Bringing Barth the Good News

From left, Phillip Shiffler, Jaelyn Kennedy, Emily Weber and Jorge Mundo.  They are all Barth fourth graders who applied for and were chosen to serve for one month as Barth Network Newscasters.

Well, as we here at The Mercury endeavor every day to get a handle on the new "digital age" of news, it seems that the kids over at Pottstown's Barth Elementary School may be ahead of us already.

Thanks once again to the efforts of Pottstown's most relentless cheerleader, John Armato, FOB, (Friend of this Blog), we have yet another example of the kind of things going in Pottstown Schools which do not always rise to the top of the local media's priority list.

In this case, John tells us about fourth grade Barth students Jorge Mundo and Jaelyn Kennedy who, he writes, are well on their way to starting a career as television news anchors.   

The fourth graders, under the sponsorship of Carol Fazioli and Hayley Quigley, produce the Barth News Network daily television program which is broadcast to all Barth classrooms.  

The students are learning valuable public speaking skills as well as performing a school community service, he says. (And they may also be training as my replacement.)

John tells us that students must apply to become members of the news team.   

The news anchor position is one of many business oriented responsibilities that Barth students take on as part of the community and business model program which has been a foundation for Barth student activities.  

Students are "paid" with “Barth Bucks” which then can be redeemed at the student store for school supplies.  

But remember kids, the news never sleeps. Also remember, that you may get paid more in "Barth Bucks" than you ever would in real dollars if you decided to become a newspaper reporter...