Questions & Answers

During a recent Chat I was asked, "When will Biddle Street be re-opened?" This one question really contains several sub-questions, because the closing of Biddle Street (for The Hickman's construction project) has led to limited parking around the block due to our bus area moving to High Street and construction workers parking on Walnut Street.

The latest word from The Hickman is that construction of their new building will be completed in mid-December, and that the street will remain closed until then. As you probably know, construction projects can run into delays, but we will hopefully see an easing of the parking limitations with the start of the new year.

I have also been asked a few times this fall, "How can we get the crosswalk back?" The crosswalk in question used to run across High Street in front of the meeting house to West Lafayette Street. It was removed at the time that we were building the new library and administration building. The widening of our driveway required approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (because High Street is a state road) and the PennDOT officials declared that a crosswalk could not exist at that spot. We have not pursued getting the crosswalk back since the folks who would give that approval are also the folks who took it away.

Students in third, fourth and fifth grades are wrapping up the annual ritual of Questions & Answers called the ERB's. In other words, they have been taking a series of standardized tests published by the Educational Records Bureau. We administer these tests in order to receive objective, third-party assessments of individual students and the effectiveness of our curriculum. The results of these tests are quite comprehensive and provide valuable insight. In this age when too much weight is often placed on single test scores, we keep the perspective that they are one piece of a much larger assessment picture. Individual results will be shared with parents and I look forward to sharing an overview with everyone as part of my annual "State of the School" meeting in January.