EXCELLENCE
TODAY
FOR TOMORROW
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT – January 2007
Thank You, Thank You!
Each Year, Pennsylvania School Boards Association celebrates January as the time to
honor and thank our School Board Directors who volunteer time and talents for the
betterment of public education in our community. This year's theme, "School Directors-Creating Opportunity and Inspiring Dreams," is certainly apropos for each Board Member
in Rose Tree Media. We know that you give your time and energy to the service of our
community, especially our students, and for this we are very grateful. We also thank your
families for sharing you with us for so many hours each month. Your work on the Board
is never easy but you do it with spirit and commitment. Thank you from the bottom of our
hearts.
2007-2008 Budget
Act 1, Taxpayer Relief Act, adopted by the State Legislature in July 2006, requires new
budget timeline and procedures. The deadline this year for the Board of School Directors
to have the Preliminary General Fund Budget available for public inspection is today,
January 25, 2007.
The Rose Tree Media School District's proposed Preliminary General Fund Budget for
2007-2008 is available for public inspection in the Education Center, 308 North Olive
Street, Media, PA, on the website www.rtmsd.org, all School Offices and the local Public
Libraries.
In accordance with regulations in Act 1, Property Tax Relief, the Preliminary General
Fund Budget will be on the agenda of a Special Meeting scheduled for February 13, 2007
at 8:00 PM in the Education Center Board Room. At that time the Board of School
Directors will vote on the adoption of the Preliminary General Fund Budget.
The Preliminary General Fund Budget, in the amount of $73,023,537 reflects a 6.59%
increase in the mileage rate, or an increase of $299.94 per average tax bill for the year
or $24.99 per month.
The budget is a work in progress. This first look at our budget includes no additional
programs and no additional personnel. As our fixed costs, such as healthcare, fuel, and
contractual obligations continue to rise, our efforts to maintain the high quality programs
we have always offered are challenged. Where we have a request for a new position, the
question is posed to administrators, “What are you willing to give up in order to get this?”
We are examining our current models of support services throughout the district and are
diligently working to redeploy resources in more efficient ways. Once again, we are
tightening our belts and will continue to work on this budget to minimize additional
expenses for taxpayers.
Five Year Capital Improvement and Education Plan
As you will recall, our School Board has engaged the services of the Architectural Firm of
Hayes Large to complete a comprehensive study of our capital improvement needs in
Rose Tree Media. In fact, at our recent Facilities Committee meeting, the School Board
approved going out for an RFP, or Request for Proposals, to elicit specifications for work
that will be done at Springton Lake Middle School. It was agreed that the pool will be
redesigned and re-opened as part of the renovation process. Community members
should know that school districts are bound to follow many regulations that often impede
the fast completion of such renovations. We will work to keep you informed as details
become available to us.
There will be 3 important meetings held to present information to our community and to
gather your input regarding the Hayes Large findings. Since the needs in every building
in RTM will be reviewed, we are encouraging parents and community members to get
involved in this process. The first meeting will be held on February 7th at Media
Elementary School. There will be one daytime meeting at 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. and
an evening meeting, also at Media, at 7:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. We will be sending home
reminders with our elementary students and using our e-alert system to inform parents.
Also, notices of these meetings will be in our local press. Please check our website for
additional information in the coming week.
Follow-up meetings will be held on April 11th at Springton Lake and May 9th at Glenwood
Elementary.
Awards Aplenty
We are thrilled to announce that a number of our students and teachers have been
honored with various awards this month. We look forward to bringing these folks before
the School Board in February, but we couldn’t hold our pride until then.
Patrick Murphy, teacher at Media School, and Norm Kelly, beloved teacher at Indian
Lane, have both been selected to be inducted into the National Honor Roll's Outstanding
American Teachers. This is especially prestigious since nominations are made by former
students.
Five Penncrest students have been given awards by the United States Achievement
Academy, an organization founded to recognize outstanding students in America's
colleges and secondary schools. To be eligible for this award, students had to
demonstrate the following qualities: academic performance (3.0 or better), dependability,
leadership, enthusiasm, dedication to self-improvement, positive attitude and cooperative
spirit, and responsibility. Peggy Levesque nominated Penncrest students for this award
and the winners are Elijah Trusty – English, Janay Smith - Foreign Language – Spanish,
Jayda Rawls - Foreign Language – French, Khalice Payne - Foreign Language –
Spanish, and Erin Doby - Social Studies. These scholars are now eligible to apply to the
Academy’s scholarship program. Congratulations on this achievement!
Our World Language Department has been awarded a Bronze PEP award for offering an
exemplary foreign language program to its students. Over 1,000 school districts and
private high schools in the state were contacted by the Pennsylvania Modern Language
Association and invited to submit documentation meeting very rigorous criteria set forth
by the association. Penncrest was one of only ten schools receiving a gold globe, silver
globe, bronze globe, or honorable mention. We will honor our teachers of this department
next month.
Working In The Shoes of Others
I have continued to do my visits to schools to do the job of 2 employees each month. I
cannot tell you how beneficial this is for me! It is so much more meaningful than simply
walking the halls and talking to folks. Recently, I completed my January work by serving
as a special education aide at Glenwood Elementary and by working at Media
Elementary, taking the place of teacher, Sandy Gruber. I always look forward to the
connection with our students and I certainly enjoy seeing first-hand the wonderful work
our teachers and principals are doing. My favorite moment of the week was teaching
times tables to a special education student who didn't think he could do it. He learned
several times tables in 15 minutes and was justly so proud of himself!