Make the Grade 2018

EASING THE TRANSITION

PA G E 5

SHOULD KIDS STUDY WITH MUSIC?

PA G E 1 1

2018

FOR A SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL YEAR Section T

SUNDAY, AUG. 12, 2018

ERIE TIMES-NEWS

GOERIE.COM

NO MORE HOODIES A year after its reconfiguration, Erie School District focuses on discipline policy, attendance

By Ed Palattella ed.palattella@timesnews.com

A

year ago at this time, the Erie School District was rushing to finish its sweeping reconfiguration, including the creation of Erie High.

When school starts this year, on Aug. 27, the changes at the 11,500-student district will be far less drastic or dramatic. But they will still affect students, their families and their teachers.

One of the biggest shifts involves hoodies.

The district is banning all students from wearing the hooded sweatshirts on school property during the school day. The ban is one of several changes included in the revised student handbook, which the Erie School Board approved on June 20 and which students will get on the first day of school.

The hoodie ban and other significant changes to the handbook grew out of a review of issues that arose during 2017-18. The changes, district officials also said, are designed to bring the district’s rules more in line with its five-year strategic plan, which the School Board also approved in June.

Superintendent Brian Polito and his staff developed the strategic plan to coincide with the district’s financial recovery, which the district is undertaking following its receipt of additional annual state aid of $14 million. The delivery of the aid started in 2017-18.

The strategic plan focuses on how the district, with its improved but still limited financial resources, can meet six “game-changing” targets.

They include getting the district’s graduation rate to 100 percent, improving reading proficiency for 2

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

the district’s youngest students, improving attendance and making discipline more proportional among all students, regardless of race.

“We really see this year as focusing on education and starting to improve our scores and really making some inroads in our strategic plan goals,” Polito said.

But several changes, including the hoodie ban, are still on the way for 2018-19. Here is a list: Hoodies The Erie School District had allowed students to wear hooded sweatshirts throughout the day as long as the hoods were down. With too many students keeping the hoods up, the district moved to ban the hooded sweatshirts for all students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“Students were wearing hoodies during the day and putting the hoods up over their heads. You could not tell who the student was,” said Neal Brokman, who worked on revising the student handbook as the Erie School District’s director of alternative programming.

He said earbuds added to the problem.

“Not only could you not see their face, but when somebody— another student or an adult — was trying to address them, they couldn’t hear you,” Brokman said. “It became too much.”

The new rule states: “Outerwear and hoodies: Outerwear, including hoodies, must be placed in lockers from ‘bell to bell’ and is not permitted to be worn during the school day. Outerwear includes but is not limited to coats/jackets, hoodies, windbreakers, wind pants, gloves, hats, bandanas and scarves.”

Under the old rule, students who did not keep their hoods down were not allowed to wear hoodies. Brokman said the rule became too difficult to enforce because of the number of students who were

keeping their hoods up.

“It was a constant battle,” he said.

Brokman and Polito said they know of no other school districts in the area that prohibit the wearing of hoodies. In the General McLane School District, for instance, Superintendent Rick Scaletta said students can wear hooded sweatshirts as long as they keep the hoods down.

Scaletta said he is sure that students are tempted to put up the hoods and enter into “their cocoon.”

Time changes The Erie School District reworked its student start and end times in

2017-18 to accommodate transportation changes due to its reconfiguration. After reviewing the transportation needs and other factors, the district readjusted the times for 2018-19 and announced the new times in May. • Elementary school students will start at 8 a.m. and be dismissed at 2:30 p.m. Those students had attended school from 9:20 a.m. to 3:40 p.m., with free beforeschool programs running from 7:40 to 8:40 a.m.

• High school students will start at 8:40 a.m. and be dismissed at 3:30 p.m. Students at Erie High had attended school from 7:45 a.m. to 2:55

p.m. The school day for students at Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy had run from 8:10 a.m. to 2:48 p.m.

• Middle school students will start at 8 a.m. and be dismissed at 2:45 p.m. The day for students at East Middle School had run from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., and the day for students at Strong Vincent and Wilson middle schools had run from 8 a.m. to 2:55 p.m.

programs at EmersonGridley Elementary School, which the district closed a year ago in its reconfiguration.

