Moorestown Board of Education Vice President, Brandon Pugh, discusses what the district has been up to in December.
By BRANDON PUGH, Moorestown Board of Education vice president
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.
I hope your holiday season has been enjoyable, and I am looking forward to a productive 2018 for the Board and District. Highlights of December include recognizing departing board members, approval of the annual audit and discussion of the district calendar.
At the Dec. 19 monthly meeting, the board recognized three board members leaving the board after three years of service. Each member contributed in numerous ways, but I would like to highlight a few aspects for each. Caryn Shaw chaired the board’s communication committee for a period, was actively involved in revenue generation and was the board’s liaison to the Partnership for Acceleration, Challenge and Enrichment (PACE). Ann Marie Reyher contributed to the board’s policy committee, served as the liaison to MoorArts and chaired the board’s residency committee. Peter Palko chaired the board’s budget & finance Committee, led the board negotiation team with the Moorestown Education Association (MEA) and was the liaison to the Township Recreation Advisory Council.
Business Administrator/Board Secretary Joanne D’Angelo presented the annual audit report for 2016–2017 conducted by Holman Frenia Allison, PC. There were no audit findings, no audit disagreements and all financial statement disclosures were neutral and consistent. The audit was unanimously accepted by the board.
It was announced the district was recognized by the Burlington County Insurance Pool Joint Insurance Fund (BCIP JIF). This included receiving the “Outstanding Performance in Claims Management Award” for maintaining a loss ratio below 50 percent for 2016–2017, the Elite II Safety Award and a financial award. Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds Greg McCarty, the health and safety committee and other members of staff were commended by Dr. Scott McCartney.
There has been a lot of concern recently about the construction of the district calendar and numerous comments were made at the monthly board meeting. Points of concern included how the start and end dates are chosen, along with how days off and half days are selected. The board does approve the district level calendar, but this approval does not account for individual school events, including parent/teacher conferences. These days are decided by administration after taking into account feedback from various stakeholders. I recommend reading the question & answer document prepared by Dr. McCartney at www.mtps.com.
Furthermore, I would like to share two personal points. First, is to congratulate Kathy Goldenberg on being named the Citizen of the Year. Kathy is more than deserving of this award and her dedication to the board/district is unmatched, including serving as board president for several years. Second, I have now served on the board for five years, and I would like to thank you for your continued support.
The next monthly meeting of the board will be on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. in the William Allen Middle School Media Center. However, the board will hold its reorganization meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. in the same location. At this meeting, a board president and vice president will be selected, various past board actions will be renewed and Jack Fairchild, Tinamarie Nicolo-Dorfner, and Lauren Romano will be sworn into the board. It would be great to see you at one or both of these meetings. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out in the meantime.
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.
