As Class Sizes Grow, Moon High School Lockers Could Come up Short

Class sizes at the high school are on the rise, Moon Area School District administrators say.

Crews will install an additional 117 lockers in the new Moon Area High School to accommodate increasing class sizes. The locker set, purchased through Tri-State Lockers at the state contract price of $18,150, will be installed during the summer season, along a second-floor wall spanning between the gymnasium and the auditorium. High school Principal Barry Balaski said the school’s current inventory of 1,200 lockers would fall 20 short when next year’s freshmen class enters the high school, necessitating the addition. This year, 1,072 students are enrolled in the high school—a figure that increased by 44 from the previous year. Balaski said the district projects those enrollment numbers will continue to climb in coming years. The purchase …

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'World Affairs Council' Member Visits Moon Classroom

A member from the organization speaks to Moon Area students.

Moon Area High School students earlier this month spoke to a member of the World Fairs Council as a part of a lesson on the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Joseph Cirincione, president of global security foundation the Ploughshares Fund and council member, spoke to Moon Area students on the threat of nuclear proliferation fifty years after the crisis.  View photos of the event in the gallery above.  Cirincione fielded questions from students on the state of global security, and how the Cold War shaped history. Students from other area schools also teleconferenced in for the discussion. 

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Moon School Board Amends Agreement on Custodial Jobs

The board also adopts a policy for district advertising.

The Moon Area School Board moved Monday amend the district's service agreement with the firm Global Management Solutions.  In August, the district filled two vacated custodial positions with non-union workers hired through the Ellwood City firm, which specializes in providing maintenance, cleaning and facility management workers on a contract basis.  Members of the district's support staff union expressed concern that administrators would continue to fill positions vacated from attrition with contracted employees.   Board President Sandra McCurdy said with the contract amendment, the district will now decide on a case-by-case basis whether positions are filled by union or Global Management hires.  "We'll make decisions based on what makes …

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Resident Starts Facebook Page to Save Alternative School

Alternative Center for Education, which serves students in the Moon and Cornell school districts, could be shut down due to low student enrollment.

By the time she reached ninth grade, Emma Pasekoff was already falling through the cracks. The Mt. Lebanon High School teen fell in with the wrong crowd and lost interest in school. She began losing the respect of her parents, who thought she would never graduate. “I started losing hope for myself. I didn’t care about getting good grades,” said Pasekoff, 20, of Sewickley. “Everything was just immensely deteriorating.” As a last-ditch effort, the 10th grader decided with her parents and principals to try the Alternative Center for Education, a separate alternative school on the Parkway West Career and Technology Center campus. Pasekoff focused on schoolwork, took up the culinary arts program at Parkway and turned her situation around, going…

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Louisa

1:03 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Very sad once again the school districts would rather "throw these kids away" than try to save them in an alternative educational setting. Yes 17 or 24 thousand per kid is expensive but what if these kids fall off the rails at sometime in the future what will jail or rehabilitation costs be - a heck of a lot more! I agree the 12 schools should save this program.   more ›

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Moon's Class of 2012 Graduates

Students, faculty and family members gathered at Moon Area High School to celebrate commencement.

Moon Area School District's class of 2012 bid farewell to their high school years Friday night in a ceremony that filled the high school's gymnasium.  Nearly 300 students graduated following the ceremony.  Superintendent Donna Milanovich told the outgoing students she "wished nothing but the best for your futures."  "I hope that you will recall your days at Moon with fondness," she said. 

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Around the Rivers

Area School District Tax Proposals

Proposed budgets at Moon and Montour call for no tax increases. Here's a look at what's going on at school districts across the Pittsburgh region.

The Moon Area School Board approved a proposed preliminary budget totaling $62,778,660, that includes no staff cuts or tax increases. The tax millage rate in the school district remains at 21.30. The Montour School Board approved a $58.2 million proposed final budget at a meeting last month, which holds the line on taxes in the district at 18.9 mils The board also approved a $58.2 million proposed final budget at the meeting, which holds the line on taxes in the district at 18.9 mils. The budget includes no staffing reductions. Here's a look at what other school boards are voting to do around the area: Baldwin-Whitehall The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board adopted a preliminary 2012-13 budget with an increase of 1.08 mills, totaling 24.48 …

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Montour Superintendent Fined After Ethics Investigation

Superintendent Boyer will pay $5,000 to the Montour School District following a state ethics investigation.

Montour School District Superintendent Donald Boyer agreed to pay a $5,000 partial reimbursement to the district to settle a state ethics violation, according to a consent agreement made public this week.  The Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission in 2011 began an investigation into the Pittsburgh-based Education Management Group's contracted role as the school district's business manager. Superintendent Boyer is one of five owners of the company,reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  After learning of the investigation, Boyer wrote a personal check for $8,600 to the company, meant as a refund of two months worth of payments to him for consulting services performed under the company's contract with the district, the newspaper reports.  The …

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Montour School District to Close Ingram Elementary

The board voted 7-to-1 to close the elementary.

The Montour School Board last week voted to shutter Ingram Elementary School, which may be used as an alternative education center for the district's students.  Citing low test scores and declining enrollment in the building, the board approved a plan that would place students in kindergarten through second grade in the Forest Grove Elementary building and place third and fourth-graders n Burkett Elementary.  The move drew criticism from parents in attendance at the meeting.  The district will implement the plan at the beginning of its 2012-2013 school year. The board also approved a measure to hire Gateway Engineers to evaluate potential sites for a new $42 million elementary school that would consolodate the existing two elementary …

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New Moon Middle School Course Book Now Available

The course book is available for public review.

The Moon Area School District this week posted its revised coursebook for middle school students.  The updated book reflects curriculum changes put in place to accomodate the district's new middle school, which will include students in grades five, six, seven and eight.  The district will hold a meeting for parents of incoming sixth graders at 4 p.m. today at the middle school to discuss sixth grade math curriculum for the upcoming school year.  Click here for more information or click through the document above.   

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PA House Panel Considers Bill To Eliminate School Property Taxes

Revenue would be made up by higher income and sales taxes.

As school districts across the state consider raising taxes to offset cutbacks in funding from Harrisburg, a state lawmaker thinks the time has come to eliminate property taxes as a way of financing public schools, and raise the personal income and sales taxes to make up the difference.  The House Finance Committee took up House Bill 1776 Monday. Sponsored by Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks, the measure would hike the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent statewide and raise the personal income tax rate from 3.07 percent to 4 percent. In Allegheny County, the sales tax would rise to 8 percent.  In addition, many goods and services currently exempt from the sales tax would be taxable under the bill, which aims to raise $10 billion dollars to replace …

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