North Penn Home and School Coordinating Council, Inc. Minutes
February 15th, 2012
The main objective of CC is to provide a forum for parents of the North Penn School District to exchange ideas and to
promote an ongoing relationship between the schools, administration, board and community.
Location: North Penn High School
Member Organizations: A.M. Kulp; Bridle Path; General Nash; Gwynedd Square; Gwyn-Nor; Hatfield; Inglewood; Knapp;
Montgomery; North Wales; Oak Park; Walton Farm; York Avenue; Pennbrook; Penndale; Pennfield; North Penn HS; NP
Assoc. for Gifted Education; NP Athletic Alumni Assoc.; NP Booster Club; NPHS JROTC Squires; NP Music Aides; NP Special
Education Council; Students With Aspiring and Achievable Goals; Wrestling Parents.
Member Organizations represented: A.M. Kulp; Bridle Path; General Nash; Gwynedd Square; Inglewood; Knapp; North
Wales; Walton Farm; Pennbrook; Penndale; Pennfield; North Penn HS; NP Music Aides; NP Special Education Council.
Welcome –President Kathy Stella
Guest Speaker – Mr. Bob Gillmer


Summary: NPTV provides the North Penn Community student-produced television coverage of district board
meetings, student sports and events, and unique programming.
Please see specific speaker notes attached below as an addendum following the Business Meeting minutes.
Coordinating Council Business Meeting
Meeting items
1. Approval of Minutes –
 Minutes of the January 18, 2012 meeting were approved.
 Minutes can be found on www.npenn.org under For Families/Coordinating Council/CC Meeting Minutes.
2. Treasurer’s Report – Becky Ellstrom, Treasurer
 Current balance – $2926.65
 Income: Dues
 Expenses: None
3. Correspondence – Wendy Beatty-Burg, Corresponding Secretary
 Please notify Wendy with Coordinating Council representative contact information if you did not receive
an email.
 Received notification of IRS extension until May 15.
4. Old Business
 “A-thon”
o District approved holding “a-thon” fundraisers during the school day.
o Limit of one “a-thon” per year remains the same.
o Race for Education cannot be used as an “a-thon”.
NPCC minutes 02-15-2012 Final.doc
1

5.
Sixth Grade Parent Math Placement Program
o Moved from Knapp to NPHS Audion due to number of parents that expressed interest
o Good feedback
o Hosted by Stephanie Schwab (Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction) and middle school
counselors and math teachers
 Keystone Exam Meeting
o Invitation only for Tuesday, 2/21 (update – meeting postponed)
o Keystone Exams will be implemented on a reduced scale
 Inglewood Renovations
o A second, 1-phase option was presented as an alternative to standard 2-phase renovation
 Grades K-2 will be moved to General Nash Elementary for 1 year.
 Grades 3-6 will be moved to Pennfield Middle School for 1 year.
 Elementary students will use modular classrooms and will be segregated from
older students.
 Elementary students will have their own lunch period.
 Pennfield has space for the proposal.
 How will recess be handled?

$1.5 million over 2-phase renovation
 What are the costs of relocating the Inglewood students for 1 year?
 Will redistricting be necessary?
 Teachers would be reassigned during the relocation but some support staff would not
be needed.
o District may put out both proposal for bids
o Governor Corbett is proposing a 1-year moratorium on some school renovations.
o Inglewood community is concerned that it may lose out if it resists options on table and does not
compromise with district.
 Alternative Revenue Committee
o Josie Charnock, chair, invites community to the committee’s next meeting on Wednesday, March
14, at 7:00 PM in ESC.
New Business
 Wise Snac/North Penn Nutritional Services Focus Group
o District is assembling a parent focus group of at least 10 parents to meet at ESC on Wednesday,
March 7, at 6:30 pm.
 Proposed “Opt Out” at High School
o Seniors who have satisfied most of graduation credit requirements would be allowed to opt out
of first and/or last periods.
o Principal Hynes presented proposal at NPHS Parent Forum.
o Students must request while scheduling. The schedule will be assembled to place the student’s
empty periods during first and last period.
o Students have information, but where has information been posted for parents?
o District must clarify that busing will not be available for “opt out” students.
NPCC minutes 02-15-2012 Final.doc
2

6.
7.
Coordinating Council Nominating Committee
o 3 Individuals needed to serve as a nominating committee for Coordinating Council Executive
Board positions.
o Executive Board members serve 1-year terms and cannot serve again in same position unless
Coordinating Council approves by 2/3 vote.
Level Reports
 Pennbrook Middle School
o “What should Matt Read?” program coordinated by librarian Mrs. Castle had students
recommend books to Philadelphia Flyer Matt Reed.
o Today 38 students and 2 teachers visited the Philadelphia Flyers’ practice and met Matt Read.
Ideas, Concerns, Comments and Announcements



