School Day

The day was billed as "Past Meets Present. " Students at Haddon Heights' Seventh Avenue Elementary School last week invited their grandparents, great-grandparents, elderly neighbors and members of the borough's Forever Young Club to share a day at school with them. "The interaction between the generations is really wonderful to see," said principal Linda Steenrod. "It's great for the kids to meet older people doing all kinds of different things, and it's good for the seniors to get out and meet some great kids.

Its foes said it constituted weird classroom science, plugged from a petri dish of experimental teaching techniques. Its friends called it right-headed classroom engineering, an elixir for the daily drone of assembly-line learning. The school board last night fell in with the friends, giving "the Glassboro Plan" its nod and ensuring that the high school will shift to a block schedule in the 1998-99 academic year. In a 6-2 vote last night, the board adopted the format. Under block scheduling, the traditional eight-period school day will be repackaged to four periods with the time span for each course swelling from 42 to 85 minutes.

First, Spring-Ford High School students were told to start school a few minutes earlier, and now, elementary school students in the district might start school 25 minutes later. During a work session Monday, school board members supported a move to delay the start of the school day by 25 minutes for Royersford and Spring City Elementary Schools. Starting next year, the first school bell will ring at 8:50 a.m. instead of 8:25 a.m. The school day will end at 3:30 p.m. instead of 3:05 p.m. The board will formally vote on the matter at its Monday meeting.

Child Evangelism Fellowship has operated "good news clubs" in private homes in Pennsylvania since 1940. At the meetings, children age 5 to 12 learn Bible lessons in a casual setting that incorporates games and crafts. The free, nondenominational program depends strongly on volunteers willing to be trained and to open their homes to the youngsters. Three years ago, Donna Weiss, who has directed the Delaware County program for 16 years, decided to take advantage of a 1952 Supreme Court ruling that established the constitutionality of "release time," or off-site religious instruction during school hours.

Eugene W. Hickok is senior policy director at Dutko Worldwide Anthony Williams is a Pennsylvania state senator As discussions surrounding the reauthorization of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act move into full swing in Washington, there is widespread disagreement over what a revised law might look like. Interestingly, more support may be coming from Democrats than Republicans. The education chairs in both chambers, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.) and Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.

The Haverford school board has voted, 6-3, to ratify a three-year teacher contract that calls for a slightly longer school day and modest annual salary increases. Teachers have been working without a contract since Aug. 31, when a three-year pact expired. The new contract, agreed to last week, is retroactive to Nov. 18, when a tentative agreement was reached, and extends through the 1998-99 school year. In late August, the board and the 340-member Haverford Township Education Association reached agreement on salaries, health benefits and the length of the school year.

The school board last night told about 30 parents that the after-school music program for fifth graders would soon be up and running, but many parents still expressed concerns. "This is a Band-Aid on a patient that needs a heart transplant," said David Fox, a parent who taught the instrumental music program for a year before taking a full-time job in another district. Superintendent Robert Suessmuth told parents in a letter dated Sept. 23 that the program was to be canceled this year because the district was unable to find enough qualified teachers.

Erica Jerez was too excited to sit down. Fueled by a pancake breakfast, the 8-year-old second grader remained in constant motion, dancing to the rhythms blared over the First Union Spectrum sound system and cheering every move the Kixx made on the floor. Jerez and nearly three dozen of her classmates from Holy Name School in Camden rarely used their seats as the Kixx drubbed the Wichita Wings, 19-9, in the team's second annual School Day Game. The soccer was nothing like the sport she plays at home with her sisters, but Jerez said she was "having a great time" nonetheless.

Not a glum face was in sight yesterday as children hopped off buses and jumped out of minivans to scamper into Simmons Elementary School in Horsham, where teachers were at work for the first time in more than two weeks. At Simmons and six other schools in the eastern Montgomery County district, classes resumed yesterday for 5,600 students after a contract dispute was settled in unpublicized bargaining on Thursday. "It's been a very, very smooth transition back into education," said Curtis Griffin, assistant superintendent, who toured the schools yesterday morning.

Twenty-four days before 10,200 Neshaminy students go back to school, their teachers have no contract with the school board and worry they may be forced to strike. Members of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers have abandoned all the extra work they usually do to prepare for a new year. After school resumes, they say they will work only during paid hours - seven hours each school day - until an agreement is reached. A strike would be the next step for the 709 teachers, said John Rock, chief negotiator for the union.