The alternative-education programs include the district’s Recovery Academy. It is for high school students who have fallen behind in getting their credits and are at risk of not getting a diploma.

New life for Emerson-Gridley

Parents will still be allowed to keep their children home from school due to weatherrelated concerns, but only if the superintendent announces that

The only restructuring related to a building is the district’s consolidation of its alternative-education

Parental discretion and the weather

“a parental discretion” day is in effect.

Parents had been able to use their discretion to keep their children home on their own, without an announcement from the school district. Too many parents were abusing the policy, which led to the change, Brokman said.

“It cleans the entire thing up,” he said of the new policy for a parental discretion day. “It clarifies what it means.”

Students who stay home due to parental discretion must still bring a note to school explaining their absence or the district will mark their See CHANGES , 4

Students head into school on the first day at a consolidated Erie High School in 2017. While there aren’t major reconfigurations for Erie students this year, there will be changes when school begins this month. [FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

|

Sunday, August 12, 2018

3

CHANGES

district in 2018-19 will prohibit a student from participating in graduation ceremonies if he or she has more than 20 unexcused absences.

The absences cannot prevent a student from graduating, as long as the student has all the required credits, but the district wanted a mechanism for penalizing seniors who develop severe cases of “senioritis” and miss an extended amount of days. Brokman said the high school principals suggested the change.

From Page 5

day away as an unexcused absence. No students are marked absent if the school district orders schools closed due to the weather.

Limiting family vacations Families will still be able to take students out of school for vacations during the academic year, but the approval process will be more stringent as the school district seeks to boost its attendance rate.

The district is no longer counting as excused absences the day students miss due to family vacations. Those days will now count as unexcused absences, and approval of the vacations must come from the superintendent rather than building administrators.

“I am looking at attendance, behavior, grades,” Polito said in his criteria for evaluating vacation requests. “We want our kids to be here during the school year. We do discourage the use of family vacations.”

New statewide policies have contributed to the Erie School District’s emphasis on reducing absenteeism. Under Pennsylvania law, a student absent 10 percent of the school year — or 18 days — is “chronically absent” whether the absences are excused or unexcused.

And “chronic absenteeism” is a category the state will consider in its new rating system for school performance, called the Future PA Ready Index. The state is scheduled to implement the index in 2018-19 under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act. Other categories in the index include career readiness and test scores.

By reducing the number of family vacations, the Erie School District hopes to 4

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

Looking ahead

The closed Emerson-Gridley School will house the Erie School District’s alternative education programs. [FILE PHOTO JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

reduce the possibility of a student missing 18 or more days and adding to the district’s rate of chronic absenteeism.

“You could be a great student, request a family vacation for three weeks and miss 15 days of school,” Brokman said. “If you are sick three other times, you are considered to be chronically absent by the state.”

In 2017-18, a total of 349 Erie School District students were absent for 1,744 days due to family vacations, according to district figures. The average length of the vacations was five days. In 2016-17, a total of 363 students were absent a total of 1,874 days due to vacations. The average length of the vacation was five days.

Though the district expects those numbers to drop in 2018-19, officials also know requests for family vacations will continue to come in.

“I have two already,” Polito said in late July.

Definition of ‘terroristic threats’ expands The district’s multi-layered response to the recent

school shootings nationwide includes improving security at its buildings’ entrances and exits. The district is also enhancing the definition of what constitutes a terroristic threat under district policy.

A threat does not have to be verbal to constitute a violation that warrants discipline, such as a suspension. The district, under the new policy, also will make no exceptions for threats made in a careless or joking manner. “All threatening comments or actions of this nature will be presumed to be serious and consequenced accordingly,” according to the revised handbook.

“We are just trying to make sure that we tighten a little bit and let the students know on the front end that even comments or drawings or anything that you think is a joke will be dealt with as if it was still a serious threat, just because of the nature of what the national trend seems to be in these kinds of incidents,” Brokman said.

“They need to be aware of the consequences of

their actions,” Polito said.

