From the Desk of the Superintendent
The School District of Springfield Township, Fall 2023
Dr. MaryJo Yannacone
It is my pleasure to welcome our students and families back to school for the 2023-2024 school year! Our first few days have provided an opportunity for our teachers to begin to establish classroom communities and to build relationships with their students. We look forward to continuing to focus on teaching our students the essential skills needed to be successful not only in school, but also as they mature into adults and members of our Springfield community. We hope that our families will partner with us to meet the needs of all of our students. There are many ways to get involved, and several are shared with you in this newsletter.
Enrollment in SDST is steady this year, with 82 new registrations this summer in grades 1-12 and 199 students joining us in kindergarten! These new arrivals are balanced by 86 withdrawals of students in grades 1-12. Our total student enrollment is 2,558. Enfield welcomed 571 (15 new) students, Erdenheim 604 (17 new), STMS 607 (19 new), and STHS 776 (31 new). We are grateful to our families for placing your faith and trust in our team!
Thank you all for continuing to contribute to a fantastic school community. Let's make this year in Springfield the best ever!
Email: maryjo_yannacone@sdst.org
Website: sdst.org
Location: 1901 Paper Mill Road, Oreland, PA, USA
Phone: 2152336000
Newsletter Contents:
In this edition, you will find information focused on districtwide happenings, including:
- Voices of Springfield
- District Calendar and Featured Events
- School Board Engagement
- Department Happenings
- District Themes and Goals for 2023-2024
I also share a few highlights and features, including
- August in-service week for staff
- Superintendent's Student Advisory Council
- STHS Ranking News
- Parent and Community Organizations
- Hiring in SDST
I hope you find this newsletter helpful to you!
Voices of Springfield
Check out our first ever video celebrating the School District of Springfield Township!
Thanks to Class of 2024's Emma Nolen and Teachers Dan Meder and Kelly Gordon for your hard work in making the video, and much gratitude to everyone who participated!
District Calendar and Featured Events
Our district calendars were approved this spring by the Board of School Directors, and may be found on the main page of the district website under the Calendar tab.
While building-specific events will be communicated through our school Principals on a weekly basis, we have created a district wide calendar of activities and events for your information and reference. While the calendar is subject to change, we intend to do our best to adhere to these selected dates.
We have also established the report card dates for this year.
It is our hope that sharing this information with you now will assist families in planning your busy calendars for this year!
Simon's Heart
The School District of Springfield Townships is proud to partner with Simon's Heart, a local organization dedicated to preventing sudden cardiac arrest in children. Simon's Heart provides free cardiac screenings for students ages 14-25. The next free community screening is scheduled for Saturday. September 23rd from 8am to 2pm at 1161 Markley Street in Norristown. To register for this event, please click HERE.
Peter's Place
Peter's Place help's foster an understanding of death and grief by providing a safe and supportive environment for grieving. The district has formed a relationship with Peter's Place in the hope of providing on-site groups for students who have experienced a loss. If you would like your child to join a grief and loss group at school, please reach out to your child's school counselor.
School Board Engagement
School Board Meetings
- Tuesday, September 19
- Tuesday, October 3
- Tuesday, October 17
- Monday, November 6
- Tuesday, November 21
- Tuesday, December 5
Meetings are held in a hybrid format, in that community members may choose to attend in person in the STMS audion located next to the cafeteria or virtually by registering through the home page of our website. Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. and public comment on agenda items occurs near the beginning of the meeting, while public comment on non-agenda items is available at the end of the meeting. The agenda is typically posted on the Friday preceding the meeting, with updates finalized no later than 24 hours prior to the meeting, per Sunshine laws. Meeting agendas may be found on our website under Quick Links under the Board Docs tab.
In addition to our interim and regular meetings above, there are four board subcommittees that meet several times each year as needed for administrative updates and presentations to the committee members, board discussion and direction to the administrative team. Subcommittees include:
- Policy
- Finance
- Property
- Academic Affairs
Meeting dates and times are announced at interim and regular board meetings and are posted on the main page of the district website. Meeting minutes and recordings may be found on our website under the School Board drop down at the top of the main page.
To contact our Board President, Mr. Jeff Bedard, please email him at jeff_bedard@sdst.org. You can also email the full board at school_board@sdst.org.
Department Happenings
Office of Support Services
The Office of Support Services oversees many areas of school district life important to our families, including
- Attendance
- Food Services
- Transportation Information
- Health Services
- Back to School Gateway Reminders
- Equitable Practices
- Support Services
- Family Participation
- Safe Schools
In case you missed it, here is the Back to School Newsletter released in August.
