Boone Celebrates Homecoming - Daniel Boone Area School District

Recycling Program Has School District Going Green
By Molly Seasholtz
Blazing Trails staff writer
A recycling program in the Daniel
Boone Area School District has begun,
and is off to a great start. So
far, students and staff have been very
cooperative and are very accepting
of the new program, according to a
district official.
“The program is of no cost to the
district,” said MR. KEN SMITH,
Buildings and Grounds Supervisor for
the district.
Eighth-grader NICOLE MCNERNEY
unloads paper from a classroom recycling
bin at Daniel Boone Middle School.
McNerney is one of the many student
volunteers across the district helping
Boone go green. Photo by eighth-grader Sydney Stone
Smith said the district did not have
to pay for the 253 recycling bins located
throughout its five buildings. He
said MRS. KATHY BENSON of Amity
Township wrote the grant that paid
for the recycling bins. MRS. LAURI
BARR in Daniel Boone’s district office
was also instrumental in getting the
program up and running, Smith said.
Benson and two district maintenance
workers picked up the containers in
August from the Alcoa company in
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
“The principals in each building were
instrumental in helping with the program,”
Smith said. MRS. BEVERLY
DENGLER and her ecology club are
in charge of gathering recycling items
at Daniel Boone High School. Sixthgrade
teacher MR. TOM VOELKER and
his student volunteers collect recycling
at Daniel Boone Middle School, and
teacher MR. DAVE MOSTOW does the
same at Amity Intermediate Center.
Principal MRS. MELANIE HEFTER is
in charge of the program at Monocacy
Elementary Center, and Principal MRS.
MARY BETH KIESEL is the head of
the program at Birdsboro Elementary
Center. The students and staff in each
of these buildings collect recycling from
each classroom at least once a week.
Smith said the program is based
mainly on paper, but cans, plastic,
and aluminum are also being recycled.
Custodians at each building collect cans,
plastic, and aluminum along with cardboard
and place these recyclables in the
comingled Dumpsters at each building.
There are two Dumpsters per building,
excluding Birdsboro Elementary
Center. Abitibi Consolidated Recycling
Division, located in Philadelphia, removes
the items from the Dumpsters
every six weeks.
Buildings in the district are expected
to profit slightly from the recycling
program. The price paid per ton depends
on how many tons of recycling
Eighth-graders KIMBERLEE CHER–
NESKY and EMILEE DURSO help collect
recycling in the Daniel Boone Middle
School. Chernesky and Durso are part of
the student volunteer effort to collect
classroom recycling directed by teacher
TOM VOELKER. Photo by eighth-grader Sydney Stone
the district collects, Smith said (anywhere
from $5 to $20 per ton). Smith
said community involvement in the
program is highly encouraged. Each
building principal will use any profits
for his or her building, Smith said.
Molly Seasholtz is a ninth-grade student
at Daniel Boone High School.
School Board Opposes New Exams
The Daniel Boone School Board voted against making new statewide exams
a curriculum requirement during a board meeting in October. The 8-1
vote was a formal opposition to the Keystone Exams, which are expected to
be phased in to state school districts beginning next fall.
The state Department of Education will not make the exams a graduation
requirement, but the agency does want local school districts to count the
exam scores as one-third of a student’s final grade in those courses.
The Keystone Exams were approved by the state in September. The exams
will replace the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests for
high school juniors. The tests will be given to eleventh-graders at the end of
10 high-school level courses by 2017.
Board members said they oppose the exams because of the weight they
will be given to final grades.
Another Berks County school board, Wyomissing, also voted in October
to oppose the state exams. At least one county superintendent and a board
member in two additional Berks County districts have expressed their opposition
to the exams.
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