Wayne Highlands School District 2019-2020

SCHOOL SCENE TAKE ONE FREE

A Look at Activities in the Wayne Highlands School District

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE SULLIVAN COUNTY DEMOCRAT

SECTION H • SEPTEMBER, 2019 • CALLICOON, NY

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For Wayne-Highlands, it’s not a job but a way of life STORY AND PHOTOS

BY KATHY DALEY

“Teaching and helping others is really my passion,” enthuses Honesdale High School alumnus Nick Joyal, one of this year's new teachers at Wayne Highlands Middle School. “I love the idea of getting the best out of someone else. Teaching lives that out every day.”

On the same Wayne Highlands campus in Honesdale sits the inestimable Diane Mott, a 46At left: New sixth grade math teacher Nick Joyal worked in the business field before getting his masters in teaching. 'Inspiring students is awesome,' said Joyal, who teaches at the middle school and is the new head varsity coach for boys basketball at the high school.

year employee of the School District. Widely admired and respected, she serves as Management Services Coordinator, handling payroll and insurance matters, connecting with Assistant Superintendent Tim Morgan on human resource issues, and serving as secretary for the school board.

“This is a great place to work, an amazing place,” said Mott.

She lives with her husband on the 300-plus acre family farm she grew up in Dyberry, seven miles from Honesdale. “This District is all about caring, putting students first. The Board always has kids in mind, it's always what's best for our students.”

“Seldom do we have anybody leave,” she said. “The whole

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atmosphere is like Honesdale itself. It makes you want to stay here and perform.”

Superintendent of Schools Greg Frigoletto delights in perspectives such as that of Mott and Joyal.

“It's all about people here, about relationships and making everything the best it can be for kids,” Frigoletto said. “It's all about kids, every day, no exceptions.”

GOING GREEN This year's most compelling new project is probably the educational greenhouse set to open later in September. The cutting-edge learning lab adjacent to the high school will provide horticultural and food production experience for students by means of an aquaponics system involving the fish called tilapia.

Aquaponics combines fish farming with the practice of raising plants in water. Instead of using chemical fertilizers, plants are fertilized by fish waste. Because the plants don't need dirt, aquaponics allows gardeners to produce more food in less space. The system reveals the relationship between water, aquatic life, bacteria, nutrient dynamics and plants that grow together in waterways everywhere.

From growing tomatoes to raising mangoes and banana trees, the joys of aquaponic gardening has excited the school's own Agriculture Program and beyond. Apart from teaching students, the project will support local food producers and help expand agricultural productivity in Wayne County, said Frigoletto.

“The local community is excited,” he said, noting the District has received significant support and backing from the Wayne County commissioners, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and the state's Department of Agriculture. “Our Agricultural program has united the community.”

Also on the screen is Wayne Highlands continual stand-out position academically. Once again this year, the School District scored in the top four out of 38 school districts, scoring 100 percent in every benchmark.

“We're not boastful, but we know it's important,” said the superintendent, who is in charge of 2,600 students and more than 400 employees. “We're calling what we do the Wayne Highlands Way. And we want to take it from good to great.”

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For more than four decades, staffer Diane (Harvey) Mott has served a significant “behind the scenes” presence in the work of educating children.

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Elementary school leaps ‘out of the box’ to encourage learning STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATHY DALEY

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oo rushed or too stressed? Take a tip from the third to fifth graders at Lakeside Elementary school.

For three years, for example, a "My Special Word” campaign has encouraged students to find a word that speaks deeply to their heart and that affects actions for the better. It's all part of a national program that encourages children to think critically about words and values they can use to shape their lives and the world around them. Some of those words might be Peaceful, Confident, Fearless, Upbeat, Strong, etc.

Lakeside Principal Sandy Rickard confessed that she herself is guilty of constantly rushing and planning what she'll be doing next. Rickard's word is “Present” as in: be here now.

One Lakeside student told the principal that she chose the word Believe. “She told me that when she moved to this school, she was worried that she had no friends. But her word 'believe' helped her trust that she would have friends. And when she struggled with her schoolwork, she focused on 'believe that you can do it,' and she did,” Rickard said.

Students at the Wayne-Highlands School District have used the face-to-face messaging app Skype to speak with children in inner city Chicago vis-à-vis the My Special Word program. In October, the youngsters will go international, linking with My Special Word-ers throughout the world.

Scholarly research continues to link student achievement with having a positive school atmosphere. At Lakeside, children engage in simple things that work. For example, students take a “brain break,” doing deep breathing for a minute or so.

“For 60 or 90 seconds, we get the wiggle out,” said Rickard, noting that calming anxiety can encourage children to take risks in learning, thereby prepping a growth mindset. “Deep breathing at their desks has proven to be productive. Kids are more focused and ready to learn. “ Areas set up around the school purposefully CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

At Lakeside Elementary School, Principal Sandy Rickard says atmosphere and culture are all important in cultivating a 'growth mindset' in students.

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SEPTEMBER, 2019

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The school offers a Sensory Path that helps kids to 'get the wiggle out' so they can sit down and learn.

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

encourage peacefulness to allow for robust learning. There's a serenity garden, a Sensory Path and a new room called the Zen Den where a student who needs time out to calm down will find an aromatherapy machine for good scents and a sound machine with peaceful waves or rainfall music. Yoga mats, a picnic bench and a gentle swing round out the comfy space.

Art teacher Nicole Curtis, a certified yoga instructor, uses her skills to teach kids easy, quick yoga techniques.

In classrooms and hallways, kindness and positivity are emphasized. Teachers find notices in even their restrooms: “Be

that person you want to work with every day.”