Food Service Updates
Springfield Township School District is excited to introduce Chartwells as our new Food Service Management Company.
Universal Free Breakfast Program
All students will be able to get a free school breakfast through the Universal Free Breakfast Program during the 2023-2024 school year. This is only applicable to the School Breakfast Program and does not affect a student’s eligibility status for lunch (free, reduced, and paid, respectively).
Reminders:
Families will need to complete a new Free & Reduced Lunch application for the 2023-2024 school year.
Elementary Breakfast $1.50, Reduced Price $0.30
Elementary Lunch $2.75, Reduced Price $0.40
Secondary Breakfast $1.50, Reduced Price $0.30
Secondary Lunch $3.00, Reduced Price $0.40
Health and Safety Plan Updates and Information
The SDST Health and Safety Plan has been revised to reflect the most current guidance from the CDC, as required under the ARP ESSER grant program. The plan has not changed in the following ways:
Those infected with Covid-19 may return to work/school after 5 days
Good personal hygiene will continue to be encouraged for all
Cleaning and sanitizing will continue to follow all recommended guidance
As we did last year, we will treat COVID-19 as we do any other communicable disease, and we hope that that students, staff and families will experience the school year as typical.
Equitable Practices
District Equity Statement
Recognizing the diversity of our community, The School District of Springfield Township is committed to and accountable for advancing equity and excellence for all of our students. We, in the School District of Springfield Township, endeavor to provide equitable opportunities for high level, meaningful, and engaging learning experiences for each and every student, regardless of racial/ethnic background, economic condition or other dimension of identity or difference.
We recognize that in order to achieve Educational Equity we must apply principles of fairness and justice in the allocation of resources and work toward the elimination of institutional barriers to access and opportunity. We aim to ensure that funding, policies, practices, and initiatives will enable every student to receive what they need to maximize their success. In order to foster growth toward equity, we must engage in continuous reflection and ongoing measurement of our efforts.
Year 2 of our Equity Action Plan is underway and our staff continues to engage in meaningful work to support the Springfield Township Equity goals. This includes adherence to our district policy (Policy 832 Educational Equity) and continued participation in workshops and training made available through our partnership with the Delaware Valley Consortium for Educational Equity (DVCEE). Every member of the staff, our students and their families have a role to play in supporting our vision for a community of caring rooted in equitable practices. For more information on our approach to equity in SDST, please visit our district website here.
District Themes and Goals for 2023-2024
2023-2024 District Themes
- Commit to creating and sustaining systems that support achievement of all students and continue to foster pride in our school district
- Utilize our shared understanding of authentic learning to expand opportunities for students and staff
Adopt and implement innovative systems and programs supported by a strong financial foundation
District Goals for 2023-2024
Goal 1 (Raising Student Achievement for All/Authentic learning)
Students will demonstrate and apply understanding and knowledge of skills identified in the Profile of a Graduate through selected projects and experiences at each grade level.
Goal 2 (Equity, Sense of Belonging, Achievement for All)
We will review available student standardized assessment performance by building and across the district, with a focus on disaggregated academic growth and achievement data and create a targeted plan of action that supports equitable achievement of all students, the results of which will be communicated to the school community in Spring 2024.
Goal 3 (High Quality Instruction)
In conjunction with the Comprehensive Plan, create alignment between observational components in the Danielson domains and professional learning opportunities for faculty based on identified individual instructional areas for growth. Demonstrate improvement in three identified areas of need using district evaluation data for 2023-2024, as compared to 2022-2023.
Goal 4 (Communication and Innovation)
In order to increase efficiency and enhance communication among students, staff and families, we will successfully implement four new district wide data systems to improve student information, classroom instruction, and teacher evaluation (Power School, PA-ETEP, Comply and Schoology).
Goal 5 (Financial and Facilities Improvements)
We will work to address long-term capital and financial planning to support ongoing required facilities improvements to support the transportation department and the Middle School addition/renovation project. Our plans will explore sustainability in systems and materials and be communicated broadly to staff and the community through committee meetings, newsletters and board meetings.
A midyear update will be provided to the community, and a final report will be presented to the Board in July 2024. These goals do not represent the totality of the work being undertaken by the administration, but they will be incorporated into the performance assessment of the Superintendent.
Highlights and Features
August In-Service and Convocation
On August 31st, our entire district staff was invited to Convocation, a celebration of the start of the new school year. The event kicked off with a performance by our music department and our districtwide choir, comprised of students from Erdenheim, STMS and STHS and staff from across the district. Speakers included Stacey Walker, Enfield Reading Aide; John Fears, STMS Science Teacher, and Class of 2024 student Emma Nolen. New staff were introduced, and staff celebrating milestone years of service in SDST at 10, 20 and 30 years, were recognized with small tokens of appreciation. Following Convocation, the administrative team, along with Chartwells food services, treated the staff to a barbeque lunch!
