Schools

Lansdale officials have lowered the minimum age for joining the Lansdale Public Library.   Children as young as five can now get a membership.   Borough Council Vice President Mary Fuller points out that most kids start kindergarten at five and can use the school library at that age and since the idea is to inspire children to read, five is an appropriate age for library membership too.   Fuller also says there are plenty of events on tap this summer for five-year-olds as well as older library patrons.

Students and staff at Souderton Area High School have good reason to be smiling today. U-S News and World Report released its ranking for “Best High Schools” in the United States. In Pennsylvania, Souderton Area High School was ranked 38th out of 687 schools. The ranking examined math and reading rates and rated how disadvantaged students performed, along with college readiness performance. Souderton Area High School Principal Sam Varano says, the ranking shows how hard students, teachers, parents and the community have worked to earn this recognition.

Bullying and teen suicide were the subjects of recent hearings in Harrisburg. State rep. Paul Clymer says, times have changed, allowing school bullies to mentally torture their victims through social media.

“Continues throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the weekend, there is never an end to it. A person who is being bullied entrenches and sometimes does not want to tell their parents or their teacher that they are being bullied and kind of keep it to themselves.”

Clymer say, three bills have been introduced. He hopes parts of all three measures can be included in a final bullying bill that can be finished and ready for the Governor’s signature on June 30th. Clymer was a guest Tuesday morning with Darryl Berger on WNPV's New AM-Edition.

Five North Penn High School students are in the “Big Apple” today to compete in the Siam Moody’s Math Challenge. North Penn junior, Priya Kikani and four of her classmates will use math to develop a solution for recycling. Kikani says, on a larger scale, the experience is a confidence builder and sign of things to come for the United States.

“you hear some much about other countries and how their coming up and their math and science education is so much better than ours. From doing competitions like these and going to public school, I’ve been in the North Penn School district my entire life, I can confidently say that I’m very hopeful for the future. with all this, with the great teachers that have prepared me, with my parents, with my teammates that great things are going to happen.”

Kikani’s teammates from North Penn are Patrick Nicodemus, Francis Walsh, Julianna Supplee and Scott Landis. The teacher-coach of the North Penn team is Dianne Wakefield. North Penn is competing against several schools across the country with possibility of each team member winning four thousand dollars for college tuition.