Pottsgrove Extends Superintendent Shirk's Contract

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottsgrove junior cross country star Naomi Hellen, left, 

is congratulated by School Board President Robert Lindgren

January being not only the coldest and most forlorn month, but also School Board Appreciation month, (the two may be distantly related), the Pottsgrove School Board got appreciated and did some appreciating of its own Tuesday night.

The district's special education staff gave a presentation about their "Pottsgrove Village" initiative to make the district more inclusive of special education students, who, at 650 students, represent fully 20 percent of the district's student population.

The administrative staff  presented the board with cell phone chargers with the Pottsgrove logo emblazoned upon them. Neat.

Then it was the school board's turn, and it recognized three longtime employees who are retiring, Judi Wrigley, Kathy Causey and Daniel Freese, and expressed their appreciation.

The school board expressed its congratulations and appreciation to the district's athletic community in several ways:

• It congratulated Naomi Hillen, who placed 15th in the PIAA 3A state cross country championship.
• It congratulated the girls soccer team for winning the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division championship and its best season in school history.
• It congratulated the boys soccer team for another winning season, winning the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division championship
• It congratulated the boys cross country team for winning the PIAA district One 2A championships.
• And this Saturday, they will recognize past athletes during the first-ever Athletic Hall of Fame ceremonies.

And then it was Superintendent William Shirk's turn to be congratulated when the school board unanimously extended his contract, under its current terms, for another year.

"I feel like my last stop will be my best stop," said Shirk, who will now serve another 18 months as superintendent.

The school board has also begun discussion about rotating out the laptops used at the high school, and replacing them with the iPads used in the lower grades.

Reception to the idea was lukewarm to say the least.

And with that, click here to see the Tweets from the 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.)