From: Mary.Darling@f540.n226.z1.fidonet.org (Mary Darling)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.teacher
Subject: Alive and Well
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 92 15:11:00 PST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:226/540 - The Tele-Forum Netw, Columbus OH

Dear Ed:

What a neat surprise to hear from you.  We at Plain Local (New Albany
Schools) have just this school year signed on to a ton of networks and
I've been making new friends from everywhere.

You say you graduated from Westerville in '71? - Have you been back
recently?  What a change! You probably know there are now two high
schools in Westerville - North and South.  South is your alma mater -
but you wouldn't recognize it.  They have expanded that school to meet
needs and it is beautiful.

New Albany was until a few years ago a "farm town".  Not much going on
here.  About 5 years ago Les Wexner (owner and founder of the Limited
Clothing Stores, Victoria's Secret, Henry Bendel, etc.)decided he wanted
to build "a house in the country".  So he chose NA and has decided to
fund an upscale housing development.  His house is valued at more than
90 million dollars (yes million) and houses in the development are from
$250,000 to several million.

Needless to say, he has been a benefactor of the school system and we
are now in the enviable position of saying literally that money is no
object.  Look for us on the map!!

As far as salaries in the Columbus area - teachers begin in the low
$20's.  But of course cost of living here is probably lower than in
California.  The real pay off in teacher salaries is a Master's plus
degree with 10 or more years experience.

Teaching jobs here are few and far between.  We had no math positions
open this year but still had over 200 applications.  We do expect that
within the next 5 years our district of 850 students will grow to about
2000 students (k-12) so additional staffing will be necessary.

Our technology labs in the high school are WONDERFUL.  Math is probably
the heaviest user but the language arts are not far behind.  We are now
debating whether to continue with lab situations or to move to mini labs
in each classroom.

Our new high school (funded by guess who) will probably have a networked
system with tie in capabilities at each student desk in the building.
We're thinking maybe we could issue laptops like textbooks and each
student could just "plug in" when they get to class.  There are so many
possibilities - Our superintendent told us last year to write down for
him what the ideal high school would look like.  He came back to us and
said do it again - you didn't dream big enough.

How exciting!!  Can you tell that I love what I do and where I am?  I
have two sons that go to school here to and I wouldn't have them
anywhere else.

We are also playing around with outcomes based education which is a
whole other topic.  That will probably go into effect next school year -
lots of team teaching, interdisciplinary teaching and such.

Hope I haven't bored you with the New Albany saga but we're pretty proud
of where we've come in the last 5 years.  Central Ohio is a great place
to be - we even have the OSU Buckeyes!!

Best Wishes

Mary Darling
  TNet 2.1U  ORIGIN-New Albany H/S Eagle's Echo BBS(New Albany, Ohio)



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