Other disciplinary changes The district in 2018-19 added vaping to its smoking ban. It also included “retaliation” as a specific offense in its code of conduct, to account for cases in which students have faced retaliation for reporting disciplinary violations or testifying at disciplinary hearings.

The district also expanded the definition of fighting, which is typically not an offense for which a student can be expelled.

Starting in 2018-19, if a student gets into a fight that draws a large crowd or otherwise creates a disruption, the student can be expelled.

Fights of that nature caused problems in 2017-18 at Erie High, which finished the year with 2,227 students.

“Especially at Erie High, with the number of students we have up there, we want to discourage gathering around those incidents as much as possible,” Polito said.

And in another change at the high school level, the

Polito said the school district will continue to adapt in 2018-19 as it evaluates its new disciplinary rules and tests other ideas.

One change that will start slowly in 2018-19 is the reintroduction of in-school suspensions. The district eliminated the practice 10 years ago to save money.

Instead of paying teachers to preside over in-schools suspensions, known as ISS, the district had students serve out-of-school suspensions, known as OSS. The Future PA Ready Index will classify out-of-school suspensions as absences that will count toward the district’s rating under chronic absenteeism, Brokman said.

By replacing OSS with ISS, Polito said, the district can keep troubled students in school, where they can catch up on schoolwork while serving the suspension. He said the district in 2018-19 will let schools implement ISS when staffing allows.

The district plans to broaden the program in 2019-20.

The reintroduction of ISS represents another way the district hopes to achieve one of its most critical goals.

“We want to work to keep the kids in school,” Polito said.

Ed Palattella can be reached at 870-1813 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNpalattella.

Easing the

transition FREEPIK.COM

Areas of stress for young students, tweens, teens

By Melissa Erickson More Content Now

T

he unknown is stressful for students entering a new school or a new school year. It’s never easy transitioning from one environment to another, but parents can help with the adjustment.

The best way is to offer plenty of patience, understanding and support, said J. Spencer Clark, assistant professor of curriculum studies in Kansas State University’s College of Education.

Allowing your child to make her own choices in areas that may be important to her will help her feel more powerful and confident, said Lori Levin, assistant professor of elementary literacy in Kansas State University’s College of Education.

A student will feel a sense of ownership in the process of preparing for school if he is allowed to choose what to bring for lunch or eat in the school cafeteria, for example.

“Any time kids have a choice, it’s freeing. Choice is a huge motivator for children and teens alike,” Levin said.

Long days for little ones Creating a household routine can ease the transition for students going into full-day kindergarten or first grade. They may come home from school tired, irritable, fussy and hungry for the first few weeks of full school days, whether they go to day care afterward or come straight home, Levin said. It may take some time to get adjusted to the high level of activity that the school day brings.

To help prepare them for long days, Levin recommends having children go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night until they reach the ideal bedtime, using blackout window shades if necessary.

Elementary-age children need 10 to 11 hours of sleep per night to function at their best, Levin said.

Mornings are important as well. The professors advise offering healthy breakfast foods or having high-protein granola bars on hand that children can eat on the way to school.

“It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but they do need to have something in their tummies before they head off to school for hours of learning,” Levin said.

“Studies show that the No. 1 thing that helps kids be resilient through middle school is knowing they have one adult in their life, whether it’s a parent, teacher, coach or clergy member, who they can rely on.”

Lori Levin

Older kids, different challenges For middle-school students, the transition also includes changing bodies and moving into adulthood.

“Studies show that the No. 1 thing that helps kids be resilient through middle school is knowing they have one adult in their life, whether it’s a parent, teacher, coach or clergy member, who they can rely on,” Levin said.

Levin advises parents to share honestly with their children about their school experiences, including the fun times, the challenging times and how they overcame difficulties. Also, it is key for parents to ask about and acknowledge their children’s feelings about school.

“Listening attentively and without judgment is so important,” Levin said.

Teens look to future Students entering high school have to cope with the pressure of how their decisions at school will affect their futures, as well as balancing activities and homework, Clark said.

Parents can help by discussing the teen’s schedule, helping teens decide when they should work on homework, and assisting them in selecting extracurricular activities that relate to their strengths and goals, Levin said.

