Moorestown Board of Education member, Brandon Pugh, discusses what the district has been up to in April.
By BRANDON PUGH, Moorestown Board of Education member
In this column, Moorestown Board of Education Member Brandon Pugh provides monthly updates on what’s going on in the school district and on the BOE.
It is hard to believe that the end of the school year and the Moorestown High School graduation is less than eight weeks away. April was a busy month, with continued progress on the 2018–2019 budget, student recognition and presentations and a program on school safety and security among other actions.
The board’s monthly meeting on April 17 began with student recognition and presentations. The board recognized students that advanced at science fairs, including the Coriell and Delaware Valley Science Fairs. Several students received top honors and had the opportunity to further compete. In addition, Moorestown High School students presented recent fundraising successes and their subsequent donations in the honor of Neil Rosa and to a high school in Malawi, Africa.
Superintendent Scott McCartney shared that his annual evaluation as superintendent is under way. The next step is for the superintendent to submit progress on district goals and his self-evaluation to the board, which will discuss and synthesize a final consensus document. President Alberti shared that the board will engage in the annual board self-evaluation as well, which will look at committee structure and operations.
The first program of the board’s new community engagement series was held on April 18. The topic of this program was school safety and security. This program provided an opportunity for attendees to learn about what the district is doing in terms of school safety, to ask questions and to share ideas on ways they felt would continue to strength the district’s security measures. Attendees included board members, administrators, police officers, teachers, parents and representatives from the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise, among others. Moving forward, the board is looking to have programs on other topics that are relevant to the community and welcomes ideas.
As a reminder, enrollment is open for the district’s Summer Enrichment Camp during the summer. Enrichment courses are open to both Moorestown students and non-resident students of varying grade levels. There will be five sessions offered and topics include cooking, drones, musical theater, robotics, and science, among many other offerings. The program packet is available at www.mtps.com.
The board will have a special meeting on Tuesday, May 1 at 6 pm in the William Allen Middle School. This meeting will be for the 2018–2019 budget public hearing and the final vote. The budget was first approved at the March meeting and has since received favorable approval by the Executive County Superintendent. Small changes were discussed by the Board at the April 10 budget workshop, which were not reflected in the preliminary budget. Broadly speaking, ideas included adding American Sign Language to the budget, possibly offering full-day kindergarten in the future and a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) pilot/transition.
The next regular monthly meeting of the Board is Tuesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in the WAMS Media Center. Please do not hesitate to reach out to the board, the superintendent or myself in the meantime if you need anything.
The views and content in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Moorestown Board of Education as a whole or any other individual member
