Field Trips

Peter McAndrews, arguably Philadelphia's Sandwich King, is doing something sacrilegious by sandwich standards: At Paesano's, his fantastic Philadelphia shops, he is serving select sandwiches on gluten-free bread. Seriously. The same bread that is more often compared to hockey pucks than haute cuisine. But McAndrews isn't making concessions. He's using the fresh-baked products from Toté Bakery, a gluten-free bread bakery - a rarity in the region - which opened in the Italian Market a few months ago. "Gluten-free stuff is always horrible," says McAndrews, whose customers often request the alternative bread because they suffer from celiac disease (like his sons)

The Paulsboro Board of Education on Tuesday night said school officials had not provided enough information about seven planned field trips for the school year and denied approval until more information could be received. Board members said the dates, exact locations and cost were missing in some cases. The trips had all been proposed for the Paulsboro High School. Approximately 40 trips for the two elementary schools and the high school were presented to the board for approval.

Michael Rakoski is frustrated because his daughter, who plays in the Voorhees Middle School band, can't travel to band competitions while other middle school students can travel to soccer games. Delores Petru, who also has a daughter in the band, is concerned that the school board is sending a message to students that music and the arts aren't as important as sports. Last year, when state spending restrictions forced the district to slice more than $1 million from its 1991-92 budget, the resulting cuts included about $60,000 worth of field trips.

The Mantua Township Board of Education has drafted a statement that would ban recreational field trips, such as visits to amusement parks, for students in the township's three elementary schools. The policy was formulated last week at a workshop meeting of the board and is to be voted on during the regular board meeting tomorrow night. According to school officials, the memory of such incidents as the 1984 fire at Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park prompted them to consider issuing the statement.

The Radnor Township school board has approved a program that will permit middle school students to spend one day a week on field trips to study the Brandywine River and its history, culture and geographical significance. The program will begin in September 1987 and will continue for the school year on a trial basis, with 40 students selected randomly from the seventh grade. Although the cost to the district was not mentioned, superintendent John C. Crosby said, "It would be a break-even proposition.

Several youngsters huddled excitedly in the cab of a shiny pumper to catch every word of the volunteer firefighter talking about the truck's equipment. It would have been an enjoyable, educational experience for any child. But the teenagers in this group faced a greater challenge than most kids their age. Each of the 30 students in the summer school class that recently visited the Yardley-Makefield Fire Company headquarters is a native speaker of Korean, Spanish or some other foreign language.

The Pennsbury High School Chamber Choir will not be going to Ireland. Seniors at Council Rock North and South Highs will not be going to Orlando. Neshaminy schools students will not be going outside Bucks County for the next 30 days. In a number of school districts in the region and throughout the country, heightened security concerns because of the war with Iraq have prompted officials to cancel or restrict field trips - the climax of the academic year for many students or, in the case of senior trips, a time-honored rite of passage.

Students will get some breaks from the daily grind despite Washington Township budget cuts last spring, which erased field trips from the school district's 1992-93 schedule. The school board has decided to restore $42,816 to the district's budget to allow field trips for grades six through 12. The money came from an unexpectedly large surplus from last year, Board Secretary Robert Kern said. But while the news may delight students and teachers, some school board members expressed frustration about the policy turnaround.

The Burlington County Natural Science Club is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year by initiating a "revitalization program" to renew interest in the club. Members are encouraging public attendance at their monthly meetings and mini-programs, where a variety of topics are discussed. The meetings include slide presentations and lectures, often by authors or naturalists. The club meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:45 p.m. at Oaks Hall, Cabin Circle Drive in Medford Lakes.

A grunting, chicken-cackling saxophone player; a monologist with a hundred voices; a spidery-thin dancer with red fingers; and a film about spinning - this is not a vaudeville show that MTI Tabernacle Theater is presenting through Sunday. The people in the program fall under the intentionally hazy rubric of performance art, and they all have found a steady outlet for their unique talents at an experimental theater in New York called P.S. 122. The show at MTI, called P.S. 122 Field Trips, offers a representative sampling of some of the big names on the fringe.