“Studies of feedback from high schoolers show they are under tremendous pressure, which they put on themselves and feel from parents to get good grades, be in a sport and get into a great college,” Levin said. “Having reasonable expectations is important. So many teens try to do it all and get overwhelmed.

Having some downtime without technology is really important.”

|

Sunday, August 12, 2018

5

ABC’s

ACADEMICS, BUILDINGS & COVER

IN ERIE COUNTY SCHOOL S

By Valerie Myers

valerie.myers@timesnews.com

Security has been upgraded in the Fairview School District, administrators say. Here, students take part in a national walkout event in April to talk about gun violence in schools. [FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

6

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

b

E

rie County school districts are introducing courses, support programs and staff and stepping up security for the 2018-19 school year.

Two districts also are introducing new school superintendents.

Corry Area’s Sheri Yetzer is new to the superintendent’s job but is not new to the school district. She has worked in Corry for two decades, most recently as assistant superintendent. She succeeded retired Superintendent Bill Nichols on July 1.

Matthew Bennett is the new superintendent in the neighboring Union City Area School District. Previously director of secondary education in the Fort LeBoeuf School District, he succeeds Sandra Myers, who retired June 30.

Here’s a look at more of what’s new in Erie County public schools: Improved safety and security New safety initiatives include programs to train school staff to respond to a shooting or other crisis.

In the General McLane School District, the NaviGate program will provide 360-degree views of each room in schools so that police can see entry points and other details if a shooter or other intruder enters.

The program also improves internal communications.

“It’s really an amazing and comprehensive app,” schools Superintendent Rick Scaletta said The district also is detailing plans to evacuate students

and staff if necessary and later reunite students with families.

Northwestern School District will sponsor active shooter response training for both Northwestern and neighboring school staff next week.

Wattsburg Area School District has beefed up security at all school entrances, where staff now have improved security cameras, monitors and door controls.

Fairview School District has increased security at its elementary school entrances.

“It’s basically another layer of security with another set of locked doors coming in,” schools Superintendent Erik Kincade said.

Millcreek Township School District installed security film on glass doors in each of the district’s 10 schools.

The film prevents glass from shattering, slowing intruders.

Millcreek also has secured entrances at each school.

The district will discuss security initiatives during a parentschool safety night Aug. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at McDowell Intermediate High School. School officials, resource officers and Millcreek police will participate.

North East School District is adding a secure vestibule to the North East Middle School entrance this fall as part of ongoing renovations at the school.

“Our other schools have a security vestibule; the middle school did not,” schools Superintendent Frank McClard said. “We looked at safety and security as part of the

overall renovations.”

Academic and technology improvements Girard School District will partner with the Achievement Center and United Way of Erie County to expand community school initiatives at Elk Valley Elementary. Elk Valley, in Lake City, and Iroquois Elementary School in Lawrence Park are part of United Way’s initiative to provide in-school services for students and families.

“We had more than 60 after-school and evening programs last year, not counting our (traditional) afterschool programs,” Girard schools Superintendent Donna Miller said. “We’re looking forward to doing even more this year to inspire students and build community relationships.”

The Iroquois community school, operated in partnership with Penn State Behrend and United Way, will have a director in place in August.

“We’re pretty excited to get a person on board and to kick off some exciting programs,” schools Superintendent Shane Murray said.

Also in place at Iroquois this fall will be a Drug and AlcoholFree Communities coordinator.

New in Millcreek Township School District is the reopening of Ridgefield Elementary School. The school is leased to the Sarah Reed Children’s Center and will provide classrooms for students in the agency’s residential See IMPROVED , 10 |

Sunday, August 12, 2018

7

8

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

|

Sunday, August 12, 2018

9

IMPROVED From Page 7

treatment and partial hospitalization programs serving students with behavioral or mental health needs.

Millcreek also rolls out its Distinctive Scholar program this fall. Participating students can earn AP Capstone diplomas that signal that they have the advanced research, teamwork and communication skills coveted by colleges.

Fort LeBoeuf’s Robison Elementary School will recognize “exceptional Bison behavior” with signs in the yards of outstanding students.

School staff this summer surprised students with pizza to honor outstanding academic achievement or improvement.

