SFASD to Explore Hybrid School Possibilities

At the April 23 Spring-Ford Area School District Board of Education regular meeting, board member Julie Mullin gave a brief overview of April's curriculum and technology committee meeting. In it, she mentioned that new Director of Curriculum and Instruction Keith Floyd presented an overview of the idea of a hybrid school setting to be piloted at .

"It has not something that has been definitively decided yet, but something that we've been exploring for the fall," Floyd said after the meeting. "It's something that's occurring across the state right now. It's a jointure with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. We're looking at ways of restructuring education, utilizing not only school instructional strategies, but also utilizing technologies that would be able to help support that. So, students would still have the brick and mortar type setting but then also have opportunities to explore educational opportunities in an e-elementary setting."

Floyd explained the district is in a partnership with Delacour Consultants and what looking for a hybrid learning environment for the students. He also said these types of programs are not being utilized fully on the East Coast yet, but are prevalent in Arizona, Texas and California.

Floyd, along with Director of Technology Steve Reynolds, Limerick/Spring City Elementary School Principal Mitch Edmunds, and teachers Deborah Eaton and Janet Rudinsky, attended “Hybrid Learning Seminar” at the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 on April 12 at no cost to the district, aside from the hiring of substitute teachers in the absence of Eaton and Rudinsky.

The purpose of looking at Spring City, Floyd said, is that it is a smaller setting.

"Obviously it's not one of our larger populations right now within the district," he said. "When you start off any project, one of the things you want to look at is manageability of that project from a number of standpoints - professional development for the staff to infrastructure to technology resources and so forth. As opposed to taking it on a large scale, the idea of using Spring City was because it's a smaller setting."

There is still a lot of development and planning to be had, according to Floyd, and he emphasized that this project is still in its early stages.

"I will say the meeting we were just at a week and a half ago at IU13, there were representatives all across the state and there are pilot districts looking to do the same thing," he concluded.

In other news, the board approved an Audit Engagement Contract with Mallie, Falconiero & Company, LLP in the amount of $10,000 to reconcile Upper Providence tax records and identify any findings/recommendations for the school district, Montgomery County and Upper Providence Township. There have been ongoing issues with reporting collections to the school district, as  by Business Manager Tim Anspach.

"We have to bear this cost because it’s our request to do it," said Solicitor Marc Davis. "We're going to ask the bonding company to do it. It might behoove them to do so. If there’s a defalcation, we can look to the tax collector."

Board member Mark Dehnert questioned the board on its proposal to approve an additional $200,000 to spend on adding wireless Internet access to the rest of the district. The board previously voted to add wireless access to the , , , and . This was done as those schools are eligible for a technology refresh.

Dehnert questioned why the district could not wait until curriculum had a need for it in those schools.

"Because of the way technology moves, things get better and cheaper as time goes on," Dehnert said. "We might make out better by waiting and having a newer technology at maybe a cheaper cost."

Mullin was quick to shoot down Dehnert's idea.

"We've had an extensive conversation about this," she said. "You were not at those meetings. As the chair of the committee, I think it would be crazy not to do it right now. We're supposed to be depending on the recommendation of the administrators. Steve went above and beyond to plan technology as we haven’t been up to speed for years."

Board President Tom DiBello reminded the board that the money would not be spent immediately and that the money would come out of the capital reserve fund. He also said that if networking prices decrease over "the next seven months," then he would be sure Reynolds would take advantage of the savings and "not just spend to spend."

The board approved the item 6-1, with Dehnert being the only "nay."

DiBello also proposed the district look into a policy against teachers "friending" students on social media networks, such as Facebook, after seeing a special on The Today Show, recently. Assistant Superintendent Allyn Roche said he would check up with surrounding districts to see if similar policies were in place.

Administration also acknowledged the acceptance of the donation of $1,500 from Mr. and Mrs. Elliot Zimmerman for the purchase of three iPad 2s, three VGA connector cables, three iPad covers/cases and an Apple gift card for classroom use by the students at Oaks Elementary School.

"The initial plan with the iPads is for teachers to begin looking at how these devices can be used," said Oaks Elementary Principal Mark Moyer. "As everyone already knows, Oaks school has moved forward with Smartboards being installed in classrooms. We're taking things one step further now looking for ways to incorporate wireless technologies such as iPads."

Board members David Shafer and Ed Dressler were absent from the meeting.