JACKSON TEACHERS GIVE `SHOW AND TELL'

JACKSON - It was "Show and Tell" night at Monday's Jackson School Board meeting as kindergarten and first grade teachers and junior high math teachers explained two pilot mathematics instruction programs now under way in their classes.

The teachers who spoke attended a week-long workshop last summer in St. Louis to learn innovative techniques for teaching math.

The kindergarten and first grade program is entitled "Math - Their Way." The junior high program is called "Math Attack." Both involve a "hands-on" instructional approach on the part of the students, who work together in groups to solve math problems.

The teachers emphasized the pilot programs are not a "new math" approach, but simply alternative ways of teaching basic math objectives.

After the presentations, School Board President Jack Knowlan Jr. commended the teachers for their effort spent to find new and creative ways of making math more fun and interesting for their students.

"This is the sort of thing we had in mind last year when we discussed creativity by our staff with the school administration," he noted.

In other business, Superintendent Wayne Maupin reported the district is finalizing the purchase of the 26.3-acre tract of land along Route D for the proposed middle school at a cost of $31,668, or $1,200 per acre. "It's an exceptional bargain," said Maupin.

He also presented board members with a revised floor plan and budget for the middle school. Maupin said the revised floor plan has been approved by the Middle School Building Committee. Approval of the floor plan will be an action item on the board's March 23 agenda.

Maupin said he is still optimistic that bids for the new building will come in low enough to include the four classrooms that had been removed from the original plans and listed as alternate bids. They are now back in the base bid.

"The budget for the new school will be exceptionally tight, and there is still a remote possibility those four classrooms may have to go back as an alternate to the base bid," he explained.

Other items on the board's March 23 agenda include an update on the budget, approval of the end-of-the-year calendar, a capital projects list for 1993-94, and class-size projections for the 1993-94 school year. Maupin promised the class-size projections for the school district will be "eye-openers."

The superintendent said he and other board members will make 18 presentations before groups of people to explain the district's middle school bond issue, which will be presented to the voters next month.

Included are presentations before the Jackson Board of Aldermen on March 15, the Jackson American Legion, Chamber of Commerce, a number of school PTOs, and other civic and fraternal organizations.

Finally, Maupin said the Jackson Ministerial Alliance has agreed to host this year's school baccalaureate program. The dates of the baccalaureate and commencement programs have not been set.