SLIPPERY ROCK — Choosing a textbook for a school district is a long and arduous task, but in making such a large investment, careful decisions are made over a year.

Kathy Nogay, superintendent for the Slippery Rock School District, said she follows school board policy, which dictates how a new textbook is adopted and approved for students.

Nogay said the district has an ongoing cycle of when textbooks need to be examined for readoption or renewal based on such issues as age, relevance, youth and current information. But that is just the beginning.

"Based on that cycle, we set up textbook review committees about a year before anything is done," she said.

After the review committees have been assembled, each member receives an individual textbook to study. The same books also are supplemented and tested in the classroom within sample lessons.

"Then we get feedback and come to some consensus for the top two or three textbooks on each subject," Nogay said.

A representative of the book company then presents the best aspects of the text. If approved at this stage, the book moves onto the educational programming committee, and is then finally reviewed by the school board.

With 2,400 students in the district, Nogay said she has to be sure to spread out the textbook purchases so they are budgeted each year.

"One year we had one adoption for reading and it was $170,000 for all elementary students," Nogay said. "We might in one year not have any adoptions and that's how we set ourselves on a cycle; we spread out the most expensive books over a number of years."

Nogay said science and math textbooks tend to be the most expensive, running at about $100 apiece. Multiply that by 800 students, and the district is served with a bill of at least $80,000.

With multimedia components included with a book, prices could also jump.

"Sometimes you buy online media sources and for science, you buy laboratory experiment equipment and supplies as well," Nogay said.

"When you are talking about curriculum resource investments, there are many components to that."

She also said the costs for textbooks in grade school can be as much as for high school.

"If you need eight or 10 resources for each child in elementary for spelling, phonics, reading and other areas, sometimes that can be more expensive because there are many components that go into that package," Nogay said.

Nogay said negotiating with companies also helps.

"It depends on what the subject area is, and it depends on what kind of a deal you can work out with vendors. Sometimes the more you buy the more you can get free."

The Grove City School District also has a long process when it comes to deciding which textbooks to buy, but that district's approach differs slightly from Slippery Rock's.

Superintendent Robert Post said the district has a seven-year cycle, which means each year a different subject receives an evaluation and a new set of textbooks. Post said the board allocates $150,000 each year to buy textbooks.

Last year the district revised its math books, and this year it will do the same for social studies. The district pays close attention in making sure each textbook chosen explicitly highlights the content included in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, and re-evaluates the entire curriculum while choosing new textbooks.

"They will be studying this all year long and in April or May the principals of each school will be making a recommendation to me," Post said. "The principals are responsible at each level for finding and then overseeing a curriculum study team.

"In the elementary schools we would have one teacher representative for every grade, and the same goes for the middle school."

"When choosing textbooks for the high school, every teacher in a given subject would be involved in the decision-making process.

"After they revise the curriculum, then they would look at the textbook materials and supplies that would be the closest match for what we want our students to accomplish, and then we would look at the textbooks to see what matches that," Post said.

Supplemental materials also would be pinpointed at this time to fill in the gaps that any given textbook may leave. When the faculty narrows down the list of textbooks to one or two, representatives from the publishing companies come to the district to present their material, similar to what the Slippery Rock district does. In addition, Post asks they bring a list of other schools using the given textbook.

"Then we look to find those schools that are doing extremely well in science and see what textbooks they are using as well, so we benchmark after the best schools in Pennsylvania," Post said.

He said while the Internet becomes a larger component in the classroom each year, it is still just one of many tools the Grove City students use to grow. He doesn't foresee the district switching soon to an all-computer curriculum without textbooks.

Not only is a textbook decision a yearlong process, but every subject's curriculum is modified each year, based upon how well the students in the district do and what needs the faculty might see.

Once the superintendent has a recommendation, it is presented to the Grove City School Board and then approved or denied.

The Seneca Valley School District brings parents into the mix by giving presentations of the books and receiving their input before making a decision, according to Matt McKinley, assistant superintendent. The process begins with a curriculum review of a different subject each year: this year it is social studies.

"First, we tie all of our curriculum to the standards the state has provided and in that process we see where there are gaps and we revise accordingly," McKinley said. "We look to see if we need to add or delete courses and then we also review all of our resources."

The curriculum committee then reviews and studies a minimum of three textbooks. Those are presented to the parents at meetings at the school, and depending on their feedback, a top contender is chosen. The book is then presented to the school board for approval.

McKinley said if the district buys a text for an entire grade, 600 books are bought at a range of $40 to $80 each. McKinley said the district has begun to use an Internet system connected to the books so students with Internet access no longer have to carry the books home.

"The students can call up any page in the book on the Internet, and we also save money because we can use a class set," McKinley said. "If we keep the books in the room, they can sign them out as well."

Seneca schools began to use this technology about three to four years ago, but the district doesn't plan to use an all-Internet book policy in the future.

"We have such a diverse population and some people choose not to have the Internet, and for those people we still want to accommodate them so we will still have a hard copy," McKinley said.