Mill Village Elementary School, also in the LeBoeuf School District, will again partner with Edinboro

10

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

University to offer a weekly after-school program providing tutoring, homework help and activities. A sign-up sheet will be sent home with students.

At Harbor Creek, a Penn State Behrend professor will offer a course for students at Harbor Creek High School this fall. It’s part of a continuing partnership between the school district and college.

New Schoology technology will allow Harbor Creek teachers in grades 9-12 to connect students with online learning and involve parents in the education process.

Wattsburg Area School District will complete a multiyear curriculum review that so far has resulted in new K-12 science, math and English and language arts programs and materials.

“We’ve also been investing in technology and now have a one-to-one ratio of students to computing devices throughout the district,”

Wattsburg schools Superintendent Kenneth Berlin said.

Fairview School District this school year will provide an iPad for each K-2 student, teacher and aide. Older students previously were issued iPads.

Union City Area ninthgraders will have personal Chromebooks to use this school year.

“We’ve had them in sets and in our S.T.E.M. Academy, but this will be the first class to have the technology one-to-one. And we’ll expand from there,” Bennett, Union City superintendent, said.

Each North East Middle School student will have a Chromebook to use in school.

“We’re going to carry this forward so students going into ninth grade will have Chromebooks available to them, and then available to them through high school,” North East’s McClard said.

North East School District has a new student information

system in place. Parents and students will be able to check grades, attendance, lunch accounts, transportation news and emergency contact information through the Sapphire K-12 program.

New at Girard High School this year is a major technology initiative with courses in emerging technologies, innovative technologies and introductory engineering and a state-of-the-art S.T.E.M. lab with 3-D printing and other capabilities, Miller said.

General McLane will introduce computer coding instruction for sixth- and eighth-graders and gifted elementary students. The “Ice House” entrepreneurial program piloted at General McLane High School in 2017-18 returns as part of the school curriculum this year.

Northwestern School District launches a new reading series at Northwestern and Springfield elementary schools this fall.

New and improved school facilities General McLane’s Edinboro Elementary School, is getting new paint and new classroom shelving units this summer. There’s also a new HVAC system in the school.

Northwestern School District’s sugar shack is expected to be completed before school begins this fall. The district has hired an architect to consider possible high school renovations, schools Superintendent John Hansen said.

Millcreek Township School District will launch a facilities planning initiative this fall. A Strategic Facilities Planning Committee will survey district buildings to determine work that will need to be done over the next decade.

“We know that we have a lot of aging buildings and need to start thinking See IMPROVED , 15

music

Studying with

By Melissa Erickson More Content Now

W

hether they’re studying for a world history final or concentrating on programming homework for coding class, students are often plugged in and listening to music on headphones. Enter a library or homework space and it seems studying with music is the norm rather than the exception.

But should your child study with music? It depends.

The effect of background sound on task performance has been studied in depth for the past 40 years “in a phenomenon known as the irrelevant sound effect,” said Dr. Nick Perham, a lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, U.K. “The Mozart effect” theory is often dumbed down to “listening to music will make you smarter,” but studies do show that music can improve memory and

>:F9Y$Y C3UN(<Y *Y]NUU7 C093Y

'(-,+/!$& .,"/-&( !$ *",% %(-)*"-/) -$) '"",#*"-/)0 R>124,Q

GIM) T"1>H [

Is it helpful? Depends on the student

attention, pump you up or slow you down, among other things.

One study from the Stanford School of Medicine showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory.

Helpful types of music Sound affects performance in a variety of ways, Perham said.

If a task requires some mental arithmetic, such as recalling a list of items in order, background sound that contains acoustical

C3UN(<Y *Y] GIM) [

2VV

-!,++(/## .)+ '.*&%"/"$

[

variation will impair this.

“Most sounds do this.

Someone speaking is an example of acoustically varying sound,” Perham said.

On the other hand, a task that requires information to be processed semantically, such as reading comprehension, is impaired by music with lyrics.

“Nonspeech sounds don’t impair reading comprehension compared to quiet, but speech does. Same for lyrical and nonlyrical music,” Perham said.

