Blue Ridge Elementary students and teachers returned to the 2013-2014 school year finding a new place to learn. The district now has an outdoor classroom. The project developed over the last several months thanks to the Blue Ridge PTO, Blue Ridge School Board and community leaders.

Pictured (l-r) are: Ann Sargent, Sarah McNamara-Sparks, Danielle Pallman, Jeff Pallman, Christina Cosmello, Trudi Hepler, Jennifer Lindquist, Danielle Buchanan (PTO President), Laurie Brown-Bonner (School Board President), Matthew Button (Elementary Principal), Robert McTiernan (School Superintendent), Harold Empett, Stephnie Thornton.

On September 17, 2013, school board members joined the PTO to officially open the classroom with a special ribbon cutting ceremony. The outdoor facility cost nearly $20,000 to install. It will provide an alternative location for elementary teachers and students when studying everything from reading to science. High school students in the Home Repair Class will also be involved designing and building furniture for the classroom.

The project would not have been possible without a sizable donation from the Blue Ridge PTO as well as additional support from area businesses.

Sydney Miller, a junior at Mountain View JR/SR High School, as well as a Cosmotology Student at Elk Lake SCCTC, recently completed her Senior Project.

Pictured is Sydney Miller (middle), with two members of the Second Brigade MC Club, taken on Sept 15, 2013 at the Dollar General in Nicholson, PA.

For Sydney’s senior project she chose to organize and hold a Stuff the Truck event at the Dollar General in Nicholson on Sept 15 under the guidance and support of the Second Brigade MC Club and Scott Ruggerio, to  benefit local homeless veterans. In addition to the hundreds of hours put into this project she ultimately raised just over $1000 cash and stuffed the truck to the brim with generous donations from near and far consisting of clothing, sleeping bags, blankets, hats, gloves, non- perishable foods, personal items, socks and under garments. All items will be distributed at Standdown in the Kirby Park, Wilkes Barre on October 5, 2013.

It is Sydney’s ultimate wish that each and every one of us stop and donate to those in need and help others.

Every parent wants to make sure their child is safe at school, and one local district is making some big changes. The Mountain View schools are going high tech to improve security.

This summer, the schools have been involved in a capital project where they are upgrading their fire alarm system in the elementary, installing many new high tech security cameras and monitors throughout both schools and adding biometric entry systems. Mountain View Superintendent, Francine Shea said, “Security and safety are always on the forefront of our minds. We want to make sure our schools are as secure as they possibly can be. We don’t want to turn our schools into fortresses, but we do want to take steps to make our schools more secure. Recent tragedies in several of our nation's schools, as well as a review of our facilities by the State Police from Gibson Barracks, prompted Mountain View to make security improvements to help increase the safety of our students and staff."

Mrs. Shea says that this year dozens of new security cameras will be added, all employees will get new ID access cards, fingerprints replace entry fobs, and all doors will be set to lock in case of an emergency. “The doors can be opened but we want them quickly set to lock, so they can be closed in the event of an emergency. We can control who's coming in during the hours people are allowed access.

The new security system will also improve the district’s interaction with the PA State Police when there is an emergency. She went on to say “We are able to connect our system to the PA State Police Department where they can see inside and outside of our buildings in real time and at any time of the day or evening. The students won't really notice the changes.” In the next six weeks, more cameras will be installed and they hope to finish the project by the end of September or early October.