Orchid Expo Staged in Oaks Today and Sunday

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Orchid Society

The tri-county area will be well represented when thousands of orchids, the undisputed queen of the flower world, are on glorious display through April 7, at the Philly EXPO Center in Oaks. 

More than 30 area residents representing the Southeastern Pennsylvania Orchid Society (SEPOS), one of nearly 400 affiliates of the American Orchid Society (AOS), are putting the finishing touches on the spectacular exhibits of the annual International Orchid Show. 

More than100 participants will stage more than two dozen spectacular exhibits showcasing the exotic beauty of the world's largest plant family. Visitors will marvel at the unparalleled beauty, complexity and diversity of these extraordinary flowers.

The AOS was founded in 1921, largely at the urging of Alice B. DuPont. When local affiliates were encouraged, SEPOS became the second such organization in 1947. A non-profit, educational and conservation organization, SEPOS has sponsored it's show for more than fifty years and it is now one of the largest in North America (only FL and CA are excepted). 

 The local society is joined by ten others from the mid-Atlantic area and eighteen orchid growers from around the world (including Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Brazil and Ecuador) as well as CA, CT, FL, MD, NH, NJ, NY and PA.

No longer confined to estates of the well-to-do, orchids can be enjoyed by everyone. Orchid sales outperform all other plant sales except poinsettias. Interest in orchids has exploded in recent years as they are readily available and more affordable. 

Orchid societies have helped eliminate the traditional mystery surrounding orchids. SEPOS boasts nearly 100 members who meet monthly. Visitors are welcome and the group's activities will help you learn how to enjoy orchids in your home and garden.

SEPOS members will assist certified AOS judges from the U.S. and Canada as they evaluate plants and exhibits. They will also conduct free guided tours of the show, present free lectures and answer visitors' questions.

Mere mention of the word “orchid” conjures up images of steamy jungles and trees festooned with flamboyant corsage orchids. While most orchids do grow in the tropics, they also grow in specialized habitats on all continents except Antarctica. Some even grow above the Arctic Circle. 

There are more than 30,000 orchid species in the world and every US state has native orchids. Pennsylvania boasts more than 40 species which can be found growing naturally in undisturbed places. Some are large and colorful while others are small, green and inconspicuous. All have developed remarkable adaptations to ensure successful pollination and continuation of the species.

The loss of habitat jeopardizes orchids in the wild. SEPOS members participate in numerous research projects side by side with scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Longwood Gardens, Mt. Cuba Center, and the North Branch Land Trust as they attempt to stave off extinction. Proceeds from the show are donated to these organizations as well as the Academy of Natural Sciences, Jocotoco Foundation, Native Orchid Conference and the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research.

For more information and discounted tickets go to: www.sepos.org

Keeping Things Open in New Hanover Township

Photos by Evan Brandt

Township Supervisors approved the preservation of more than 33 acres of a beloved dairy farm and are poised to enjoy the preservation of another 455 acres of open space in the coming months.

The location of the Suloman Farm is marked by

the red circle in the lower left portion of the map.

The farm that was preserved is the Suloman Dairy Farm on Leidy Road between Swamp Pike and Buchert Road.

The retail dairy store, on about 1.16 acres, was not part of the preservation said Township Solicitor Andrew Bellwoar.

The remaining 33.4 acres will remain with the Suoman family, but a conservation easement costing $700,000 will ensure it remains a farm no matter who owns it.

"You can't buy better milk anywhere," said Planning Commission Chair Susan Smith in endorsing the move.

The money for the conservation easement comes from the .15 mill open space tax on earned income approved by voters in a townwide referendum in 2006, said Bellwoar.

The farm was identified in the township's Open Space and Recreation Master Plan as a property worthy of preservation and consists of a total of five parcels.

The second and larger open space effort underway concerns the Laughing Waters Girl Scout Camp, located south of Route 73 between New Hanover Square Road and Fagleysville Road.

Part of the property is in Upper Frederick Township, but the majority of the property is in New Hanover township, said Township Manager Jamie Gwynn.

Montgomery County has already agreed to put up $2,767,000 toward the $3,917,000 price of the conservation easement and another $1,150,000 grant is being sought from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

In cooperation with the Girl Scouts, Natural Lands and Montgomery County, DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn, will be hosting local state legislators and inviting the press to tour the camp on May 2 according to information provided by state officials.

The idea is to highlight the importance of the camp's preservation and promoting the Governor’s Restore PA initiative which would assist in helping to preserve large important conservation areas such as the camp, as well as many other essential infrastructure needs across the state. 

