Mr. Gerald Luchansky provided the information concerning the changes that took place beginning with the 1973-74 school year.
Mid-Valley School District 50 Years Later
By Joseph Peter Klapatch
According to a report by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Education Research & Policy Center entitled “Merger/Consolidation of School Districts: Does it save money and improve student achievement?” dated April 2009 (mrea-mt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PA-psba-merger-consolidation.pdf), for the 1959-60 school year, there were 2,277 school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. During the 1960s, there were three legislative actions that brought about consolidations of school districts. There was the School District Reorganization Act of 1961, the School District Reorganization Act of 1963, and the School District Reorganization Act of 1968. As a result, for the 1969-70 school year there were 669 school districts in Pennsylvania.
Locally, among many jointures, the 1969-70 school year was the first for the Mid-Valley School District, which consolidated the former Olyphant, Throop and Dickson City school districts. Even though the district is Kindergarten through 12th Grade, each borough continued to have its own elementary school. The former Dickson City Junior High School became the Mid-Valley Junior High School for students in grades 7 through 9. The former Olyphant Junior High School became the Mid-Valley Senior High School for students in grades 10 through 12.
One of the anticipated advantages of mergers that the study mentions is the need for fewer superintendents and other key positions. At first, the superintendent of the former Olyphant School District, John Metrinko, became the superintendent of the newly established school district. The former Throop School District superintendent, Edward Prokop, and the former Dickson City School District superintendent, Joseph Tylenda, became assistant superintendents. For the 1973-74 school year, Dr. Thomas McDonnell became the superintendent; there were no assistant superintendents. Currently the Superintendent of Schools is Patrick J. Sheehan.
Similarly, the principal of the former Olyphant High School, Stanley Kucab, became the Mid-Valley Senior High School principal. Frank Rolka, who was a science teacher, became the senior high school assistant principal. Edward Munley was the principal of the former Dickson City High School. Joseph Regenski was the principal of the former Throop High School. Mr. Munley became the Mid-Valley Junior High School principal. Mr. Regenski became the junior high school assistant principal.
For the 1973-74 school year, Daniel Donovan became the secondary school principal for both the junior and senior high school with his office was in the senior high school. Before this he was a Social Studies teacher at West Scranton High School. Robert Warzecha became the junior high school vice principal in the school in Dickson City. He started his teaching career in the 1970-71 school year as a Social Studies teacher in the Mid-Valley Junior High School. Gerald Luchansky became the senior high school vice principal in Olyphant. He began teaching English at the Dickson City High School during the 1968-69 school year, and continued at the Mid-Valley Senior High School. He was the Guidance Counselor during the 1972-73 school year. Currently, Jeffrey Kovaleski is the Secondary Center Principal, and Michelle Higgins is the Secondary Center Vice Principal.
The report points out that the consolidations facilitated the creation of full-time elementary school principal positions which improved supervision. Before the jointure, and during the early years, there were no formal elementary school principals. Each elementary school had a head teacher. This was a teacher who performed additional duties that would normally be performed by a principal. The head teacher for the Throop Elementary School was John Luchansky. For the Olyphant Elementary School, it was James Liparulo. For the Dickson City Elementary School, it was Ann Kachmar. Later, John Luchansky became the elementary school principal with jurisdiction over the three elementary schools, but the head teachers remained. Currently there is one elementary school in the district. Carlos Lopez is the principal, and the vice principal is Michael Piercy. There are no longer head teachers.
Another anticipated advantage is the “need for fewer buildings.” Because all secondary students were attending schools in Dickson City and Olyphant, no secondary school students attended classes in the former Throop High School. It became the Throop Elementary School. The Washington School in Lower Throop, which had served as an elementary school, was closed.
In 1977, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry condemned the Olyphant and Dickson City elementary schools because they were in violation of the Fire and Panic Act. For the 1981-82 school year, students in grades seven through twelve began to attend classes in the newly-built Mid-Valley Secondary Center; the Elementary Center opened for the 1989-90 school year.
The report mentions that in consolidated school districts, there can be a better allocation of teachers to offer additional courses. Immediately before the jointure each high school had graduating classes ranging from about thirty to fifty students. For the most part, students had the same English teacher for all three years, the same social studies teacher for all three years, etc. The consolidated district had graduating classes of over one-hundred students. Because of this, instead of having a science instructor who taught Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, there were a Biology teacher, and Chemistry teacher, and a Physics teacher. Students did not have the same teacher for a particular subject three years in a row.
In the beginning, the transition was not very smooth. Some students, teachers, and administrators still held on tightly to their previous affiliations. In the years immediately before the jointure, none of the three districts had a football team. For the 1969 season, there was the Mid-Valley Spartans junior varsity team. The following season, there was a varsity team. This helped unite the student body.
As students progressed from elementary school to secondary school, and had no previous first-hand experience in the predecessor secondary schools, integration of students from the three boroughs was less difficult. Now that there is only one elementary school for the entire district, borough identity has much less relevance in school life. Overall the consolidation was a big success. It is hard to imagine the school experience if there was no consolidation.
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