School Board Meeting Highlights
10-25-16
Agenda:
For a complete agenda, please visit us at:http://www.boarddocs.com/pa/parkland/Board.nsf/Public
All motions were approved.
Business Meeting
Student Recognition
Jim Moniz introduced the 2017 National Merit Semifinalists and Commended students.
The 10 Semifinalists are: Nadim Amin, Mandy Dang, Sunayana Jampanaboyana, Hyunbin Kim, Anna Li, Natalie Ondrey, Arvind Parthasarathy, Derrick Shi, Yogeshwar Velingker, and Joshua Yang. The 15 Commended students are Victoria Cervantes, Simon Chen, Hannah Daniels, Alana Dee, Sabrina Ghosh, Serena Johnson, Aneesh Kapoor, Young Seiok Kim, Jerry Law, Esther Lui, Sai Mallipedhi, Mia Mangosong, Ojas Patel, Shaumik Phadke, and Allison Wilcox.
PHS Recognition - U.S. News and World Report Silver Medal
To produce the 2016 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked schools on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show it is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators. The U.S. News rankings include data on more than 21,000 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. The process looks at state standardized test scores and compares them to the state average as well as student graduation rates as compared to national standards, Advance Placement test scores and participation rates as well as a host of other indicators when assigning medals. Parkland was ranked 77th out of 676 high schools. Only six PA schools won a gold badge while 79 won a silver.
Foundation Report
- Registration is still open for the Foundation’s 2nd Annual Alumni Turkey Trot. This 5K will take place on Friday, November 25 at 9:00am at Parkland High School. There will also be a one-mile race for kid’s. More info: www.parklandsd.org/foundation.
- The Foundation is currently accepting nominations for its Distinguished Alumni Wall of Honor through November 30. Alumni nominating forms can be found here.
- Earlier this month the Foundation purchased four sets of LEGOS for each of the 29 kindergarten classrooms in support of the District’s implementation of Full-day Kindergarten. The $6,400 gift from the Foundation broke down to $220 per classroom. The LEGO sets were recommended by the Curriculum and Instruction Department to enhance the current curriculum and focus on group activities that foster social skills in a relevant, hands-on and playful way.
- This Saturday, October 29, 40 female students from Orefield Middle School will head to the Philadelphia Convention Center for the Society of Women Engineering National Convention. These students are a part of the “Invent It! Build It! Girls in Engineering” program started by OMS science teacher, Dianne Caspersen, through a $1,400 Celebrate Innovation Grant given to her by the Foundation. The program provides career awareness by introducing the students to local members of the Society of Women Engineers, as well as providing them with hands-on collaborative activities promoting engineering fields.
- Dine at Outback on Tues, Nov 8, Election Day from 4-9 PM and 10% will be donated to the Foundation. Print this flyer and bring it with you.
Roundtable
Superintendent Richard Sniscak congratulated Dave Ramsey on his appointment at Phoenixville and thanked him for his many years of service in Parkland and wished him well.
Rob Cohen mentioned that the Parkland Community Library will be mailing information to all residents about the upcoming referendum and coming events. You can view the mail piece here.
Lisa Roth noted that the community enjoyed a wonderful Community Advisory Council meeting this month when PHS Counselor Eric Roberts spoke about college preparation for students and families.
When approving accounts payables, two Board members Rob Cohen and Lisa Roth, declined approval for payments to the cyber charter schools in an effort to emphasize their disgust in paying underachieving cyber schools.