Moorestown Board of Education member, Brandon Pugh, discusses what the district has been up to in September.
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.
With the first month of school now done, Moorestown Township Public Schools are off to a great start. The Board of Education’s September actions included student and staff recognitions, the selection of a strategic planning company and the State of the District presentation.
At the Sept. 25 meeting, the board began by recognizing student and staff success. This included recognizing the students and coaches on the Unified Basketball Team for being the National Champions/Gold Medalists in the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle. Also, Dr. Scott McCartney announced that Moorestown earned bronze level certification through Future Ready Schools for technology implementation in the district, which was the highest award available in the first year of participation.
The student representative to the Board of Education program started last year and is continuing this year. Through this program, Moorestown High School students attend the monthly board meeting and provide a student perspective and updates from the high school. The representatives this year are Brenden Swanik (grade 12), Ashrit Verma (grade 11), Cara Petrycki (grade 10) and Avani Giri (grade 9).
The 2018 State of the District Presentation was given by Director of Curriculum and Instruction Carole Butler. The presentation covered statewide assessment performance data, an overview on academic offerings, extracurricular and athletics and student graduation information, among other areas. The presentation highlighted areas by subject area that need improvement and the steps being taken to improve. Interestingly, for the 318 students in the class of 2018, all but one student met graduation assessment requirements. This made Moorestown the only district in the county that required only one student portfolio submission for state approval toward graduation. The full presentation is available at www.mtps.com.
A grant application was approved for submission to Burlington County. The Board of Freeholders established the Burlington County School Security Program in June to make $20 million available to county schools to improve safety and security. Moorestown was deemed eligible for approximately $1 million to $1.7 million in funding after the county reviewed the proposed projects. Submitting this formal request is the next step.
The board held a special meeting on Sept. 17 to interview candidates for strategic planning. The current strategic plan covers 2016 through 2019 so it is now time to undergo a new planning process to identify goals and action steps. The board selected a firm at the Sept. 25 meeting and will be in touch with the community going forward for input.
The next regular meeting of the Board of Education is Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. in the William Allen Middle School Media Center. I hope you can visit an upcoming board meeting, but please do not hesitate to reach out at any time to myself or the board.
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.
