EXETER \u2014 The proposed creation of a sixth through eighth grade Wyoming Area Middle School within the Wyoming Area Secondary Center was discussed at a brief school board work-session meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Upon questioning from a local parent, Wyoming Area Superintendent Jon Pollard spoke in favor of the proposal as a change necessary for student performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing the same things over and over for a long time and expected different results,\u201d Pollard said. \u201cSo, now what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re trying something different, because if you keep doing what you\u2019ve always done, you\u2019re going to keep getting what you always got.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walt Stevens, a Wyoming Area parent, said he appreciated efforts to keep special education students in-district, but questioned Wyoming Area\u2019s emphasis on remedial education was coming at the expense of its honors curriculum. He said providing \u201clittle to no opportunity for advanced education\u201d could drive more students to charter schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of mention of remedial,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cIs there anything about kids who need higher education, Advanced Placement classes, honors classes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pollard said Wyoming Area has honors classes predominantly available in high school that students can access through success during middle school. He said there were honor-track middle school courses in seventh and eighth grade for mathematics classes; and in eighth grade for science classes, but not in English or social studies. Students can begin taking dual-enrollment courses as sophomores.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a lot of opportunities for advanced things in the high school years and (to be admitted) to those, you need to perform well in the middle school years,\u201d Pollard said.<\/p>\n
Pollard added that Wyoming Area prioritized remedial education to improve its state standardized testing scores, particularly the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment for students in third through eighth grades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, we need to concentrate on making sure that we\u2019re passing the PSSAs,\u201d Pollard said. \u201cSo, that energy is being placed in those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2025, 48.1% and 35.9% of Wyoming Area students taking the exam scored proficient or advanced on the PSSA English Language Arts and PSSA Mathematics exam, respectively. Both these proficiency rates were below the statewide averages, though they ranked as the third highest for language arts and fourth highest for math among school districts based in Luzerne County.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be No. 1,\u201d Pollard said when discussing scores after the meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Stevens also questioned whether students would be enthusiastic about the new branding that would come with the proposed consolidation. As part of the creation of the Wyoming Area Middle School, each grade is being given their own logo, while the middle-school wing as a whole will adopt the motto \u201cfind your path.\u201d To retain students, Stevens argued the district needed to focus \u201cmore on the education, not the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pollard and several school board members also expressed confidence in the new branding that is part of the new middle school consolidation plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so\u2026they\u2019re young kids,\u201d Wyoming Area Board of Education member Kirby Kunkle said when asked whether students would be excited about the new logos. \u201cTruly, I think if they\u2019re having their own space, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at finding ways to excite children and make them want to be a part of the school,\u201d Pollard added. \u201cWe need to make sure that our kids feel wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pollard also contrasted Wyoming Area\u2019s branding for the new middle school with what he and public school-district advocates have previously lambasted as the exorbitant marketing expenses of cyber charter schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re taking the tax dollars that you\u2019re paying to our taxes and they\u2019re up-charging,\u201d Pollard said. \u201cWe\u2019re attempting to do things to make sure our children are feeling wanted and enjoy being at Wyoming Area to stop the exodus to\u2026cyber charters.\u201d<\/p>\n
School district officials unveiled their proposal to create a Wyoming Area Middle School within the Wyoming Area Secondary Center at a virtual town hall last week. The proposal would have Wyoming Area sixth grade students attend the secondary center and join with seventh and eighth graders as part of a consolidated middle school. The change, school officials said during the presentation, was designed to help reduce costs amidst declining enrollment, largely via staff and faculty attrition. Savings could then be invested in internal special education programs that could help prevent students from being sent to costly out-of-district alternatives.<\/p>\n
The creation of the middle school would be accompanied by a redesigned, seven-period school day, designed to increase instructional time and reduce study halls. That new schedule will facilitate the creation of\u00a0 \u201cWarriors in Need\u2019 flex period\u201d for individualized, remedial instruction based on state standardized test performance and internal district benchmarks. Teachers can also use the flex period to plan for how to address individual student performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to do something to make sure that our kids are performing,\u201d Pollard said. \u201cAnd this is the strategy that we\u2019ve taken on at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wyoming Area Board of Education must ratify the middle school proposal before it goes into effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXETER \u2014 The proposed creation of a sixth through eighth grade Wyoming Area Middle School within the Wyoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[227,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,802],"class_list":{"0":"post-118197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-luzerne-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news","16":"tag-top-stories-cvc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}