The township supervisors voted unanimously Thursday night to endorse the effort to preserve the camp from development.

Route 663 News

On the state grant front, Gwynn said the township has already received a $125,000 grant from PennDOT to install a signal at the intersection of Route 663 and Route 73, the western side of that dog-legged intersection.

A traffic control signal will be installed at the intersection of routes 73 and 663 next to Saldutti Car Corner. That hill will be reprofiled to increase sight distance and widened to put a left-turn lane facing west on Route 73 to turn onto Route 663 at that intersection.

The western intersection of Route 663 and Route 73 

where a traffic signal is planned.

But Thursday night he announced a second grant for $377,000 from the Commonwealth Finance Authority toward the same project. That's a total of $502,000 toward a project whose cost is currently estimated at $640,000, said Gwynn.

He thanks the township's traffic consultant Sandy Koza for writing the grant application. He said a third grant application is still pending for the remaining $138,000, although he warned that the project will probably end up costing more than the estimate as construction costs are rising.

Without the third grant, New Hanover will turn to the funds it has collected from developers for the impact their residential projects have on township roads.

More improvements are coming to the heavily traveled road. During the same meeting, Township Public Works Director Dennis Flynn told the supervisors that he has been contacted by PennDOT and they intend to repave one of two sections of Route 663 this summer.

They will wither repave the section from Swamp Pike Route to Route 73; or the section from Route 73 to Hill Road.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting"

Keeping Things Open

Pottstown Talks Potholes, Pavement and a Plan for a $1.7M Children's Discovery Center on High Street

Two major items of interest were unveiled at last night's borough council meeting, one thing that is hard to hate, and one that we all love to hate.

The first is the proposed Pottstown Children's Discovery Center, a kind of "Please-Touch-Museum" and learning center planned for High Street.

The other is potholes and paving. We all hate potholes and we all love to complain about paving, or, more specifically, it's absence.

Pottstown Children's Discovery Center

Three organizers, Beth Desch, Karen Hudson and Jennifer Brown spoke to council and outlined their
vision for the non-profit center.

There is nothing similar to what they have planned in the area and their research indicates there are more than 575,000 children living within 50 miles of Pottstown.

They also found that 36 percent of Pottstown children live at or below the poverty line, so the admission price of $8 to $12 could be reduced, or free, for those from low-income families.

The organizers want the Pottstown Children's Discovery Center to be on High Street and even have a building picked out, but until they can raise the $1.7 million they estimate will be needed to buy the building and refurbish it to get things started.

They are hoping to do that by 2021 and make it a "Certified Autism Center" because Montgomery County has the most autism diagnosis in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The idea is for the center to be interactive, and to support the efforts of the Pottstown School District, said Desch. She said after speaking with Barth Elementary School Principal Ryan Oxenford, the group hopes to put together a kind of traveling STEM exhibit that "brings the field trip to the kids."

In the meantime, they have been raising awareness with events, their own and attending others.

Perhaps the largest to date was the "Noon Year's Eve," an event held at the Carousel at Pottstown and designed to give kids a New Year's Eve experience without losing sleep.

"We did a countdown and released balloons, the kids loved it," said Desch, who added it attracted 150 children.

Pottstown Paving Plan

It's not hard to find places along the 60 miles of roadway the borough must maintain to find places

From left, Pottstown Public Works Director Doug Yerger,

Borough Manager Justin Keller and Council VP Carol Kulp.

that need some work, particularly at this time of the year.

Potholes and cracked pavement prevail.

So Council Vice President Carol Kulp, who also heads up council's Infrastructure Committee, thought it might be a good idea to outline Pottstown's limited resources, and the way in which they will be used to keep our fillings in our teeth.

The primary source of funding for roadwork in Pottstown is the liquid fuels fund, the borough's share of revenue from Pennsylvania's fuel tax.

This year it will work out to about $930,000. That might sound like a lot until you realize that is costs about $250,000 to pave one mile of roadway, said Borough Manager Justin Keller.

That money will help pave about $3.7 miles of road in 2019, said Public Works Director Doug Yerger.

Examples of the five different kind of ratings Doug Yerger uses to

prioritize road repairs in Pottstown.

Another way roads get paved is when the Pottstown Borough Authority, or PECO, digs up a road to replace a water, sewer or gas pipe. When those planned projects are added in, the total amount of roadway being planned for paving this year rises to 5.05 miles.

As for fixing potholes, the borough budget only allocates about $25,000 a year for that task.

As for the paving, those decisions are made by the interaction of the condition of the roadway, and the plans by the utilities.

Yerger has a five-point scale he uses to classify borough streets and which need the most work, with five being the worst.

