School Board Snapshots- February
Covering the monthly news of the Pennridge School Board
An Overview of "Snapshots" and its goal
The Snapshot page is intended for a “one-stop shop” approach to the happenings of our monthly school board meetings.
The School Board welcomes you at the meetings and invites you to participate in the meetings' public comment sections.
If you have comments or concerns about Pennridge School Board matters, please e-mail psdschoolboard@pennridge.org.
- Please visit our “Board Docs” page by clicking here for more detailed information, agendas, and policies.
- You can also watch the entire meeting from February 27th by clicking the YouTube video link below. This link takes you to our 'Ridge Channel' on YouTube where you can subscribe and watch this and all of the Pennridge School Board meetings as well as all kinds of videos made for the Pennridge School District.
Some of the Top Stories of February
- Pennridge hires a new Football Coach and Business Teacher
- The Superintendent's Report with several #PSDGreat stories
- Exciting new courses and clubs for students
- Policies 119 & 903
The All-New “Share Your PSD Great” Initiative.
The "ShareYourPSDGreat" program continues to share our Pennridge stories.
- You can tell your Pennridge Positive stories by clicking this link and going directly to the form.
- On the top of each school and department webpage, there is now a button and the button on the webpages also takes you to the form
- You can email Dave Thomas at dthomas@pennridge.org.
Now playing…. The “Ridge Channel” on Comcast Cable, Channel 968
The all-new "Ridge Channel" on Comcast Cable Channel 968 for Comcast Subscribers is going well.
We are still working through the process for Verizon FIOS to also broadcast our programming and expect them to come on board in Spring of 2023.
Now, in addition to our Ridge Channel on YouTube, you can also see many of the videos produced in our schools and a rotating news slideshow so you can tune in a stay informed all day and night.
Kyle Beller, who spent twelve seasons with multiple Lehigh Valley Football programs, has been named the 9th head coach of the Pennridge High School football program. Beller was officially announced as both the new Head Football Coach and Pennridge High School faculty member when he was approved by the Pennridge School Board during the official monthly meeting on February 27, 2023.
Beller's most recent coaching experience at Whitehall High School from 2020 to 2022 was as Defensive coordinator and helped lead the Zephyr’s to the 2022 District 11, 5A Championship and a Quarterfinals appearance in the PIAA State Championship tournament.
Click here to check out the entire Media Release about Kyle on our Communications page.
Working as the Business Administrator for a Montgomery County School District since 2016, Daniel is very familiar with the need for fiscal responsibility and readiness as well as developing and implementing processes and procedures that increase efficiency, accuracy, and internal controls within the Business office.
Click here to check out the entire Media Release about Daniel on our Communications page.
Decision Making in Sports was approved by the School Board in February and introduces data science concepts for sports analytics. Students will be introduced to concepts related to data collection, data quality, data analysis, and modeling, as well as data visualization, through the context of sports analytics.
Draft selection, game-day decision-making, and player evaluation are just a few of the applications in which sports analytics play a crucial role today. In addition to the sports teams, other stakeholders in the industry (e.g., the leagues' offices, media, etc.) invest in analytics. Recently, advanced data mining and machine learning techniques have been incorporated into the operations of sports franchises. In this course, students will become familiar with data science concepts and data analysis techniques, the interpretation and use of probabilities, the notion of overfitting and how to avoid it, and the components of a useful visualization.
You can hear more about all of the items discussed at our Curriculum, Activities, Personnel, and Policy Committee meetings, by clicking on the video link below.
Policy 119- Surveys/Controversial Issues
In February, the School Board began and continues discussions about the use of surveys in the District. Surveys fall under Policy 119, generated by the PSBA (Pennsylvania School Board Association), and that policy is officially called "controversial issues."
In this case, "controversial issues" refers to surveys with questions surrounding what could be controversial issues or topics used in our schools and district offices.
A policy name change from "controversial issues" to "surveys" is also being discussed.
The discussion on Policy 119 centers around a few key points:
- The district-wide use of the PaYS (Pennsylvania Youth Survey)
- Changing the wording to alter the policy allowing all parents/guardians to be required to opt their child into any third-party survey in order for their child to participate.
- At the beginning of each school year, parents/guardians will have the opportunity to identify the level of their child’s participation in all non-3rd party surveys.
- Approval preferences will be broken down by building/district, teacher, and student-generated surveys.
- Parents/guardians can give permission for their child to participate in surveys and the district could require a review of surveys and parent signature before participation.
For more information and to read the current version of Policy 119, please click here.
As always, Pennridge students, staff, and residents are encouraged and welcome to attend all School Board meetings to stay informed and employ the public comment section of the meetings to have your voices heard on any School Board issues and discussions.
Policy 903- Public Comment at School Board Meetings
Policy 903, states, "the Board recognizes the value to school governance of public comment on educational issues and the importance of involving members of the public in Board Meetings. The Board also recognizes its responsibility for proper governance of the district and the need to conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner."
The majority of the current policy is not being considered for any changes, but some of the points being discussed as tweaks to the current policy include:
- The public comment session shall generally be limited to 60 minutes and shall take place prior to the voting portion of the Board meeting.
- The comments by any individual shall be limited to 3 minutes unless otherwise specified by the Board.
- The speaker’s 3 minutes will be uninterrupted by the School Board of School Board officials;
- Speakers may not cede their time to other persons
- No speaker will be permitted to speak more than once during each public comment session.
- Comments may be terminated by the Presiding Officer if they incite an immediate breach of the peace, make comments which are considered, as a whole, to prominently appear to prurient interests or are otherwise obscene or constitute threats of bodily harm.
- Comments that go beyond the 3 minutes or violate other portions of this policy will be asked to stop speaking and may be requested to leave the meeting.
For more information and to read the current version of Policy 903, please click here.
As always, Pennridge students, staff, and residents are encouraged and welcome to attend all School Board meetings to stay informed and employ the public comment section of the meetings to have your voices heard on any School Board issues and discussions.
About Pennridge School District
Email: PSDSchoolboard@pennridge.org
Website: www.pennridge.org
Location: 1200 North 5th Street, Perkasie, PA, USA
Phone: 215-257-5011
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennridgeSchoolDistrict/
Twitter: @PennridgeSD