|
Feature
Topics ______________
More
|
|
December 2001 / January 2002 Edition
A New High School
The Board of Education is considering restructuring Fair Lawn High School.
11th and 12th grade students would be students at an 'academy' within the high school. Under consideration are academies for Fine and Performing Arts, Applied Science and Technology, Liberal Arts and Science, Humanities and Social Science, and Applied and Practical Arts.
Mrs. Elizabeth Panella (Fair Lawn H.S. Principal) and Dr. Charles Khoury (Assistant Superintendent for Education) have proposed a new high school program that provides a greater emphasis on life long skills of technology, research and communications. Dr. Khoury said that students need to feel confident of their abilities in these areas.
Classes would be extended to 58 minutes (six periods a day instead of eight). Rather than taking the same class every day, there would be different schedules each day. Mrs. Pinella believes that longer periods would support more active learning strategies and provide students with more time for in depth study.
Dr. Khoury said that after the Columbine shootings, many researchers have studied the anonymity found in larger high schools. Mrs. Pinella said that it is harder for students to identify with a school, when there are so many other children. The academy, they believe, creates more of a family unit within a school. That is becoming even more important since Fair Lawn High School will have approximately 1,600 students in two years, up from 1,350 just three years ago.
School district officials also hope that the new programs will keep the best students from leaving Fair Lawn public schools for the Bergen County Academy programs. Fair Lawn sends approximately 40 students to the County Academy, more than any other town.
What Do You Think?: Send an e- mail to editor@fairlawnnews.com or post a message on the Fair Lawn News Discussion Forum.
|