At last night’s meeting, Tyrone Area School board members eliminated two educational programs while approving the establishment of soccer “club teams” for high school girls and boys.
The board voted by a margin of 8 to 1 to eliminate the high school vocational/electronic program due to a decrease in program enrollment. Class sizes have been at under 10 during the past three years, while four students were enrolled in the program for the 2004-05 school year.
“If you have fewer than 10 students in a class, you can collapse the class,” said Dr. William N. Miller, superintendent of schools at Tyrone. “The effect is we have had six, five and now four students in electronics and we made the option available to the students to attend vo-tech or attend other classes here for the upcoming school year.
“It’s no reflection on the teacher. The teacher has done a good job,” said Miller. “We have both declining enrollments across the entire school population and fewer kids taking electronics.”
Peter Dutrow was the lone school board member to vote “no” to the elimination of the electronics program. Rev. Norman Huff voted “yes” but indicated he did so regretfully. He also felt the same in regard to the board’s decision to eliminate the school’s Latin offering.
The board voted 8 to 1 to cut the Latin program.
“I think Latin is a basic language. I had three years of Latin and it did me so much good in my English and my Spanish,” said Huff. “I just hated to vote to eliminate it and the electronics program.”
Board member Lee Stover voted against the elimination of Latin. He mentioned his daughter had taken the courses and explained his reason for the “no” vote.
“I think it’s a very, very valuable background for a student to have, especially if they are going to college,” said Stover. “(It’s a root language that) can help you in a lot of other majors, I hate to see it disappear.”
The elimination of the Latin offering was created by different circumstances according to Miller.
“We were unable to find a certified English and Latin teacher,” said Miller. “Dual certification, we don’t have dual certification, and we need to have that combination.
“What we have done is offer students cyber school for those who want to pursue Latin,” said Miller. We’ve already had students sign up for it. Others have selected Spanish.”
The school board also approved the establishment of high school boys’ and high school girls’ interscholastic soccer “club teams” for the 2004-05 school year. There is no cost to the district for the upcoming year. The program will be run by volunteer coaches.
“The parents are very enthusiastic in support of it,” said Miller. “Likewise, the school board is (supportive of it), the following year I believe the assumption is the school district will look at financially supporting the effort. Most of it now is on a volunteer basis.”
Previously, athletic director Tony Yaniello had said the estimated cost of the startup of a soccer program would run between $10,000 to $12,000, with the cost afterwards at around $6,000 per year.
Board member Raymond Detwiler expressed some concern about the new “soccer club” program starts with ninth grade while youth soccer programs end at the seventh grade level. He wondered where this would leave eighth grade students interested in soccer.
More than 200 children participated in the Tyrone American Youth Soccer Organization program last year.
Board members indicated this was something to take a look at, but no serious discussion ensued. Miller concurred by saying, “It’s something the board wants to take a look at in the future, but right now they are interested in the varsity program.”
Last month, Yaniello indicated a likely plan would be to schedule scrimmages and games against local junior varsity teams for 2004-05, in preparation for joining the Mountain Athletic Conference in 2005-06.
“We don’t want to go into the Mountain Conference without some experience,” said Yaniello.
