| NPSD Board Members |
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President
Tina Stoll
Vice President
Christian D. Fusco
Members
Edward Diasio
Elisha K. Gee
Jonathan M. Kassa
Timothy MacBain
Jenna A. Ott
Theresa Prykowski
Juliane Ramić
The NPSD Board of School Directors welcomes questions and comments from the community. To that end, community members may email the entire school board at
_npschoolboard@npenn.org.
If you would like to contact a specific board member via email or phone, please
click here for a list of contact information.
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| Meetings in Review |
NPSD Board of School Directors Meeting
To view agenda attachments and minutes from past meetings, please click here.
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Upcoming Meetings
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October 1, 6:00 pm, ESC
ECP Committee Meeting
October 1, 7:30 pm, ESC
Worksession Meeting
October 7, 6:00 pm, ESC
Finance Committee Meeting
October 17, 7:30 pm, ESC
Action Meeting
October 28, 6:00 pm, ESC
Safe Schools Committee Meeting
October 28, 6:30 pm, ESC
Facilities & Operations Committee Meeting
To access the list of
meeting dates scheduled for 2019, please click here.
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| NPSD Property Tax and Rent Rebate Program |
At the March 2019 action meeting, the NPSD Board of School Directors unanimously approved a revised property tax rebate program that will see a discount of up to $195 for certain homeowners and renters.
To qualify for this discount, applicants must be:
- homeowners with a household income of no more than $35,000 annually; OR
- renters with a yearly household income of no more than $15,000;
AND
- be 65 years of age or older; OR
- be a widow and widower aged 50 years of age or older; OR
- be permanently disabled and 18 years of age or older.
The property tax and rent rebate program is based on the existing Pennsylvania Property Tax and Rent Rebate program which has been in effect since 1971 and is funded by state lottery and slot machine proceeds. North Penn homeowners and renters must qualify for the state rebate program to qualify for the district rebate program. NPSD is granting a 30 percent rebate as follows:
- 30 percent (maximum $195) annual rebate for North Penn homeowners and renters with a yearly household income between $0 to $8,000;
- 30 percent (maximum $150) annual rebate for North Penn homeowners and renters with a yearly household income between $8,001 to $15,000;
- 30 percent (maximum $90) annual rebate for North Penn homeowners with a yearly household income between $15,001 to $18,000; and
- 30 percent (maximum $75) annual rebate for North Penn homeowners with a yearly household income between $18,001 to $35,000.
For those who qualify for the Tax Rebate Program, forms can be found here or by visiting/calling your local legislator.
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| Attending Action and Work Session Meetings |
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The NPSD Board of School Directors Action Meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month. These meetings give students, parents and community members an opportunity to address the board and speak on any topic for five minutes. The Work Session, another monthly meeting is held one week preceding the Action Meeting on Tuesday. Here, attendees are also given five minutes to express their views, but are limited to speak on the topics of the evening's agenda.
Both the Action Meeting and the Work Session meeting begin at 7:30 pm and are held in the NPSD Educational Services Center (ESC) located at 401 E. Hancock St., Lansdale, PA 19446. However, if you are unable to attend in person, intimidated by the televised setting or by the requirements, community members should feel free to call or email the members of the board, either individually or as a whole. For a list of contact information, click here. The televised board meetings are available for private viewing on local Comcast Cable Channel 28
and Verizon Cable Channel 29 as well as www.youtube.com/nptv within several days of the original meeting.
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Dear Community,
On behalf of the entire North Penn School District (NPSD) Board of School Directors, I'd like to welcome you back to another great year of dreaming big and achieving greatness at North Penn.
It's hard to believe we're already almost through our first month of school! It feels like just yesterday we were
ringing the bells at each of our 13 elementary schools for the kick off of our full-day kindergarten (FDK) program. To that end, I'd like to congratulate and sincerely thank each of the many moving parts that brought our FDK dream to life. From committee members to counselors to teachers, support staff, administrators and beyond, it was a huge undertaking and we couldn't be more proud of the awesome work that has been accomplished. We at North Penn are thrilled to welcome the class of 2032 as our first class of full-day kindergarteners and look forward to the many exciting things to come as the program continues to develop. We also thank our families for their partnership in preparing each of our 992 kindergarten students for this new adventure. We look forward to sharing more about our FDK program throughout the year, so please keep an eye out for updates.
As a proud NPSD parent and North Penn community member, I want to personally give a shout out to all our families for knocking it out of the park during the craziness of back-to-school season. Finding our footing in the transition from summer break to September is never an easy task, but once again our students and families have made it look easy. One of my favorite parts about North Penn is the diversity throughout our district in so many different aspects. It's been incredible to see 12,790 students from so many different walks of life join together this September to create one unified district with such outstanding pride.
And I would be remiss to not also extend the warmest congratulations and thanks to the
1,900 staff members of NPSD for helping to make the transition to the 2019-2020 school year smooth and exciting. Countless support staff and administrators were hard at work throughout the summer months preparing for the return of the students. And our talented teachers rejoined us in August, determined to start the school year organized and prepared with fresh ideas and meaningful messages for our young learners.
On a personal note, this school year is special for me as my oldest daughter is a Senior at North Penn High School (NPHS) and has had the benefit of an outstanding K-12 education in North Penn School District. Twelve years ago, I waited at the bus stop excited to hear about her first day of kindergarten, just as many of our kindergarten parents did this year. Each year after that has been filled with an abundance of experiences and opportunities. Every new school year at NPSD represents a new opportunity for our students to dream big and achieve greatness, and I know our students will continue to go above and beyond impressing us with their ability to do just that. I can't wait to see all of the exciting things to come this year and look forward to another year of partnership and transparency in sharing them with you. Here's to NPSD and the 2019-2020 school year, may it be our best one yet!
