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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The tour included a biology lab with a rubber chicken and a live tarantula. But when Wilkes-Barre Area Superintendent Brian Costello held his latest &#8220;town hall meeting&#8221; at the Mackin building Wednesday, he found himself turning to something newer than the rooms he was showing off: A performing arts program set to launch next fall at GAR Memorial High School.</p><p>Details are still being worked out, but Costello said the performing arts program likely will be akin to career and technical centers &#8212; &#8220;vo-tech&#8221; to old-timers &#8212; with students taking core academic subjects at their home high school for half a day, then spending the other half at GAR taking the performing arts courses.</p><p>The topic came up even before Costello officially started the meeting a little after 6 p.m. in the dual-purpose &#8220;cafetorium&#8221; of Mackin, a former elementary renovated and currently housing grades nine and 10 from Coughlin High School. That venerable school was split when the older section of the building was closed for safety concerns, with the two higher grades taking classes in the Coughlin annex, an addition built in the 1950s.</p><p>Costello&#8217;s first three town hall meetings were held at the end of August at GAR, Coughlin and Meyers high schools. They focused on both the structural problems at those schools and what is being done to remedy them. Though the Mackin school is an older building, it was fully renovated in 2015 and reopened in 2016 after being closed for 14 years. That left Costello with no structural problems to explain.</p><p>So after a brief chat with about nine people who came to the meeting, he showed it off, beginning with a stop he admitted &#8220;may be a bit strange&#8221;: one of the bathrooms. Because they are the newest such facilities in the district, he said they may also be the nicest.</p><p>He touted the classroom designs as built for &#8220;21st century learners,&#8221; every room equipped with high speed Wi-Fi computer connections, smart boards and one laptop computer for every student. The lightweight, triangular desks can be &#8212;and are &#8212; arranged in different configurations, from traditional rows to pods of four facing each other to circles. There are multiple outlets on the floors in case students need to plug in equipment.</p><p>And the classes are equipped so teachers can give students homework assignments and quizzes via the Internet, and look at their progress on assignments, projecting noteworthy ones onto the smart boards for class discussion, Costello said.</p><p>Noting the district has integrated computer classes into high school curriculum, he turned back to the performing arts center, suggesting the arts program would probably replace the computer classes for those students.</p><p>And that tarantula and rubber chicken? Well, being a bio-lab, the former seems self-explanatory. And a student taking the tour said the chicken is actually the teacher&#8217;s physical representation of a &#8220;hall pass&#8221; instead of a written note.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello shows parents and students one of the computer rooms in Mackin School during a tour of the building Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_Mackin2.cmyk_-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello shows parents and students one of the computer rooms in Mackin School during a tour of the building Wednesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader  </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_Mackin1.cmyk_-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello leads a tour of the Mackin School after a town hall meeting with parents and students Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_Mackin1.cmyk_-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello leads a tour of the Mackin School after a town hall meeting with parents and students Wednesday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader  </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Tour talk turns to new performing arts program</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Mackin school tour includes new details on performing arts program