A New Honor Roll

Some of you may remember back in March when Pottstown High School Principal Jeffrey Hartmann told the school board of his plans to expand the availability of advanced placement classes to students.

“We now have open enrollment for the upper level classes and if a student wants to meet the challenge, we will allow them access to the course and supply the support to help them succeed,” Hartmann said at the time.

And according to the high school handbook, those classes were supposed to carry extra weight when calculating the honor roll.

But that isn't what happened -- at least not until some vigilant parents began to question the first quarter honor roll.

Last month, former board member Julia Wilson and parent Aram Ecker told the school board that they believed their children had not been given the proper placement on the honor roll because the advanced classes they had taken had not been weighted appropriately.

Turns out they were right.

On Nov. 26, Hartmann alerted high school parents of the change.

Due to inconsistencies in the new high school procedures to calculate honor roll, we will be reverting our previous calculation method for the remainder of this school year. As a reminder, the calculation is as follows:

• Distinguished Honors: Weighted average of 96% with no grade below a 77%, no incompletes
• Honors:Weighted average of 88% with no grade below a 77%, no incompletes

Weighting WILL be used to calculate honor roll in addition to class rank and GPA. This includes courses listed on page 6 of the Course Catalog. As such, we will be re-running honor roll for the 1st marking period.

The “tentative honor roll” procedure listed in the 2014-2015 Student Handbook will be replaced with the process mentioned above.

Thank you for your patience in this matter and all who brought it to our attention.

So for those of you who didn't see the result, here is the revised list of students namd to the "Distinguished Honors" for Pottstown High School:

And here is the revised Honor Roll List:

Vacancies to Fill

Although borough council wasted little time in filling the tax collector vacancy Wednesday night, there are still a few vacant positions up for grabs.

As part of the annual process of filling posts on boards and commissions, council will vote Monday on filling nine open spots, with a tent
h vacancy being filled in February.

One seat on the Pottstown Borough Authority is open and two people have applied to fill it. It is currently filled by plumber Aram Ecker, who is seeking a second five-year term. However, newly elected Borough Councilwoman Sheryl Miller has also asked to be appointed.

Sheryl Miller

With Miller's defeat of Jeff Chomnuk for the third ward seat on council, the authority board currently has no member of borough council, a role Chomnuk had filled.

Chomnuk remains a member of the authority board but, obviously, no longer is a member of borough council.

Miller has also asked to be appointed to the Blighted Property Review Committee, an organization that re-appoints four members every year and is charged with reviewing run-down properties in town and declaring them blighted in order to force the owners to repair them, or lose them.

That committee has traditionally been headed by Councilman Dan Weand and, in addition to a member of the codes department, also includes a resident of the borough and traditionally the council person for the first ward "since that's where most of the blighted properties are located," Council President Stephen Toroney explained Wednesday night.

If that tradition is to be followed, newly elected Councilman Ryan Procsal would be appointed.

There is one open seat on the Pottstown Zoning Hearing Board, which carries a three-year term, and incumbent Richard Patrizi has applied to be re-appointed. As of Wednesday night, there were no other applicants.

The Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority has three open seats, each of which carries a five-year term.

Ross Belovich

Three people, Nichole Taylor, John Armato and former mayoral candidate Ross Belovich are being
recommended for the seats by the PDIDA board, said Main Street Manager Sheila Dugan.

Newly elected Mayor Sharon Thomas is "automatically" a member, Toroney said Wednesday.

There is also one open seat on the Pottstown Planning Commission, but the term on that seat does not expire until Feb. 1.

Rosedale resident Jim Derr has asked to be re-appointed to another four-year term.

Miller had applied to be appointed to this post as well, but Toroney told her the planning commission cannot have more than two members of council and since he and Weand both already sit on that board, and their terms are not up, she cannot be appointed.

In theory, there is still time to apply to fill most of these posts, although there are certain requirements for the PDIDA position.