Sincerely,
Elisha K. Gee
NPSD Board of School Directors
Term Expiration: 2019
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The Safe Schools Committee met on August 27 at 6:00 pm at the Educational Services Center (ESC).
Chris Doerr, NPSD Coordinator of Emergency Management and Safe Schools,
and Dr. Todd Bauer, NPSD Assistant Superintendent, shared plans for security officer training. Both the new state-mandated training and proposed in-house opportunities were discussed. The committee will keep this topic on the agenda for future meetings.
Doerr also highlighted several safety and security items related to the planned renovation of Crawford Stadium. Items of discussion included improved crowd control and evacuation, surveillance, access control, and student safety.
Reports from the Safe Schools Committee Meeting held on September 23 will be shared in next month's newsletter. The next
Safe Schools Committee meeting will be held on October 28 at 6:00 pm at the ESC.
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The Safe Schools Committee met on September 10 at 6:00 pm at the ESC.
The monthly financial reports were reviewed with additional discussion on the following items:
Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) Request
A presentation was made by the Westrum Development Company regarding their LERTA request for three parcels located in Lansdale Borough. The committee suggested Westrum develop an alternate proposal that phases in the tax increase over a period of fewer than 10 years.
Bond Refunding Opportunity
John Frey from PFM Financial Advisors presented information regarding the potential savings for refunding three outstanding bond issues. At the time of the meeting, the projected net savings were $500,000.
2020-2021 Budget Calendar
The budget calendar for next fiscal was presented. The timeline is accelerated by a month compared to last year. The preliminary budget is scheduled for adoption on 1/16/20 and final budget adoption would occur on 6/18/20.
2018-2019 Capital Reserve Fund Transfer
The committee recommended that the unspent funds from the 2018-2019 budget be transferred to the Capital Reserve Fund once the final numbers are known as part of the audit process.
Act 1 Index
The 2020-2021 index was released and will be 2.60 percent.
The next
Finance Committee meeting will be held on October 7 at 6:00 pm at the ESC.
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The
Facilities and Operations Committee met on August 26 at 6:30 pm at the ESC.
The committee reviewed a facility rental fee waiver request for a community Health and Wellness Fair.
The committee reviewed the final closeout documents for the Hatfield Elementary School project.
Scott Kennedy, NPSD Director of Facilities and Operations, gave an update on the NPHS Crawford Stadium project. Bids were received and are currently being reviewed.
Kennedy gave an update on the Knapp Elementary School project. Design development is still occurring along with obtaining the required approvals to move forward with the project.
The committee reviewed the summer facilities progress which included improvements to the Pennbrook Middle School modular classrooms, a new roof at Nash Elementary School, full-day kindergarten classrooms, along with repairs, maintenance, cleaning and painting throughout the district.
Kennedy reviewed the updated Long-Range Capital Improvement plan which now includes a scoring matrix to prioritize the projects.
Reports from the Safe Schools Committee Meeting held on September 23 will be shared in next month's newsletter. The next
Facilities and Operations Committee meeting will be held on October 28 at 6:30 pm at the ESC.
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The ECP Committee met on August 27 at 6:00 pm at the ESC.
Adoption of Policies
As a result of the ongoing policy review process with Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA), Dr. Todd Bauer, NPSD Assistant Superintendent, presented several policies to the committee that had been reviewed by administration, the district solicitor, and NPSD Board of School Directors Vice President, Christian Fusco.
Repeal of Policies
As a result of the ongoing policy review process with PSBA, Dr. Bauer presented several policies to the committee that will be repealed following the adoption of those policies that will take their place.
The next ECP Committee meeting will be held on October 1 at 6:00 pm at the ESC.
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The NPSD Educational Foundation last met on September 3 at the ESC.
Executive Director Christine Liberaski updated trustees on work with Match Nonprofit. A strategic planning session with trustees has been set for September with follow-up meetings throughout the fall. A final strategic plan should be ready by January 2020. The success of the recent Build-A-Bag backpack drive was also discussed. More than 300 backpacks and the supplies to fill them were donated this summer to meet the needs of the students in this community. Thank you to partners, donors, volunteers and businesses who supported this great project. In just its second year, the drive has earned top honors from both the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association and the National School Public Relations Association. The North Penn School District and the NPSD Educational Foundation are seen as leaders in this area of supporting student needs.
Last week, the Foundation announced it is accepting mid-year grant requests. North Penn staff are encouraged to apply for funding available in January for innovative projects implemented by the end of the school year. All of these projects are made possible by generous donations.
In October, the Foundation will embark on its second annual U-Knight to Inspire Staff Giving Campaign. Last year, NPSD staff pledged more than $25,000 to the Foundation through this program. Though that was a great number, the Foundation hopes to surpass it this year.
Other upcoming events include:
- On Saturday, September 28th, everyone is invited to the North Penn Knight out at the Phillies sponsored by the Foundation. Close to 300 North Penn employees, families and community members are attending the 6:05 p.m. game against the Marlins. Tickets are just $20 with a portion going back to the Foundation. Click here for more information.
- Monday, October 7 is the Foundation's annual golf outing. This year, since moving the date from August to October, it will be an Oktoberfest theme. Plans include a German Food truck and more. The Foundation is looking for both golfers and sponsors, with both starting at $135. It's the best priced, best run golf outing around. Click here for more information.
For more information about the Foundation, please contact the Executive Director, Christine Liberaski at liberacd@npenn.org.
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