ETSD School Board News
August 18, 2021
On Tuesday, August 17th, the Exeter Township School Board held its regular monthly voting meeting at 7PM at Owatin Creek Elementary. The meeting was well attended and began with public comment which Board policy limits to a total of 30 minutes. The Board made and passed two motions to extend the time limit to allow all who had requested the opportunity to speak at the podium to be heard. The Board then approved meeting minutes, the treasurer’s report, and payment requests.
The Board then moved to Education Committee items approving the 2021-2022 school year handbooks and several service and tuition agreements with third-party providers. They also approved a field trip request to allow the High School's Softball team to travel to Disney World in March for spring training, several conference requests for staff, and a new Emergency Instructional Time Schedule that will allow the District to fulfill the 180 day school-year requirement in the event of an extended emergency closure by providing full virtual learning for all students.
Finally, Mrs. Dawn Harris, the District’s Director of Pupil Services, presented a report of the recommendations of the ETSD Pandemic Task-force in response to the latest guidance documents produced by the PA Department of Health and the PA Department of Education regarding returning to school and COVID-19 mitigation. The presentation is linked here.
Following the presentation, the Board had the opportunity to ask questions, have discussion, and make motions to accept, alter, or reject the recommendations, or to postpone discussion to a future date. Board member, Mr. Mike Jupina, made a motion to alter the plan to require masks for all students and staff when COVID-19 levels in Berks County remain in the substantial or high range for two consecutive weeks regardless of vaccination status. This motion was approved. This mask mandate can only be lifted by a future Board vote to end the requirement. Because Berks County has already hit the two-week mark for substantial levels of COVID-19 transmission (data linked here), masking for students, staff, and visitors will be mandatory inside buildings and on school busses effective today. The District Administration will promulgate administrative regulations related to the implementation of this for students, staff, families, and employees and will send that out in a separate communication. The District has updated its Health and Safety plan linked here to reflect this new change and will resubmit the plan to the state.
The Personnel Committee portion of the meeting included approval to appoint a new Assistant Principal to the High School, Ms. Julie Davis, who will replace Mr. Jason Deane, who resigned to take on the position of middle school principal in a Lancaster school district. They also voted to approve Ms. Karen Hodge to be the new Junior High Assistant Principal, replacing Mr. Joe Alcaro, who is moving to Reiffton to serve as Assistant Principal. Congratulations to all! Over a dozen other staff members were approved last night as the District prepares to open our schools. The also Board accepted the transfer request of Mr. Ted Isselmann from the position of Principal of Lorane Elementary to Intervention Specialist at the High School. Mr. Isselmann is excited to work closely with students again as he returns to the High School. The District will share plans to replace Mr. Isselmann in the coming days. The final item under Personnel was to accept the resignation of long-time School Board Director, Dr. Sharon McLendon. Dr. McLendon had a distinguished career as an educator and carried that expertise into her role as a school board member serving most recently as Chair of the Education Committee. The Board and Administration wish her all the best as she moves to the Carolinas to be closer to her family and to enjoy the warm weather year round! Her wisdom and commitment to civil dialogue will be missed. The Board will undergo a process in the coming week to temporarily fill her seat until newly-elected school board members are seated in December.
Under Finance, the Board approved the purchase of the Parent Square app. The Administration is excited to have this excellent tool to improve communication between students, teachers, and parents as we continue to strive to create a communications plan that best serves all of our families. The Policy committee approved two policies one that deals with Title 1 and one on volunteers. Both policies were revisions to existing policy.
Finally, the Athletics and Extracurricular Committee asked the Board to approve the establishment of Girls’ Wrestling in Exeter. This was unanimously approved and we are all very excited to see our young women have this wonderful new opportunity!
You asked, we answer!
Q: Where is the District's Strategic Plan?
A: The District's Strategic Plan is known as the Comprehensive Plan. The plan can be found here.
Exeter Township School District
Email: communications@exetersd.org
Website: https://www.exeter.k12.pa.us
Location: 200 Elm Street, Reading, PA, USA
Phone: 610-779-0700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExeterTownshipSchoolDistrict
Twitter: @ExeterTwpSchool