But that is not always the deciding factor.

The roads scheduled to be repaved in Pottstown this year.

So, for example, Keller said a road that is rated as a five, the worst, may not be paved one year while a four or a three is. That is often because utilities in the ground are being replaced and the paving follows that work.

This year, .61 miles of road will be paved as the result of a sewer pipe project and another .63 miles will be paved as the result of a water line project. No word yet on how much PECO will dig up, or the state will pave as several major roadways in town are PennDOT's responsibility.

The borough is experimenting with using "millings" to pave alleys.

"We don't want to pave a road and dig it up two years later to replace a sewer line," Keller explained. "It's a constant game of chasing your tail, and we try to stay on top of it."

Unfortunately, more than 14 miles of roadway in Pottstown are classified as fives under Yerger's
system. Obviously, this means that whatever gets paved, some of the worst roads in town will remain crappy.

Now let's move on to everyone's second most popular complaint (bike lanes don't count. They're a whole separate level of irritation). I'm talking of course about Pottstown's alleys.

Yerger said that many of the alleys are not ordained, making it more difficult, legally and practically, to spend taxpayer money fixing them up. Even the ordained alleys rank lower than the more traveled streets.

But don't despair alley dwellers. Yerger said the borough is currently piloting two different less

Aggregate is being tested on an alley off Airy Street.

expensive ways of treating alleys.

One is to use left-over millings scraped off roads before they are re-paved. The borough has put millings down, and pressed them, on two alleys as an experiment and after a year, "they are holding up very well."

Another method is using a substance called "aggregate," which has no binding oil or tar to hold it together. Pottstown has received a $230,000 grant from the Montgomery County Conservation District to use this on an alley off Airy Street as a way to fight water pollution.

The benefit of using this material is it is less expensive than paving, and using it helps the borough to meet more stringent federal Clean Water Act regulations, Yerger explained.

There was certainly more discussed last night, but it's late and I am running out of steam.

Darlene Bainbridge addresses violence in Pottstown.

But before I go, allow me to observe that after all the sound and fury on Facebook about the situation at Pottstown Middle School; the hand-wringing about the shooting death at York and Walnut streets; after all the righteous indignation, and pronunciations, exactly one person showed up at council to address it.

The only person to step away from the keyboard and show up to stand up was lifetime resident Darlene Bainbridge.

Bainbridge volunteers all over the place and is involved with a number of positive initiatives in the borough.

She said people are advising her to move out of Pottstown, that it is "irresponsible to raise your kids here," but she rejects that.

Bainbridge also said council and the police department need to offer some guidance to help Pottstown deal with what she described as an "out-of-town element" causing problems here.

She also observed with some evident disappointment, "I thought there would be more people here to speak."

Unfortunately, she stood alone and council had no response.

With that, here is the mayor's report:



And as if that wasn't super-cool enough, here is the borough manager's report:




And of course, what kind of blogger would I be without presenting you with the Tweets from last night's meeting? Here they are:

Of Potholes and Children's Museums

Seven-Lot Subdivision Would Finish Raven's Claw

Photos by Evan Brandt

GETTING AN EARLY START: Liam Kaufman, who attends Spring-Ford Area School District's 9th Grade Center, was unanimously appointed by the township supervisors board as a student member of the Limerick Parks and Recreation Committee. The past two years he has volunteered as a counselor-in-training at the township summer camp= and will start as a full-fledged counselor this summer.

The majority of Tuesday's Limerick Supervisors meeting was taken up with discussion of a seven-lot subdivision being built on Masters Drive in the Raven's Claw development, which has 193 homes already built.

The parcel was originally planned as a health club when the project was approved, but that was never built. The only other use the zoning allowed was a church, which no one seemed to want Sunday traffic-wise.

Mercury File Photo

Limerick had to go to court to get the Raven's Claw project finished.

Raven's Claw is a development merged with the Raven's Claw golf course and was begun around 2000, but the developer, Dewey Homes, never completely finished the neighborhood, leaving all of the neighborhood’s roads and some of the planned sidewalks unfinished.

Additionally, some whose driveways were scheduled to be paved by the developer were left high and dry.

The roads in the neighborhood were left with many potholes and cracks with manholes raising up out of the road in multiple areas.

In July, 2013, a court order was issued to Dewey to make the improvements in the neighborhood. In January this year, a judge denied the township’s motion for contempt filed against Dewey since they did not make progress on the work.

In April, 2014, the township successfully pushed for a contempt order and finished the paving and sidewalks that were left unfinished.

The site plan for the seven-lot sub-division in Raven's Claw.

