Thursday, March 14, 2013
The 2013 Baldwin Invite gets a sponsor.
Terry Choate Resigns Whitehall Borough resident Terry Choate, who used public-comments time during a March 16 Baldwin-Whitehall School Board meeting to express his dissatisfaction with the cleanliness of district buses, has resigned from his position as an extra bus driver for the district. The school board accepted his resignation, dated for Jan. 4, by an 8-1 vote at its meeting on Wednesday night. Board member Martin Michael Schmotzer dissented. Choate said on March 16 that he is a 35-year administrator of transportation. "I have never seen so many rules and regulations not followed at that (Baldwin-Whitehall) bus garage," Choate said. "You can't sweep bacteria out of a bus with a broom." Following Choate's March 16 speech, board member…
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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Students who don't have the potential for success in college—or who don't want to pursue or can't afford a degree—might be better served by a vocational education program at the high school level.
College has always been part of the American dream. Laborers didn't want their children to have to do manual labor. Parents with college degrees expected the same of their children. And college loans opened the doors for some students whose families couldn't have afforded the bill. But is college the right choice for everyone? Data collected by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for its report "Education at a Glance 2010" showed that, among 18 countries tracked, the United States finished last (46 percent) for the percentage of students who completed college once they started it, according to a report in Reuters. That puts the United States behind Japan at 89 percent, and former Soviet-bloc states such as Slovakia, …
Thursday, February 14, 2013
But the school board did approve creating that position on Wednesday night. And read more from Wednesday's board meeting here.
Only Interim Principal Position Approved Baldwin-Whitehall School District Superintendent Dr. Randal A. Lutz is not ready to recommend someone to be the interim principal at Baldwin High School, but the position itself was created by a 9-0 vote from the B-W School Board on Wednesday night. The position became necessary after Baldwin High Principal Kevin O'Toole was granted a leave of absence in January. O'Toole's leave—district administration has not divulged the reason for it—is expected to last for the entire spring semester. Lutz said on Wednesday that he is still trying to find a hire. "I've had conversations with a few different individuals," Lutz said. "There's not someone who I've identified yet as available for this position. Who …
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Thursday, December 13, 2012
School board members are concerned over students possibly taking study halls instead of physical education classes.
A motion to cut Baldwin High School's physical education requirements in half was shot down by the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board on Wednesday night by a 6-3 vote. B-W School District administration had argued that reducing the high school graduation requirement for physical education, or "gym class," from four semesters to two would give students the opportunity to take other classes that interest them or that could help their careers. They could elect to spend more time at Steel Center Area Vocational Technical School, for example. Also, students could still choose to take physical education classes as electives after fulfilling their two-semester gym requirement. But board members Nancy Sciulli DiNardo, Diana Kazour, Larry Pantuso, …
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
College in the high school, ambulances at football games, parting words from John Schmotzer, and more.
College in the High School The cost for students to take "college in the high school", or CHS, courses at Baldwin High School may fall onto the students themselves if the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board approves a recommendation in December made by school district administration. Andrea Huffman, the B-W School District's director of curriculum, made that recommendation to the school board at its meeting on Wednesday night while, at the same time, recommending that Baldwin High's CHS courses be weighted at 5.0 on the school's GPA scale, rather than their current 4.5 weight. The school's Advanced Placement, or AP, courses are currently the only ones weighted at 5.0. "Students can receive college credits for both a CHS course and an AP course…
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The suggested measure was debated at a school board meeting on Wednesday night.
Citing a 17-percent obesity rate among U.S. children, Larry Pantuso of the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board objected to a recommendation made by school administrators on Wednesday night to cut Baldwin High School's physical education requirements in half. At Wednesday's school board meeting, B-W School District Director of Curriculum Andrea Huffman laid out an idea for board members to consider: Require students to complete only two semesters of physical education in order to graduate from Baldwin High, down from the current requirement of four semesters. Administration says that it can do this while not upsetting the amount of credits that students need to graduate. Right now, one semester of physical education, or "gym class," is worth one…
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Thursday, November 8, 2012
Kevin Rice wants to help students to prepare for careers, not debt.
The measure of a school district's success has long been how well it prepares its students for college. But with the rising costs of higher education and the emergence of new, domestic energy jobs, perhaps that measurement is changing. Such was the theme of Kevin E. Rice's presentation to the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board on Wednesday night. Rice has been the director of the Steel Center Area Vocational Technical School in Jefferson Hills Borough since January, and as the school's director, Rice oversees the career/technical education (CTE) of students from 11 nearby school districts, including Baldwin-Whitehall's, by using those districts' public tax dollars. Rice said on Wednesday that he takes those public tax dollars to heart and …
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565 N Lewis Run Rd, Jefferson Hills, PA
Steel Center Area Vocational Technical School
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Thursday, June 14, 2012
The board will consider charging students for extracurricular activities.
'Pay to Play' "I think the time has come" were the words of Baldwin-Whitehall School Board member Kevin J. Fischer on Wednesday night describing his motion for B-W School District administrators to develop a fee structure for student participation in extracurricular activities. Fischer did not motion for a fee structure to be implemented just yet, only to be developed and studied. Fellow board member Nancy Sciulli DiNardo seconded Fischer's motion "for conversation," and the motion passed, 9-0. This isn't the first time that B-W board members have discussed "pay to play." "I have mixed emotions for this (paying for activities)," board member Nancy Lee Crowder said in April, acknowledging that extracurricular activities are part of students…
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Remaining notes from a March 14 Baldwin-Whitehall School Board meeting.
B-W School Officials Won't Enforce New Eligibility Policy (Yet) Read here. Brian Welles Out as Baldwin H.S.'s Boys Soccer Coach The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board opened all boys soccer coaching positions at Baldwin High School, effective Thursday morning, by an 8-0 vote on Wednesday night. (Board member Nancy Sciulli DiNardo was absent.) Brian Welles resigned as head coach of the program, and as is customary, the board opened up all of his assistant coaching positions so that a new head coach can hire his or her own staff. Welles' assistants can reapply to be on the new coaching staff, including applying for the head coaching position. Assistant Coach Richard Deemer, already the head coach of Baldwin's girls lacrosse program, said that he…
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Thursday, February 9, 2012
District savings, payments and awards.
B-W School Board Won't Remove Softball Field Parking Ban Read here. B-W School District Does Some Restructuring Read here. More Security Cameras Coming to Baldwin High School Read here. District to Save Money Through Refinancing Who doesn't like having more money? Jamie Doyle, of Public Financial Management, the Baldwin-Whitehall School District's financial adviser regarding debt, discussed a potential savings with the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board on Wednesday night. Doyle informed the board that, if it granted approval to refinance a general obligation bond that it issued in 2005, the district could realize savings anywhere from $96,600 to around $250,000. Any savings above $96,600 won't be known until after interest rates lock in on …
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
/articles/remaining-notes-from-feb-8-b-w-school-board-meeting
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Patty Gee
12:04 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
I attended Forbes Road vo tech for graphic art in high school, and I was also enrolled in honors classes at Gateway. I could have gone to a 4-year college but chose to attend The Art Institute of Pittsburgh's 2 year program. I've worked as a graphic artist since graduating over 20 years ago. I feel that my art education at Forbes helped me to make an informed career choice. My sister took … more ›