories.

5. Website and PSATs on the agenda for students - Brady reported that the 2011-12 school year began on Aug. 29 and picked up quickly.

"The new website has been nice to have," Brady said, although noting a few opening week glitches. She also reported that teachers have blogs, which are a good way for them to get to know their students and the students are engaging.

The PSAT signup deadline was Monday. They are mandatory for sophomores at no cost and juniors can take them with proper payment.

Finally, Brady said students participated in , which she heard was a success, sports are doing well with field hockey at 6-2 and football at 2-1 and it has been "a great start to what hopefully will be a fantastic school year."