Many people listen to music

K(33NY66Y6 K 33 99W

'8U6YU03 CU?(6 FN9$Y6

15@

-(NL9W< 69JY6

(W] 0S&

63(N39W< (3

&+;98Y 60SS89Y6 8(63

[

VV&

to help them concentrate, but it really depends on the kind of music that’s playing and what effect you want that music to have, said Benjamin Hardy, a writer at Medium.com and doctoral candidate at Clemson University. For many, listening to music while doing another task — including academics — has a positive effect on performance, creativity, motivation and concentration, said Hardy, author of “Willpower Doesn’t Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success.”

To banish the distraction of music while studying, choose songs that are highly repetitive, ambient sounds or classical music, said Hardy, who often writes while listening to one song on repeat.

“It allows you to dissolve into the noise, stops your brain from wandering and allows you to focus on the task at hand,” he said.

FU.YN DY$89W9W< MY(3;YN CU?(

GIM) [V=@

MU/Y6Y(3 GIM) [

@V@

$BAA !8'*! &A249AB6 ,0 >-<<BA@@ 3A<@ -+,9A ):.? %5"%C3 !*5#%31 3%!%'1"8; 8$ &8/(!%73"&%& >*115%33%3= B.9W 1 S$P CY3 [5V@ !088 1 S$P CY3 [@V@

E0YYW 1 S$P CY3 [VV@ X9W< 2 S$P CY3 [T"TV@

B.9W CY3 [>V@ !088 CY3 [4V@

E0YYW CY3 [5V@ X9W< CY3 [V=@

C,DI,' FZMMG+:BGF

B.9W 1S$ CY3 [1V@ !088 1S$ 6Y3 [24@

E0YYW 1 F$ CY3 [2V@ X9W< 2S$ CY3 [4=@

!NY]O6 !0NW930NY 'UP @T= =>>:H11H ...P?NY]6?0NW930NY$UP$U7

&1%/ 4-0,)'$ 2'),,' !)-,. 3" +(1#*

|

Sunday, August 12, 2018

&*'%("$#)#!

B\#D,F#%Z' C#D#I# %GA*M# CZ%#%

B\#D,F#%Z' \% !GDBD#CC

11

How early should your child be connected?

When considering providing a phone to your child, think about what to get, how to monitor activity

By Jennie Geisler jennie.geisler@timesnews.com

P

arents have been up against this question since their children have been old enough to hold one: “When can I get my own cell phone?”

Some cave as early as grade school. Others manage to placate with iPods, tablets and their own phones until later, but, according to a Nielsen study performed during the fourth quarter of 2016, the most predominant age when kids got a service plan was age 10 (22 percent), followed by 8 (16 percent) and ages 9 and 11 were tied at 15 percent. For those of you scoring at home, that means 68 percent of kids in the study had phones by age 11.

But these devices are expensive and powerful and in some cases, dangerous, so, even if you can afford it, you probably don’t want to drop an iPhone X in your 8-year-old’s hand.

How best to go about this:

12

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

Research. Read, read and read some more. What follows isn’t a comprehensive report, but a guide of what you need to think about before you buy and activate and turn over the keys to this kingdom of information, socialization and recreation, for better and for worse.

To begin with, the gadgets themselves range in price from $30 to $800. No 8-year-old needs— or can be expected to be responsible for— an $800 electronic device. Consider what your child will be using the phone for. Some off-brand $30 phones are perfect for simply calling and texting. If they want to watch videos or play games, then you can expect to pay more for storage and screen quality. Older kids who want to take photos and create sophisticated content, such as slideshows or videos, or run data-heavy apps, are going to need more storage and power, but you can get away with a few hundred dollars for

[SHUTTERSTOCK.COM]

90 percent of what a child is going to use a phone for. And refurbished older models are available and worth a look.

Once you decide on a device, you need a service plan in order to use it. That’s what gets you calls, texts and — the expensive stuff — data.

Most plans offer unlimited calls and texts (though service from outside the country is another matter). Data is what most plans limit. Data includes, for the most part, streaming video, downloading and updating apps, sending

and receiving photos, music and playing games online.

