IU1 News for Superintendents and Board Members : April 24, 2008
Intermediate Unit 1 Convention
The annual IU1 Convention was held on Tuesday, March 25, 2008, at the Natali Performance Center on the campus of California University of Pennsylvania. Thank you for your participation and facilitating the attendance of your board members. The evening flowed well and we were able to fill all of the Board vacancies. I would like to congratulate Mr. McMurray and Mrs. Pavone on their re-election, as well as Mrs. Andalora (3 year term), Mr. Chambers (1 year term), Mrs. Clemons (3 year term), Mr. Detwiler (1 year term), and Mr. Meadows (2 year term) on their election to the IU1 Board.
I will provide an orientation to IU1 services for newly elected Board members prior to the meeting on Thursday, as well as prior to our meeting in June for those members starting their terms at that time.
IU1 Central Office Dedication
Our building dedication is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. on May 22, 2008, prior to the Board of Directors meeting. We have been in contact with Mrs. Brownfield and are sending invitations to past board members and IU1 administrators who served with Mr. Brownfield during his tenure as Executive Director of IU1.
Common Cents
It is my pleasure to announce that our Intermediate Unit has been selected to participate in the first phase of the Common Cents initiative. Four IU1 school districts will participate: Canon-McMillan, Chartiers-Houston, Jefferson-Morgan and Ringgold. In all, 39 school districts from 13 counties will be a part of this innovative effort to promote shared services, improve efficiency, and better target school funds toward the classroom. Assisting the team at the Department of Education is a very talented staff from Deloitte Consulting and the Lyceum Group, who have partnered together to work with the Intermediate Units and school districts selected. The cost-saving ideas that arise from your participation in this effort could not only aid your district, but also could be used to potentially benefit all 501 Pennsylvania school districts.
Academic Competition
Connellsville Area Senior High School Academic Team won the Fourteenth Annual Intermediate Unit 1 Academic Competition held on Thursday, March 27, 2008, at California University of Pennsylvania. This tri-county academic competition was held to determine the high school academic team that will represent the Intermediate Unit 1 region at the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition, which will be held on April 25, 2008, at the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The four high school academic team contenders that competed in the competition were from Albert Gallatin, Canon-McMillan, Connellsville Area and Washington. Each high school team was a winner in their individual regional Academic League in Fayette, Greene, and Washington Counties.
STEM Summer Camps
IU1's Center for STEM Education is offering two summer camps: Camp Invention and CAMP Tech. We plan to eventually expand our program to run these camps in each of the three counties. Our first year will be at Washington and Jefferson College.
Camp Encounter: We are partnering with Camp Invention, a nonprofit organization and several local teachers to provide a science camp experience for children entering grades 3-6.
CAMP Tech: Expanding on our previous LEGO Mindstorm RoboCamp in 2006, we are now offering LEGO Mindstorm NXT Robotics and Visual Basic Computer Programming for children entering grades 6-8. We are moving our students to the next generation of programming and robotics.
More information is available at http://www.iu1.org and http://www.iu1stemcenter.org.
Performance Audit - Washington County Alternative School
The Auditor General, Mr. Jack Wagner, issued his Performance Audit Report for the Washington County Alternative School (WCAS) covering the years ending June 30, 2005, 2004, and 2003. According to the report, the operation of the WCAS was in compliance with all applicable state laws, regulations, contracts, grant requirements, and administrative procedures falling within the scope of the audit.