8.
NPHS Parent Forum
o Principal Hynes distributed for the first time a specific email notifying parents of Parent Forum.
Over 200 parents attended (versus usual 10-12). His email had mentioned that the meeting
would include a discussion about course selection. Many parents were disappointed to learn
that course selection was not a focus of the meeting.
Movie rights
o Should the Home and School organizations work together and purchase multiple rights to show a
movie?
o Issue explored in the past. Cost for multiple rights to a movie is prohibitive.
Fundraising ideas
o Campbell’s Soup Labels is currently providing 100 bonus points for each label (up to 50) when
submitted with an order. Offer ends at end of March.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting of Coordinating Council will be held on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, at the Walton Farm Elementary School
in the IMC. Jenna Ruffo, Manager of Special Education, will be the guest speaker to discuss the Gifted Programs. Please
forward to Wendy Beatty-Burg (beattyburg@aol.com), Corresponding Secretary, any business items or questions your
organization would like to have placed on future agendas.
Respectfully submitted,
Donald Mackowiak
Recording Secretary
NPCC minutes 02-15-2012 Final.doc
3
Addendum:
Presentation by Bob Gillmer, Coordinator of Communications Media
 Mr. Gillmer joined the district in 1993. His responsibilities include NPTV and coordinating AV services
 How to view North Penn Television (NPTV) programming
o Available as Channel 29 on Verizon FIOS and Channel 28 on Comcast
o www.nptv.npenn.org
 Live streams of NPTV broadcast
 Archived events can be shared with family members
o www.nptv.pegcentral.com
 Long-format programming
 Videos are usually uploaded in 24 hours
o www.youtube.com/nptv
 Started in 2006
 Approximately 60,000 hits per year
 Positive comments about videos are posted. Negative comments are withheld.
 “Fun” videos (Oak Park) draw viewers to site.
 NPTV Mission
o Created in 1993 to cover school board meetings
 All board meetings since 2008 are available online
 Board meetings have broadcast priority.
o News programs
o Event coverage
 NPTV cannot be everywhere all the time.
 Schedule attempts to balance coverage of middle school events over the year.
o Share student achievement with community
o NPTV airs 500 hours of programming each year (much more than most high school TV stations)
 NPTV’s daily schedule Is available on www.nptv.npenn.org
o Schedule is available for the upcoming week.
o Schedules are no longer distributed by email.
 Participation by students
o Types
 2 Courses are offered, taught by Cal Berger
 Intro and Advanced
 Students who take TV courses do not usually have time to participate in NPTV
club.
 Career study student
 Interns who spend 3-4 periods per day producing content
NPCC minutes 02-15-2012 Final.doc
4







NPTV Club students
 Opportunities to participate before and after school and on weekends
 Students only sign up to work when they can but are expected to keep
commitments to program schedule.
 Students in club usually do not enroll in TV classes. They quickly become more
advanced than TV classes.
 Programming workload only slows down in summer
District website (www.npenn.org)
o Averages 12,000 hits per day (peaks at 54,000 when snowstorm is approaching.)
o Page ranks
 #1 - Main
 #2 – NPHS page
 #3 – NPHS daily bulletin page
o Workshop for those responsible for Home and School communications?
o Studying consistency of Home and School web pages using analytics
Knapp
o Using CoverItLive to provide webcam coverage of Home and School meetings
o Other schools encouraged to use but requires principal’s involvement to maintain.
NPHS Knight Crier newspaper is now available at Knightcrier.org
o Students can provide daily content.
Changes in television over the years
o NPHS built in 1971 with up-to-date black and white television studio.
o Studio updated to color in 1982
o When Mr. Gilmer started in 1993, television studios were still using videotape editor systems
that cost $18,000 each.
o Computer editing was introduced in 2000.
o Cost of equipment has decreased in last decade
 Hi-definition camera can be purchased for $300.
 Macintosh editor costs $1,000.
NPTV studio is down for air conditioning replacement
o Work to be completed by May
o Studio to be rebuilt in time for new school year
o Mobile TV studio bus is being used this year for production.
Questions
o When can students become involved in NPTV?
 No restrictions
 Will put any student to work as long as they show up when promised.
 Students sign up for events.
 More involvement equals more opportunities to learn.
NPCC minutes 02-15-2012 Final.doc
5
o
o
o
o
What colleges are good to study television broadcasting?
 NPTV students enter college programs with college junior level experience and
immediately walk into leadership roles.
 A good broadcasting school is not necessarily tied to a good journalism school.
 It is important for students to find a program that gives students time to actively
participate in the broadcast station. Some schools do not allow freshmen and even
sophomores to work at the stations.
 Regional schools with strong programs:
 PA - Temple (getting stronger with a very active broadcast station), Millersville,
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Point Park (strong film school)
 NY - Ithaca and Syracuse
 Boston – Emerson College
How far in advance should NPTV be contacted to cover an event?
 Program schedule is created in May when the district calendar is under development.
 NPTV does not cover lip sync events.
 NPTV tries to restrict coverage to programming that NPTV does well.
 Lip sync shows are long programs.
 How should NPTV choose between elementary events? The station has enough
challenge balancing the coverage of events at the 3 middle schools.
 NPTV sells DVDs of its programming.
 Not advertised due to work load of producing DVDs
 Senior package is popular (10 hours of video), and NPTV makes $5,000 profit
each year through the sale. The time spent is worth the work.
 NPTV is considering producing DVDs of elementary school events
 NPTV would direct profits toward operating costs.
 Can NPTV do a better job at a better cost than the companies school
organizations currently use?
 Home and Schools will be surveyed to determine if there is interest.
Can each school have its own camera and studio?
 Each school must have a person in charge of the program and student interest.
 All middle schools have studio, cameras and editing computers.
 4 schools do not have equipment at this time.
Can permanent, remote cameras be installed in each school to allow easier coverage of
events?
 Possibility in the far future
NPCC minutes 02-15-2012 Final.doc
6