Curriculum upgrade may take 2 years

Efforts remain on track to revamp the curriculum in the Hempfield Area School District.

Dr. Barbara Marin, assistant superintendent of elementary education, told the school board Monday that updating the language arts curriculum will be a two-year process. An outside consultant has been hired to assist with the work, which is in the data-gathering phase.

Dr. Terry Foriska, assistant superintendent of secondary education, said the new math curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade is nearly complete. A proposal could be before the board by February or March of next year.

Marin and Foriska said steps will be taken to ensure all who want to weigh in on the proposals are heard. Foriska said meetings will be held with a committee comprising teachers and parents, and larger focus groups also may be planned.

Decisions of the committees will be put before all teachers before decisions are finalized.

Marin, Foriska and Superintendent Dr. Wayne Doyle said they want to avoid past practices that resulted in select groups driving the direction of curriculum.

'There will be no closed shops,' Doyle said. 'There won't be any cliques. We'll take the comments of all staff members into consideration.'

In addition to a willingness to listen to all who want to comment, Doyle said the overall approach the district is taking toward implementing the new curricula has changed.

In the past, the board gave approval for new curricula to be written. With the current process, the curricula will be written first, then presented to the board for approval.

In an unrelated matter, the board learned the high school library could reopen as early as the middle of next week.

The library has been closed since the first week of school while mold found growing on some books was cleaned up. Ceiling tiles and carpeting also had to be replaced.