District to spend $55,000 on textbooks

By Rob Scott
The Daily Item

June 15, 2007 04:36 am

— SUNBURY -- The Shikellamy School District plans to spend $55,000 on textbooks this year to meet academic standards set by the state.
The money will be used strictly for social studies textbooks, which is just the second curriculum the district has so far rewritten to meet the state standards.
According to director of education Pamela Emery, the standards came out several years ago, but the district is just now updating its curriculums.
In order to meet some of the state standards, the district will have to buy books, most of which are for the elementary schools. The new curriculum is required for all grades, from kindergarten through 12th, but not every grade will need new textbooks.
"Every grade except kindergarten needed new stuff," she said. Other than fifth grade, all the other elementary classes have been using the same social studies books for the last eight years or more, the last time a rewrite was done for the social studies curriculum.
At the middle school, she said, "the books had been rebound so many times you couldn't read the page numbers."
The district also will enter into a pilot program with certain textbook companies, whereby the district will be able to use certain books for an entire year at no charge. If the teachers like the books, the district can buy them for the following year, Ms. Emery said.
She included the potential cost for purchasing the pilot program books in the budget she presented to the board Thursday night. Depending on what books the fifth-grade teachers choose, the cost could be $75,000 or $80,000 next year.
Some school board members were upset that they weren't made aware of these figures sooner.
"You knew you were writing a new curriculum, why didn't you bring this to us in, say, January?" board member Jeff Persing asked Ms. Emery.
But she said the curriculum rewrite wasn't finished until April, and the district didn't get the sample textbooks for the teachers to look at until May. If she had presented any numbers to the board before then, she said, they would have been projections.
"We weren't sure what we were going to need and what we weren't," she said. "Quite frankly, buying textbooks is like buying a car ... You have to ensure you're getting the most bang for your buck."
"So (the teachers) weren't told what they needed until May?" board member Charlie Dalpiaz asked.
"No, because I don't have a crystal ball," Ms. Emery responded.
Mr. Dalpiaz said he didn't disagree with the budget, just how it was presented.
"I'm not saying this is wrong. Students need textbooks to learn. I'm saying it should be presented in a timely manner," he said.
Ms. Emery agreed and said she would begin working on the next curriculum rewrite sooner.
"We'll start the math one right out of the box, probably in September," she said.
In other business:
n Business manager Dave Sinopoli presented the latest draft of the district's budget. Though a four-mill tax increase has been factored into the budget, the district is still facing an $83,000 deficit. But Mr. Sinopoli said that can be eliminated using a percentage of the district's fund balance, a surplus of money saved from year to year. The board has to approve the budget by the end of the month. They plan to vote on it at their regular meeting next Tuesday.
n A company based in Ohiopyle wants to use Shikellamy's school colors to sell teddy bears at Giant supermarkets. Mr. Sinopoli told the board the company, the name of which he could not recall, contacted him to get permission to use the colors. He believes they may have contacted other local districts, but he had not contacted them to verify that. He said Giant has entered into a contract with the company to sell the bears, with the school colors, at its stores. The company has agreed to provide the district with either 7 percent or 8 percent of whatever Giant buys, Mr. Sinopoli said. The district wouldn't have to pay anything. The board told him to contact the company and give them permission to use the district's colors.
Following their meeting, the members went into executive session to discuss a personnel issue.
n E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.