All Staff BBQ Kickoff
Enfield Staff Ready for Arrival of Students
SDST Administrative Team
STMS Team Exploring Authentic Learning
Thank you Operations Department for the New Landscaping Bed
Administrators Serving Lunch to Staff
Erdenheim Staff
Celebrating our Staff with Ten Years in SDST
Celebrating our Staff with Twenty Years in SDST
John Fears, Convocation Speaker
Stacey Walker, Convocation Speaker
Emma Nolen, Class of 2024, Convocation Speaker
STHS Staff Ready to Go
Dr. Meghan Dennis Leading Staff Training
Enfield Staff on a Data Walk
STHS Named to U.S. News and World Report's Best High Schools
Springfield Twp High School earned National and State rankings in 2023-2024 Best High Schools, which U.S. News released August 29th. By earning a national ranking in the top 40%, Springfield Township High School achieved status as a U.S. News Best High School. STHS is ranked #2,689 nationally out of 17,680 schools, which places us in the top 15% of the nation's high schools. In Pennsylvania, STHS is ranked #105 out of 665 schools, which places us in the top 16% of the state!
Last year our high school team worked diligently to meet District Goal #1, which was to raise our performance on measures utilized by the magazine to assist communities in determining the strength of academic programs across the country. We saw growth in our students’ performances on the Keystone exams, significantly raised our participation rate in AP exams, and improved our graduation rate to 97% last year. U.S. News calculated their rankings based upon data from the 2020-2021 school year, and so these improvements will not be incorporated for two years; however, we have set a goal of moving into the top 25 high schools in PA in 2025. We are confident we can raise the standards for ourselves and our students and achieve this goal!
Student Advisory Groups
In addition to our district level meetings with students, we have placed student representatives as non-voting advisors on our Board of School Directors and several of our Board Committees. They are as follows:
- Student Representative to the Board of School Directors: Nia Kennedy
- Alternate Representative to the Board of School Directors: Chase Rubincam
- Student Representative to the Academic Affairs Committee: Ronan Cullina, Olivia Tau
- Student Representative to the Property Committee: Chase Rubincam
Our Director of Support Services, who spearheads our Equity Action Plan, and building principals will also continue to meet regularly with students in small groups. Their focus is on listening to and partnering with students to insure that diverse perspectives and experiences are shared and have a seat at the table.
Parent and Community Organizations
Springfield Township Educational Foundation
Dear SDST Staff and Families,
As the 2023-2024 school year begins, the Springfield Township Education Foundation (STEF) would like to share information with you about our organization’s mission and purpose. Please visit our website to learn more about how you can
Honor a Teacher
Volunteer
Make a Donation
News and Events
In 2023 STEF provided five $500 scholarships to graduating seniors planning to enter service professions such as education, counseling, nursing, and social work. Congratulations to this year’s deserving recipients!
For more details on this year’s scholarships and grants, please visit our website!
For SDST Staff
To establish payroll deduction in support of STEF, please complete this form and submit it to Cara Green, Business Administrator.
Secondary Home and School Partnership
The Springfield Township Secondary Home and School Partnership (STSHSP) is led by Keisha Bronson and Naim Moore. For more information, check out the STMS and STHS weekly e-blasts!
EEHSP
The Springfield Township Elementary Home and School Partnership is led by Christia Donohue and Britta Kinkeldei. They would like to share the following reminders of upcoming events and opportunities:
- Dine & Donate at Joey's Treets & Sweets happening this week
- First EEHSP General Meeting on Wednesday, September 13 at 7pm in the Erdenheim gym. In addition to discussing the year ahead, we will hold elections for our new '23-'24 board.
- We are actively seeking new board and committee members for the upcoming year! More information can be found here - https://www.eehsp.org/committees
- New Spirit Wear is available this year including water bottle stickers and super soft T's - https://eehspspiritwear.square.site/s/shop
Hiring in SDST
Human Resources
Our District continues to be eager to identify strong candidates to join us in SDST. For information on becoming a member of our team, please visit the district website.
Kelly Educational Staffing (KES), our substitute staffing partner, has instituted a referral program. You could earn a $100 referral bonus, from KES, each time you refer someone who ends up working a full five days of work for Kelly Services. Consider referring candidates to substitute for our district by filling out the Kelly Services Referral Form.