Roche Approved as Assistant Super, High School Curriculum Discussed

Allyn J. Roche has been named the of the Spring-Ford Area School District through a recommendation by superintendent Dr. David Goodin and approved by the board of education on Monday night.

"Mr. Allyn Roche, coming from the North Penn school district, he’s here with his wife," Goodin said at the regular business meeting. "We’re so excited to have him. As we went through the interview process, it became very apparent to me that Mr. Roche was the right man for the Spring-Ford Area School District. I’m excited to be able to recommend him to the board."

The board voted unanimously on the contract, which gives Roche a salary of $137,000, prorated, with benefits, effective tentatively Oct. 24, 2011 and ending June 30, 2015.

All other business items on the agenda passed unanimously.

There was also a discussion about an audit being done on the cafeteria from the past five years to figure out ways to regain profits lost. Business manager Tim Anspach and Goodin have gone over a game plan and will report back in September after a meeting with the auditing service.

High school principal Pat Nugent also gave a presentation at the meeting concerning curriculum and what is going on at the high school.

"Our performance has been up and down in the PSSA," said Nugent. "It’s been pretty steady and growing in our ACTs, SATs and AP exams, but our PSSA and some of the subgroups, we’re going to be spending more focus time."

Overall, "content teams" are what is being used to establish understanding of student learning and to identify struggling students' needs. These teams are comprised of individual departments within the school that analyze and discuss these trends.

Math and literacy programs are the main focus in achieving better results with PSSA testing. For literacy, there will be a "Ram Period" in which not only students, but teachers and administrators also read to themselves for a designated amount of time. The school will also participate in the Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Education (RAISE) program to better ideals for literacy.

On the math end of things, the district is in the process of enlisting in CPM, or College Prep Math, for the algebra classes. Along with that, they are also going to use Proficiency Based Assessment and Reassessment of Student Learning (PARLO) for better math results.

Finally, the school is becoming involved with GlaxoSmithKline by having chemists come in and talk to students. There will be another meeting between GSK and SFASD to take the next step. While many of the board members thought this was an excellent idea, David Shafer brought up between the two entities.

"We're dealing with a pretty significant issue with this company," Shafer said. "Is anyone else having trouble with that fact? Why would this company want to be involved with our district? There has to be something in it for them."

However, Nugent and supervisor for curriculum and instruction Johnna Weller ensured Shafer and the board that the business issues between the district and GSK have nothing to do with the learning program.

"The scientists have nothing to do with their corporate office," Weller said. "This was just a room full of scientists who wanted to get involved with students to get them excited about the careers that they're in."

Board president Joseph Ciresi reminded the public that school starts on Aug. 29 and that a student-parent advisory with Goodin will be held at 7 p.m. on Aug. 25.