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It’s May-mester at Steubenville

THANKS FOR VOLUNTEERING — David Price, who is retiring after 26 years with Steubenville City Schools as a bus driver and custodian, received thanks from, standing, from left, Barb Wilinski, Carlotta Jordan and Ame Taggart for his help for volunteering for the past 11 years during the twice-a-year hilltop neighborhood cleanups. He has cooked lunches and made the McKinley School building available for the cleanup workers use. -- Paul Giannamore

STEUBENVILLE — Instead of dealing with the ho-hum of the last few weeks of school, Steubenville High School students are taking classes ranging from “CSI Detective: Forensic Science” to an in-depth study of the assassination of President Kennedy and hands-on technology courses.

It’s “May-Mester,” a new effort at the school for the concluding 2017-18 school year. SHS Principal Ted Gorman briefed the Steubenville City Schools Board of Education about the 64 one-month classes being offered.

“For more than 150 years, our schedule had been the same. We’d go home for Christmas, come back for a week, take exams and start the new semester. This year, our schedule started Aug. 22 and we finished exams before the Christmas break and came back for the new semester. The second semester ended May 3 and we started the May-Mester May 4,” he said.

Gorman said Franciscan University of Steubenville offers accelerated classes in May with longer classes held five days a week to cram in an entire semester in a few weeks.

Most of the May-Mester classes being offered at SHS are electives, though there are six College Credit-Plus program courses.

The 64 electives being offered count for grades and attendance and fill the need for electives toward state graduation requirements, Gorman explained.

“We asked each teacher to come up with a class they would want to teach. We’d like it to be in their field, have a catchy title and then we surveyed the students for the courses they were interested in,” he said

The top choice was cooking classes and there are three among the 64 electives.

There are courses in advertising, real-life math investigations, college finance, city and county government, allied health, nutrition, computer usage, biomechanics, social justice, local history, music and cinema, orchestra, parks and recreation management, aviation and dozens more.

Gorman noted that state testing is intense and the students finished with it during the first week of May. Seniors are out of the regular class rotation now but are completing capstone projects and community service presentations. Each student is required to perform 25 of service learning hours toward graduation and must make a report to their homeroom teachers.

SHS will graduate 154 students on May 30.

He explained the May-Mester courses include a lot of hands-on, project-based learning labs.

“Kids will remember these courses because of the hands-on projects. After an intense school year, the rigors of college courses and the testing required by the state, now in May, we can just take a bit of a break, but we are taking grades and attendance. We are learning,” he said.

The courses are offered in 90-minute block scheduling, and each student has to take four courses.

Gorman noted that there are six students graduating with associate degrees and their high school diplomas from Eastern Gateway Community College Saturday through College Credit Plus, with more than 25 expected to earn associate degrees while still enrolled at Steubenville High School next year.

In other matters, the board:

¯ Approved the Big Red band’s trip to Disney World next May as well as the SHS Thespians trip to New York in April.

¯ Approved the following as substitute teachers for 2018-19: Tammy Aggers, Linda Applegarth, Larisa Andrews, Rocco Augustine, Justin Baldwin, Louis Balk, Marian Barker, Bobbyjon Bauman, Deborah Booth, Cindi Bruce, Robert Callahan, Debra Charlier, Lauren Clark, Amanda Coldebella, Courtnie Coon, Justin Davis, Marianne Dubois, Frank Elliott, Henry Fleming, Joseph Garay, Tammy Gregory, Sandra Grimm, Mary Hancock, Patricia Herring, Ruth Kerr, Patrick Mayle, Michael McIntyre, Jeanne Newman, Rejeana Palma, Brian Pietro, Morgan Thomas, Kaitlyn Turachak, Clare Vosteen, John Young and Ashley Ziarko.

¯ Accepted the retirement of Karen Madama as elementary secretary at Wells Academy.

¯ Accepted re-employment of Joseph Nocera, parent coordinator; Fred Heatherington, CBI teacher; Ronald Salvino, vocational teacher; Anthony Porco, speech therapist; Jessica Robinson, secondary teacher; and Patricia Ofca, paraprofessional.

¯ Accepted for employment Kayla Ferguson, intervention specialist; Anthony Kinyo, secondary teacher; and Antony Pompa, secondary teacher.

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