Happy Fall! We’ve had some beautiful weather during the month of October and I hope you had the chance to get outside and enjoy it.

Each school year, there are initiatives we set out to advance, and this year is no exception. A major focus this year is paying attention to our students’ voices and making efforts to afford them opportunities to inform us of what works well for them in our schools, as well as what could be improved (particularly under the circumstances of the pandemic).

In recent weeks, I participated in two student voice forums. The first one included groups of students from Middle School East and West, Perkiomen Valley High School, and Spring-Ford Area High School along with several local Representatives, Ciresi, Pennycuick and Webster and Senator Muth. The purpose of the forum was to hear the views of students on a particular policy along with their proposed changes to the policy to improve the experiences of themselves as well as others. The policies presented and discussed ranged from ones addressing the costs of AP exams, to increasing the number of diverse PA educators in our schools, offsetting college tuition, affording students mental health days, increasing recycling efforts, sex education programming and funding low income schools. In addition to our representatives and Senator Muth, we were joined by members of our Board of School Districts, teachers, and fellow administrators. The students were composed, articulate and convincing in their presentations. The event was inspiring and certainly gave us all a lot to think about. Students were informed of how and where they can continue their conversations with many of them encouraged to attend district committee meetings.

The second student voice forum involved several sixth grade students who shared in a conversation about school start times. This was a topic we were exploring as a district before the pandemic hit. The discussion extended beyond school start times to include other aspects of the school experience and was quite enlightening for those of us in attendance. We continue to discover the power of student voice and consider what we can do in response to what our students recognize serves them most effectively as learners and community members.

Our students’ voices are integral to the shaping of the services we offer and we look forward to learning more from them this year.

Sincerely,

Dr. Barbara A. Russell

Superintendent

Opportunities for student voice will continue through an upcoming School Climate Survey. The survey will be administered to students in grades 5-12 as well as to all parents and staff, K-12. The survey is based on questions developed by the US Department of Education and touches upon categories that include student engagement, student learning and school safety in each of our schools. The results will prompt us to consider current practices, goals, policies, procedures, operations, etc. and also serve to drive our comprehensive planning process. Completing a comprehensive plan every three years is a requirement for all public schools in the commonwealth.

We would truly appreciate your time in completing the survey. We are asking all stakeholder groups to complete the survey by Friday, November 12th. Students in grades 5-12 will be given time to complete the survey during school hours.

A copy of the Student Survey is available for your reference:

Elementary/Middle

Secondary

Parents have the opportunity to opt their children out of completing the survey if desired. If you prefer that your child not participate in the survey, please notify your child’s principal in writing/email before Monday, November 1. As a note, the survey is purely voluntary and anonymous.

Links to the parent surveys will be shared in a separate email communication in the next several days and there will be one link for each school. If you would like to complete a second or third survey for a particular school based on having two or three children in that school, with varied experiences, you certainly can do so. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Here is what has been tentatively scheduled:

• Saturday, November 6 from 9am-4pm at the HS
• Tuesday, November 9 from 4pm-8pm at the HS

Once plans are confirmed, we will share additional details. The clinics will be open to children from any school district. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Thursday, October 28 Finance Committee Meeting @ 7pm

Monday, November 1 School Board Work Session @ 7pm

Tuesday, November 2 INSERVICE - No School for Students