Keep in mind that if you buy a phone from a service provider, say, AT&T, you have to use AT&T’s cell service. Other phones, called “unlocked” which are available at independent dealers such as Best Buy or Amazon.com, can be used with any service plan that supports that phone.

Plans usually come with “gigs” of data, short for gigabytes. A low-end plan includes 1 gig of data. You can get plans from 500 MB (half a gig) to 5

gigs, or unlimited. Some “unlimited” plans will slow down your data transfer after b you’ve used a certain amount.

Plans can run from $15 a month to well north of $100 for families with lots of lines.

There are plans out there designed for kids. There’s a list at www.wirefly.com/guides/ best-cell-phone-plans-kids.

Big name carriers, such as Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T, all have family plans and charge differently, but most require you to sign contracts to stay with them b for a year or two with hefty charges for leaving early.

Other smaller companies are charging less, including Cricket Wireless, and prepaid plans are available from rapidly multiplying providers, such as Walmart’s Straight Talk, which is available in many shapes and sizes. Prepaid plans are good for parents who can control how much data is available to their kids and avoid surprising phone bills. When the data is gone, it’s gone. You can get more, or make them wait. Prepaid plans run from $10 a month

to as much as you want.

Once you have the phone and the plan and think you’re ready to give your child a phone, the real work has just begun. Parents have many options for monitoring how the phone is used, how much it’s used, where it’s used and lots of other information. After all, parents are footing the bill, and we all know the damage possible after an errant photo or Tweet or Facebook post gets out of hand.

College admissions officers look at online behavior of prospective students. Future bosses look at what’s been posted in their name.

According to www. wellconnectedmom. com, a good, free parental control app available to iOS and Android phones includes WebSafely. Major wireless

carriers also offer some parental controls as well.

Snapchat, Intagram, Twitter and other apps

WebSafely

There are many other parental control apps, but some of them have a cost.

You might not think your kid’s phone use needs to be monitored, but before you dismiss the concept, wellconnectedmom.com urges parents to consider what they know about their children’s abilities to handle issues including bullying, friendships you don’t know about, harassment, sexting, suicidal thoughts by friends, runaways, drug pushers and pornography. It might not be what your child is doing online, but what their friends and others are doing that could be the problem.

• Apps downloaded • Text messages • Websites visited • Location of device — through GPS you can see a trail of where the phone has traveled during the day • Social media posts when pictures are added.

• Also, usage curfews can be set, and the parent will be notified if the kid tries to use the device after curfew.

OurPact • Set limits or a schedule on when the user has access to apps/Internet • Give more app/Internet time at your discretion • Block Internet access across all Apple devices • Block Facebook,

Jennie Geisler can be reached at 870-1885 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNgeisler.

LIVING WITH TECH AND TEENS Heather Cass, Her Times writer and mother of two teens with phones, gives these tips: I made it a rule that the phones HAD to be on the charger downstairs before bed because they will, inevitably, stay up playing on them.

My wifi router has an app that allows me to shut wifi off to certain devices in the house. This makes it super easy to use phones, Kindles, etc. as bargaining chips or to punish them for sassing you.

The first thing you should install is some app on (everyone's phone) that allows you to find each others’ phones. iPhones may have this already. Androids don’t. I use an app called Find Device. Because (kids) will inevitably lose it at some point. This is not a "tracker," at least I never use it that way, but rather a way to find the darn thing or at least know it’s in the house or at Grandma's.

Don’t even let (them) use it until it has a rugged case and screen protector (one of those “shatterproof” ones) because they will drop them. It just happens.

You may want to make (them) sign a "contract" or at least go over the rules.

I used this: https://joshshipp.com/ teen-cell-phone-contract.

I insist on knowing the girls’ PIN numbers and they know I reserve the right to look at their phones anytime I want.

I almost never do because they don’t give me a reason to. But if I felt I needed to, I would. I polled a lot of mom friends about this and the vast majority say the same thing. I don’t like the idea of violating their privacy (though phones are never private), but I’m their parent and teens are stupid and it’s my job to make sure they don’t do anything really dumb and impulsive.

