On Centre: Philipsburg

Elm Street program eyed by borough

Lori Falce

In Philipsburg, most streets that run north and south are numbered, while most that run east and west are named for trees.

Locust, Laurel, Pine, etc., have three blocks that fall in the business district but stretch farther under the leafy canopies of old shade trees that cover the residential areas.

Now one tree street will come to symbolize the community’s desire to preserve, protect and improve those areas.

Philipsburg Revitalization Corp. is working to make the town an Elm Street community, part of a state program that focuses on making the neigborhoods adjacent to Main Street Program downtowns as strong and vital as those business districts.

“These ‘core communities’ ... constitute an untapped asset and together are the heartbeat of Pennsylvania’s cities, towns and boroughs,” said a statement by the Philipsburg Revitalization Corp.

The borough has already passed a resolution supporting the idea and allowing the PRC to pursue grant funding from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to develop the project.

Parents learn new math

If your child goes to one of Philipsburg-Osceola’s three elementary schools, you may have noticed that math has undergone a change this year.

The district has begun following the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, a pre-K to sixth grade program of learning about numbers that is now being taught in 185,000 classrooms to 3 million students in America.

The idea is to teach kids how math works in their lives, not just in a book or on a chalkboard.

But that can leave parents who learned long division and fractions by the old-school rules at a loss for how to help kids with their homework.

Not to worry. The district is hosting “A Night of Everyday Math” at 6 p.m. today to help parents better understand what and how their children are learning.

Parents with children in all three elementary schools are invited to attend the event at North Lincoln Hill Elementary School, where they will play math games and be introduced to Everyday Mathematics.

Lori Falce writes a weekly column featuring news and happenings in the Rush Township/Philipsburg area. Send comments and suggestions to her at sendlorinews@gmail.com.