The State College Area School District board of directors was busy Monday night.
It approved many items including a school resource officer for the Park Forest Middle School.
The officer will come from Patton Township and will also be assigned to Gray’s Woods and Park Forest Elementary schools.
The board also approved changes to the district’s recess and homework policies.
Amber Concepcion, board president
“We’d heard from a number of parents who had concerns, would there be more homework with the longer school day?” said Amber Concepcion, board president. “Or even just with the longer school day, the current homework expectations might be a little too much, cutting into family time, or cutting into kid’s ability to have free time and rest.”
Kindergarten through second grade would only be allowed 10-minutes of nightly reading, but no additional homework.
There will be 20 minutes of reading for grades three through five, but with 10 minutes of homework a night or 40 minutes weekly for third graders.
Fourth and fifth graders are expected to do 20 minutes of homework a night or 80 minutes, weekly. These changes go into effect for the 2018-19 school year.
