A New Candidate and Some New Tech

Photo by Evan Brandt

Bill Parker announces his candidacy to the Pottsgrove School Board, and a TV audience.

So at only the second Pottsgrove School Board meeting being recorded for broadcast on PCTV, someone took advantage of the camera's presence to announce his candidacy for the school board.

Photo by Evan Brandt

Gus Tellis films the Pottsgrove School Board meeting for PCTV. 

It should air today, Wednesday.

Bill Parker, who provided a written copy of his comments to the press, said he believes the school
board is not being prudent wit tax dollars and that candidates should be sought for all six seats that will be open.

He also mentioned that Al Leach will be running as well.

Also on the table for discussion was the purchase, for nearly $100,000, of 120 wireless access points for establishment at the high school.

Tecvhnology Director Michael Wagman said they are not related to the 1 to 1 program that will put computers in the hands of every high school student, but are related to the high school renovation project.

The deal was done outside the bidding process for the high school project, Wagman said, because the district could get a better price and wanted to be hands on for equipment they would be servicing for the next several years.

Without further delay, here are the tweets from last night's meeting.

On Second Thought, Maybe You're Right...

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottsgrove School Board President Justin Valentine, center, began Tuesday night's meeting by reading a statement responding to an editorial in The Mercury on May 15 which criticized the board for the manner in which it appointed Mike Rossi to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Kelley Crist.

The Pottsgrove School Board meeting of May 27 was significant for a number of reasons.

First, it began with an announcement by School Board President Justin Valentine addressing the May 15 editorial criticizing the board for the manner in which which it filled a vacancy in which he pledged to establish a policy for the replacement of board members.

Second, it took another look at a proposal which hangs in the budget balance, a proposal to provide new lap top computers to each Pottsgrove High School student and new iPads to all middle school students.

And third, because a number of folks following the live Tweeting by yours truly responded by not only sending direct messages to one board member that became part of the discussion, but also people responding to what was happening in the meeting.

The whole idea behind social media is that it is supposed to enable part of a broader discussion and last night, it fulfilled part of that promise.

In arranging this Storify, I did my best to put the responses where I thought they best belonged, but understand I was juggling a lot of balls at the same time.

As always, remember to click the blue "Read Next Page" bar to be sure you see it all. (Warning: There is a lot.)