Just go ahead & buy a micro SD card for the phone because (they're) going to fill it up quick. MicroSDs allow them to move apps & photos/videos over to the SD card. It’s important because there is a lot of stuff on the phones you can’t move, so it’s nice to move what you can.

Also if anything happens to the phone many of their photos, etc. are on that removable card.

|

Sunday, August 12, 2018

13

HOW SCHOOLS TREAT

S I C K STUDENTS

Some schools have full-time nurses, while others rely more on office staff to treat children

By David Bruce david.bruce@timesnews.com

I

t happens every day in classrooms across northwestern Pennsylvania.

Johnny starts feeling queasy or Suzie suddenly becomes hot and flush-faced. We’re not talking about the I-didn’t-study-for-thegeometry-test blues; these are students who get nauseous or develop fevers while in class.

“Teachers are really good at noticing when a child is not feeling well,” said Debbie Feeney, R.N., head

b

[SHUTTERSTOCK.COM]

F

14

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|

nurse for Erie’s Public Schools. “They send them to the nurse, where we take the student’s temperature, ask about their symptoms and see if we need to send them home right away.”

Not every school has a full-time nurse, however.

The state requires public schools in Pennsylvania to have nurses during school hours to distribute students’ daily medications, Feeney said.

But Catholic and other private schools do not have that mandate. They must find other ways to handle students who suddenly become sick or injured.

“Our (Catholic) schools in the city have a nurse one day a week, maybe two,” said Damon Finazzo, president of the Erie Catholic School System.

“And the biggest function they serve when they’re at the school is to make sure students are up to date with their immunizations and

(sports) physicals.”

Instead of seeing a nurse, ill and injured students at these schools are sent to the office, where an office worker or the principal might take their temperature or bandage a cut. If the illness or injury is more severe, they will call a parent to take the student home.

In rare cases, like a broken arm or a seizure, 911 is called.

“We handle it through the office staff, kind of like a committee,” Finazzo said.

“At one school (St. Luke School), everyone in the office has had first-aid training.

We plan to do that at other schools, yes, but nothing is set yet.”

Nurses and the others who see ill and injured students have limited treatment options. They are allowed to bandage cuts and scrapes, give cough drops and over-the-counter

allergy eye drops.

Students in middle and high school may be given acetaminophen or ibuprofen if their parents have signed a permission form.

“We have them rest a lot,” Feeney said.

“If it’s nausea, we will have them eat lunch in the nurse’s office so they don’t feel embarrassed if they get sick.”

If a student has a fever of at least 100 degrees, is nauseous or has diarrhea, they will be sent home, Fenney said. Illnesses with those symptoms are often contagious.

“We try to tell students to keep their hands away from their eyes, nose and mouth, but kids are kids, and they spread illnesses easily from one to another,” Feeney said.

IMPROVED

Girard’s new business manager, replacing Barbara DeJesus, who retired in June.

In the Northwestern School District, Dan Christensen, formerly Northwestern High School principal, is now principal at Northwestern Elementary. He replaces Terry Trimble, who retired after the 2017-18 school year.

Former assistant high school Principal Natalie Herath now is high school principal. Chris Boyd is assistant principal.

Also at Northwestern, Joe Nagle moves from the high school guidance staff to the middle school, replacing Gary Fobes, who retired this year.

Greg Nieder joins the high

school counseling staff.

Hillary Barboni is the principal at Wattsburg Area Elementary Center, where she was acting principal last year. Matthew Calabrese is the school’s assistant principal.

Millcreek reassigned several principals for 2018-19. New assignments are James Smith at Belle Valley Elementary, Marcie Morgan at Grandview Elementary, Kristen Boyd at Chestnut Hill Elementary and Kim Demcott at Walnut Creek Middle School.

From Page 10

strategically about how to upkeep them and where the money to do that is coming from,” schools Superintendent William Hall said.

New administrators and new assignments Trevor Murnock, previously Girard High School assistant principal, now is assistant to the Girard superintendent. The position had been vacant for some years.

Jacob Hagmaier is

David Bruce can be reached at 870-1736 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNbruce.

Valerie Myers can be reached at 878-1913 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmyers. |

Sunday, August 12, 2018

15

16

Sunday, August 12, 2018

|