Finally, the school offers Chess Club each school day 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.

Over 80 kids come early to play the game that's not only fun but improves memory, exercises both sides of the brain, and increases problem-solving skills and creativity.

“We are cultivating and growing minds, and we want to ensure that minds are healthy,” explained Rickard. “The goal is that every student can be successful every day.”

And for the future, she added, “We hope to see more settled learning as they proceed into middle school and high school.”

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Retired cops encourage kids to work hard, stay safe STORY AND PHOTO BY KATHY DALEY

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n these unfortunate times of stress and trauma on kids and families, two burly retired police officers serve as sane, caring presences in Wayne Highlands’ school hallways and beyond.

Director of Safety and Security Joseph LoBasso and newly sworn in Assistant Director Brian Vennie help stay the course. They work with kids one-on-one in school.

They visit families at home.

“This work takes a special person,” says LoBasso, who served as Honesdale Borough Police Chief before signing on at Wayne Highlands in 2013. “For some kids, the time between 7:30 and 3:30 with us may be the only stability they have in their lives.”

The work can be tough but the rewards are wonderful.

“There’s that kid you have to go above and beyond with, talking to him in the office, making sure his

Director of Safety and Security Joseph LoBasso, left and Assistant Director Brian Vennie work directly with students, including these at Lakeside Elementary School.

grades don’t suffer, giving encouragement,” said LoBasso. “Then, a few years later you watch as he

crosses the stage to accept his diploma. Or you see him come walking into school in his green

military uniform or his dress blues.

Or he says ‘Hey, I’m in my second year in college!”

“This is by far the most rewarding job I’ve ever had,” said LoBasso, whose office is situated in Honesdale High School. Vennie works from nearby Lakeside Elementary School.

In addition to their one-on-one work, the two, who are in effect School Police Officers, work with various programs offered by local law enforcement. They are in charge of security for after-school activities and they implement evacuation drills and lock-down drills, training students and staff in safety measures.

“We keep up with the latest trends in lock-down drills to conform with national trends,” said Vennie, who served more than 25 years with the Pennsylvania state police, including six years as a School Resource Officer.

Together, they teach the Safe2Say

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program through the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The program, involving a mobile app, website and hotline, is a threat reporting system created by families whose children were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Anonymous reports can be made by students and others who are aware of someone planning or threatening to carry out acts of school violence.

LoBasso and Vennie also encourage students to “See something? Say Something,” as a way to alert adults about any suspicious activity or something that doesn’t seem quite right They also make it clear that a student who knows a friend is having thoughts of suicide should speak to an adult at school.

“A lot of life lessons are taught here,” said Vennie.

Both men wear business suits, not uniforms, at work. Both served with the Armed Forces in the past:

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LoBasso in the U.S. Army Reserve National Guard, and Vennie in the U.S. Navy.

Why not just sit back, then, and retire?

“I want to continue to work with the community,” said Vennie. “I’ve spent my whole life in Wayne and Pike counties. I want to help develop the future of our children.”

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STORY AND PHOTOS

BY KATHY DALEY

comfortable hometown touch at Wayne Highlands School District extends right into the system of busing kids to school.

“Most school districts contract with a bus service, but we are still clinging to our local mom and pop businesses,” says Jeff Firmstone, transportation director and business manager for the District. “It hearkens back to the dairy farm days, when it helped with their income if farm families owned a school bus.”

To this day, about 30 to 35 local individuals or families own the 80 vehicles ¨C big yellow school buses and smaller vans ¨C that start and end the school day for Wayne Highlands children.

Multi-generational families, parents and grandparents, have ferried children to school for years. Those families include the Garings, the Hellmers, the Hunts, for example.

“The owners ride in the buses,” Firmstone said. “They know their neighborhoods. They know the kids.

It give a sense of consistency to the student. It's not the same thing with a big company that can't have that local touch.”

“I love the model, even though it can be unwieldy in terms of recordkeeping,” continued Firmstone. “I believe our model is best: owneroperated versus hired hand. And (by hiring them) we contribute to the local economy.

The raw size of the school district, at 435 square miles of rural neighborhoods, can be a challenge. One of the schools, the kindergarten through eighth grade Preston School, lies 25 miles from Honesdale. Further north on the border of the school district is Sherman, Pa. (near Deposit, N.Y.), which is 40 miles from the center of the district. “We do over one million miles each year,” Firmstone said.

Then there's the issue of the various weather patterns. In winter, it might be snowing crazily in the Preston School area and just darn cold in downtown Honesdale. “I'll call one of

Honesdale born and raised, Jeff Firmstone is both transportation director and business manager for the School District.

the Hunts and they'll say 'we have eight inches (of snow) here,” leading the Superintendent of Schools to call a snow day, Firmstone said.

From now until Thanksgiving time, transportation consumes Firmstone's days. Then budget season starts with the financial administrator crunching numbers in a multi-million dollar budget. Superintendent Greg Frigoletto terms Firmstone invaluable. “When I need perspective, I turn to Jeff. He'll ask, 'have we considered the taxpayer... are we being frivolous, extravagant?' Jeff is steeped in the tradition here and much respected.”

Firmstone was born and educated in Honesdale, then graduated from the University of Scranton with a B.S. in accounting and from Wilkes University with a masters in educational leadership. He worked in the business office at Wayne Memorial Hospital before signing on 22 years ago with the School District. And he continues to serve on the Board of Directors for the Wayne County Fair.

Firmstone is delighted to play such a significant role in local education.

“It's an honor to serve the superintendent, school board, taxpayers and students,” he said.

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