Penn Manor school board passed a joint resolution Monday in support of the "open campus" initiative the district plans to offer with Hempfield and Manheim Township school districts to meet the growing demands for non-traditional education.

Superintendent Michael Leichliter revealed more details about specific classes and said that the goal for 2012-13 is to "offer select online and hybrid classes to juniors and seniors."

Last month, the superintendents of the three districts — Leichliter, Hempfield's Brenda Becker and Manheim Township's Gene Freeman — announced their intention to join forces and begin offering cyber classes as part of the initiative. The vision of the open campus is to break down the boundaries of time and space while maximizing resources and providing educational choice at a reduced cost.

The districts are all large, boast high academic standards and socioeconomic diversity and are "physically connected to each other," Leichliter said.

Hempfield is scheduled to consider the matter Tuesday.

Officials still are working out details, but Leichliter said they already have reached some decisions regarding specific teaching areas.

Penn Manor will take the lead with pre-calculus, AP calculus and astronomy classes, utilizing its current teaching staff, Leichliter said. Manheim Township will take the lead with English and U.S. history classes, while Hempfield has proposed to lead efforts with science and foreign languages.

Leichliter said that he and the other superintendents are set to meet again Thursday. From there, they will begin meeting with the teachers to get the courses written in electronic format by June.

Also Monday, the board approved providing space to Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 free of charge for an adult GED program that would cater to residents in Penn Manor and adjacent districts. The program will run from February to May.

In other business, the board approved revised job descriptions for the district's top administrators, including assistant superintendent, business manager, director of student support services, supervisor of elementary education and technology director.

The board started looking closely at redefining the roles after assistant superintendent Ellen Pollock's recent announcement to retire at the end of the year.

Last month Leichliter had said Pollock's replacement would be more focused on secondary education rather than K-12 because there is some overlap with the supervisor of elementary education.

After eight years, Charlie Reisinger's position as technology director also required some tweaking. As he noted last month, "my role is obviously shifting," including his involvement with the Pennsylvania Information Management System and the latest virtual school initiatives.

Also Monday, a group of school librarians from the district gave a presentation on "Libraries Then and Now" and the ever-changing role of the school librarian. The group told the board they are the primary resource for teaching students about avoiding plagiarism, writing proper citations, using online databases, organizing information, Internet safety and familiarizing students with e-readers.