All in WSSD School Board
On February 10, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board convened in the Strath Haven Middle School library in front of an audience of three. With two modifications, the board unanimously approved the draft calendar presented at the January 27 meeting. The board reported that it is considering beginning the 2021-2022 school year before Labor Day.
At the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board meeting on January 27, Denise Citarelli Jones presented several proposed new courses for the board’s approval. Citarelli Jones, director of secondary education, said the district hopes to better prepare students for careers in STEM, including computer science. Many future jobs in Pennsylvania will require STEM, computer science, and design thinking skills, according to statistics she presented. The district’s STEM Advisory Council, made up of teachers, administrators, and counselors, is helping determine what new courses are developed and how to incorporate STEM into more of the curriculum.
The first Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board meeting of 2020 began with a report from the board’s student representative, who reported that the high school’s Diversity Trainers went to Strath Haven Middle School to educate students about diversity and inclusion. Afterwards, the focus topic was the presentation of the proposed preliminary 2020-21 budget.
How to inventory a whole year? What to remind you of, and what to skip? What would you rather forget, but maybe shouldn’t? What have you already forgotten that might interest you to recall? Collecting (recollecting) these happenings and lives and milestones is a way to consider what we have accomplished and aspired to and worried about as a community, as we take the first steps into 2020. To think about where we have succeeded, where we have more work to do, and where we might want to start all over again.
Dr. Kristopher Brown will be leaving his position as principal of Strath Haven High School (SHHS) in January 2020. In her report at the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board meeting on Monday night, Superintendent Lisa A. Palmer announced that she hopes to fill the position on an interim basis with someone from within the district. She anticipates naming an interim principal in the next few weeks.
Strath Haven High School Principal Kristopher Brown will be the next District Equity Officer of Abington Township. “This is a very unique opportunity to do work that I am incredibly passionate about in the community I grew up in and the school where my passion to become an educator was born,” Brown wrote in a letter to parents. “It has truly been a fantastic opportunity for me to work in this community, and I am better for having had the chance to be here and work to continue to provide a great experience for the students and the Wallingford-Swarthmore community.”
Eight cases of pertussis have been confirmed in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District since the beginning of the school year, according to Superintendent Lisa Palmer. The diagnosed students have been from Swarthmore-Rutledge School, Strath Haven Middle School, and Strath Haven High School. The highly contagious disease, which affects the lungs, is commonly known as whooping cough because of the sound sufferers sometimes make after a long fit of coughing.
A check for $13,000 was presented to the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District at the School Board’s meeting on November 25 by Frannie Reilly and Elizabeth Ross, president and vice president of the Foundation for the Wallingford-Swarthmore Schools. The money, which will be equally distributed among grades K-12, will support R.E.A.D: Reading for Education, Acceptance, and Diversity. Also at the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Lisa Palmer informed the district that, since the beginning of the school year, eight cases of pertussis (whooping cough) have been diagnosed among district students.
The focus topic of Monday night’s Wallingford-Swarthmore School District meeting was the district’s continuing exploration of later start times. In her second sleep study presentation, Dr. Denise Citarelli Jones, WSSD director of secondary education, informed the audience of the progress that the sleep study task force has made now that half of the investigation is complete.
Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board Report
Students and families in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District are heartbroken with the recent passing of Strath Haven High School junior Hallie Jackson. On Monday, during SHHS’s fourth block, around 1 p.m., all teachers received an email to read to their classes. The email stated that a student, Hallie Jackson, had passed away and that guidance counselors would be available to anyone who needed to talk.
In a message to the community which she read at Monday’s WSSD school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Lisa Palmer said, “Our thoughts and sympathies are with [Hallie’s] family and her friends.” She said that the school district has established support centers in the middle and high school. These centers have been staffed with guidance counselors, school psychologists, and members of the crisis intervention team and will be made available to all students. Dr. Palmer encourages those whose students need additional support to contact the school office, principal, or guidance counselors. A resource guide for those that need help will be made available to the community through the district website. Dr. Palmer encouraged the community to keep Hallie and her family in their prayers.
Early in Monday night’s Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Lisa Palmer lauded the members of Strath Haven High School’s golf team for its remarkable season. The undefeated team was champion of the Central League and also of PIAA District 1, a double feat which had never before been accomplished.
At its Monday night meeting this week, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board authorized the hiring of Mary Figura as WSSD’s its first-ever assistant to the superintendent for management services. Superintendent Dr. Lisa Palmer said that compared to similar school districts, Wallingford-Swarthmore has had a “lean administrative team.” Figura is currently director of curriculum, instruction and technology in the Pine Grove (Schuylkill County) School District.
The Wallingford-Swarthmore administration has extended an invitation for interested parents to join the task force that will explore the issue of adolescent sleep and the consequences of sleep deprivation and the possibility of delaying school start times. Meanwhile, in a move likely to be celebrated by 3rd graders throughout the district, the School Board voted 8-0 at its September 9 meeting to eliminate loss of recess as a penalty for student misconduct.
Want to be a regular contributor to the Swarthmorean? We need a new school board reporter. You’ll report on WSSD board meetings, usually about an hour long; usually two Mondays each month — write up what you hear, and send it in the next day. We pay, though modestly, and you get the byline.
After a hiatus caused by a July storm, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board reconvened on August 19 with a full slate, and a revamped agenda. Dr. Palmer emphasized that no decisions had been made regarding school start times, and invited the public to participate in the work of a task force and attend a regional panel discussion night.
Parents of Strath Haven High School’s Class of 2020 will get a say in whether graduation will be held at George L. King Field next year, instead of Neumann University or Villanova University, which between them have hosted Haven graduations since 2007. The plan, presented by SHHS Principal Dr. Kristopher Brown at Monday night’s Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board meeting, grew out of concerns that with growing class sizes, Neumann could become overcrowded.
At its meeting on Monday night, June 10, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board did not come to a conclusive vote regarding a resolution of support for Delaware County Community College’s proposal to open a new campus at the Archbishop Prendergast High School building at 403 N. Lansdowne Avenue in Drexel Hill. Also, the Board announced the retirement of 12 teachers, four of whom were in the audience at the Strath Haven Middle School library that evening.
At its May 28 meeting, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board heard a proposal from representatives of Delaware County Community College on Tuesday regarding the proposed purchase of the massive building which was originally home to Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School.
With the school year drawing to a close, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board’s May 13 meeting focused on the district’s vision for the future, and the budget that will fund the next year of its operation.
The Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board approved several contracts and agreements, significantly a contract with Dell Financial Services which will fund the leasing of notebook computers for the coming school year. These will be deployed in Strath Haven High School in the next phase of the district’s Chromebook initiative, which began in fall 2018 with the distribution of Dell Chromebooks to all 9th graders.