Peter McAndrews, arguably Philadelphia's Sandwich King, is doing something sacrilegious by sandwich standards: At Paesano's, his fantastic Philadelphia shops, he is serving select sandwiches on gluten-free bread. Seriously. The same bread that is more often compared to hockey pucks than haute cuisine. But McAndrews isn't making concessions. He's using the fresh-baked products from Toté Bakery, a gluten-free bread bakery - a rarity in the region - which opened in the Italian Market a few months ago. "Gluten-free stuff is always horrible," says McAndrews, whose customers often request the alternative bread because they suffer from celiac disease (like his sons)

For the first round, more than 1,000 black males, from teenagers to octogenarians, posted their stories of working in, building, and strengthening communities across Philadelphia. The call came last summer from the Black Male Engagement project, or BME (pronounced "be me"), to spotlight such unsung efforts. Now, 10 men will be named winners Tuesday of the BME Leadership Awards. They include a teacher, a Vietnam veteran, a formerly convicted activist, a Ph.D. and an entrepreneur, who will share a combined grant of $243,000 to further their work and inspire others.

In the Region Mace narrows quarterly loss Mace Securities International Inc. , of Horsham, said its quarterly loss narrowed to $1.01 million, or 7 cents per share, from $4.89 million, or 31 cents per share for the same period a year ago. Revenue for the three months ended June 30 fell to $3.47 million from $4.35 million a year earlier. Earlier this month, the maker of its namesake pepper spray and other security products raised $8.05 million in two rounds of common stock sales.

While many young people embraced sports or arts and crafts this summer, one group spent its days in math and science classes or on field trips to such places as a helicopter museum and a highway research center. For four weeks, 20 youths ages 12 to 14 participated in the Summer Transportation Institute at Lincoln University, a program designed to interest minority students in careers in transportation. "The goal is to make sure to expose them to all modes of transportation - land, water, or air," said Robert Allen, a Lincoln professor who has run the courses there for six years.

Every morning after the Phillies play, Brig. Gen. Glenn Watson checks The Inquirer, "to see if the sportswriters saw the same game I did. " The retired Army officer was reading the paper on May 25, 2009, from his home in Milford, Del., when a column I wrote caught his eye - about Bill Giambrone of Norristown, who every Memorial Day plants 75 tiny American flags around his apartment building to honor his lost crewmates from World War II. ...

By Clarence Page A new poll finds atheists and agnostics know more about religion than believers do. Maybe the pollsters weren't asking the right questions. The study, by the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, asked 3,412 Americans 32 questions about the Bible and other world religions, historical figures, and constitutional principles. Americans are deeply religious, the study confirms, but also deeply ignorant about religion. The survey found, for example, that at least two-thirds knew public school teachers are not allowed to lead a class in prayer, but fewer than a third knew teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.

Oh, the glory! This weekend marks the music recital at Camphill School in Chester County, a remarkable holistic school for children with pronounced cognitive and developmental disabilities. The recital, under the supervision of cotton-haired Elsbeth Sunstein, is so popular and vast that it lasts two days, involving almost half the students. There's "Chopsticks," and also Kathleen Rahling's accomplished take on Mozart's "Rondo. " Located on 80 verdant acres with custom-built cottages, Camphill resembles a retreat or utopian community more than a boarding school for special-needs children.

During a break in the Bonusgate corruption trial that wrapped up last month, several jurors toured the state Capitol to get a sense of where some of the alleged crimes were committed. That represents "jury misconduct" and is grounds for a mistrial, according to an attorney for one of the defendants convicted in the cash-for-campaigning case. Dauphin County Court Judge Richard A. Lewis has set a hearing for Friday on the motion filed by Michael Palermo, a lawyer for Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink, the former district office manager for State Rep. Mike Veon.

Christine Russell and Susan Bechtold live on opposite sides of the state, but they have something important in common - something that every Pennsylvanian with a preschooler should have. Christine, a nursing student in Pottstown, and Susan, who manages the family household in Verona in the southwest, are busy mothers on tight budgets. Each has two children who are thriving in the statewide network of high-quality preschool education programs known as Pre-K Counts. That network, created by the Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh and the state Office of Child Development and Early Learning, and supported by foundation partners William Penn in Philadelphia and the Grable Foundation in Pittsburgh, has, according to the two women, profoundly improved their children's learning ability, and put them on track for school success.

Merely farm-to-city concepts having achieved the status of what-else-is-new?, perhaps the time is ripe for MidAtlantic, which at 37th and Market (on the ground floor of a sterile ice cube of a Science Center, no less) is taking a slightly different bite of that chestnut. It's milking the soul foods of the Pennsylvania Dutch for inspiration for a menu that includes, as a side, a cocktail called Rumspringa, named for the freewheeling teenhood of Amish youth before the hammer comes down.