Princeton schools get new equipment and programs

By Katie Wagner / Staff Writer
   The kickoff of Princeton Regional Schools’ 2008-09 school year has brought changes for teachers and students.
   The new additions include a traverse wall in Johnson Park Elementary School’s gymnasium, full-day pre-K classes and software-assisted curriculums in all grades.
   The traverse wall, which was installed in late August, was purchased with funds raised by the Johnson Park Elementary School’s Parent-Teach Organization (PTO) over the past four to five years, said Stacy Pibl, a parent of a Johnson Park student and a former co-chair of the school’s PTO.
   The 40-foot-long magnetic wall is designed to assist with teaching more than just physical education.
   Students will walk across it during physical education classes, arrange magnetic words into sentences on the wall during foreign language classes and play educational games involving magnetic attachments specially designed for the wall during other classes.
   Ms. Pibl said the PTO decided to fund the wall, which cost $7,000 including installation, because the school’s physical education teacher Steve Hennessey had expressed interest in having one and the many student needs it fulfills.
   ”You use it in language arts with magnetic attachments and it has fitness attachments,” Ms. Pibl said. “It was an item of interest because it was something every child would benefit from using.”
   She added that the PTO wanted to make a capital expenditure for the school on something the students could enjoy this year to honor Johnson Park’s 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated throughout the 2008-09 school year.
   By the end of the month Johnson Park, which includes students in grades pre-K through fifth, is likely to receive another new piece of equipment resulting from a recent capital expenditure by the PTO.
   Ms. Pibl said the PTO expects to have a new climbing structure that matches one at Community Park School’s playground installed on Johnson Park school’s property by Sept. 24 — the date of Johnson Park’s annual family picnic for this school year.
   The popularity of Community Park School’s climbing structure, which Ms. Pibl described as a more sophisticated jungle gym, inspired Johnson Park’s PTO to order one for Johnson Park.
   ”A lot of parents will take their children to the Community Park playground during off-school hours, so we knew it was a popular item,” Ms. Pibl said. “Additionally, the PTO at Community Park highly recommended we take at look at their piece of equipment, because of how much use it was receiving.”
   Ms. Pibl added, “We lost our jungle gym and it was never replaced, so the kids really missed having a climbing apparatus.”
   The Johnson Park PTO paid approximately $30,000 for the new climbing structure, Ms. Pibl said.
   The school district’s integrated pre-school classes, which were all extended to full-day programs, are being offered at Johnson Park and Riverside Elementary School.
   ”We are very pleased that our pre-K program for 4-year-olds is now a full-day program,” Ms. Wilson said. “For the past several years it has been a half day program and has not been able to serve many of the students who most need to be in a high quality literacy-based program. We expect to serve 36 pupils as we prepare them well for kindergarten and overall success throughout their academic years.”
   A new software tool called Rubicon Atlas, which the school district adopted over the summer, is providing teachers with help developing and mapping their curricula, Ms. Wilson said.
   ”World language, science and social studies teachers have worked with the program over the summer and have been impressed with its capacity to support and integrate our curriculum across grade levels, subject areas and schools,” Ms. Wilson said.