The seven-lot subdivision project received a variance from the zoning hearing board to allow the homes to be built, and did so without any objection from the township supervisors.
But Supervisors Chairman Ken Sperring was irritated that the lack of objections from the supervisors was based on a promise to get support for the sub-division from a majority of the members of the Homeowners Association, or HOA.

Rob Lewis, a former resident and the attorney for the Homeowner's Association, said the HOA board endorsed the project, but getting agreement from 90 households was not something he was ever told was required.

He said the restrictions for the new homes would be posted on the HOA website and added to the annual HOA general meeting scheduled for March 20, which Sperring and the other board members decided was adequate enough.

The design for the new homes will be similar to those in Raven's Claw.

Approval of the plan, which  Sperring said "is clean. We just want to make sure the people already living there are OK with this," was tabled until the supervisor's first meetying in June, after the annual HOA meeting.

The supervisors voted unanimously to extend the deadline for preliminary/final site plan approval to July 22.

Lewis said the new homes would controlled by deed restriction with rules nearly identical to those imposed on the homes already built in Raven's Claw. However, the new homes cannot be added to the HOA because it would require 100 percent approval from every member and "getting 196 households to participate and agree is nearly impossible."

So after being vacant for 14 years, the parcel will be developed with seven more homes similar in style.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Within the Raven's Claw

Upper Pottsgrove Ponders Selling its Sewer System

Photos by Evan Brandt

Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners Chairman Trace Slinkerd outlines some of the financial challenges facing the township in the coming years.

Despite the fact that it does not own a sewage treatment plant, Upper Pottsgrove Township has been approached by two private companies about selling its sewer system, it was revealed during a work session Monday night.

The revelation was a while in coming, as Commissioners Chairman Trace Slinkerd began the discussion by talking about the financial challenges the township faces and he made no mention that he was trying to outline how selling the sewer system might alleviate some of those challenges.

But Commissioner Elwood Taylor pressed to make it clear to the small audience at last night's meeting.

After the meeting, Sewer Committee Chairman and former commissioner John Bealer said the township was approached by Aqua PA and Pennsylvania American Water about selling the system.

Ever since the passage of  Act 12 in 2016, private utility companies like Aqua and PA American Water have been on a buying spree.

The act changes the way the systems are valued and allows municipalities to charge much more to sell the system than they previously did. This makes overtures from private companies much more attractive because the sale prices are much higher.

Just last summer, Limerick Township sold its system for more than $75 million to Aqua PA, in a move that allowed the township to eliminate debt and fund several capital projects, but may also mean a rate hike for Limerick customers of as much as 84 percent.

To be fair, Limerick's annual average sewer rate of about $384 will be frozen for three years under the law. And Upper Pottsgrove's annual bill is about $860, one of the highest in the area.

That may be because the system has about 1,600 "equivalent dwelling units," which is how sewer charges are calculated, that together have to should the nearly $9 million in debt it cost to expand the system to homes with failing septic fields and failing systems, like the Regal Oaks subdivision off Gilbertsville Road.

Bearler said about 35 percent of the quarterly sewer bill goes to debt service on the system extension.

If the system is purchased, the debt would still be owed by the township, he said, so that would likely be the first place the money from the sale would be spent.

Bealer said because rates are often frozen for three years under the tenants of the law, as was the case in Limerick, the system might be attractive to private buyers because of the profit margin of higher rates to pay off a debt that no longer exists.

He said he would only support the sale if it could lower rates for customers, which both Krazalkovich and Slinkerd suggested could happen.

However, Upper Pottsgrove does not own a sewage treatment system, unlike Limerick.

Instead, Upper Pottstown, along with Lower Pottsgrove and West Pottsgrove townships, send their sewage to the Pottstown Wastewater Treatment Plant, owned and operated by the Pottstown Borough Authority.

There is no price determined yet and the township commissioners met in closed door executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss the matter. Comments by Slinkerd suggest that the municipal financial firm of PFM may be who he has in mind to determine that price.

But even without a price, Slinkerd and Vice Chairman France Krazalkovich were ready to start discussing how that money could be spent, including retiring the sewer debt, as well as funding improvements to the township's buildings.

However Taylor warned that once the system is gone, customers would no longer have the ability to complain about or dispute their bills with their local government, and would instead have to contend with a large corporation.

"Our people will not have a say," said Taylor, noting that local politicians are easier to replace than big corporations.

Krazalkovich, pointed out that local government tried to control trash collection in town and that did not work. But people saved money after the townwide contract expired and was abandoned because people had a choice of which hauler to chose. There was competition.

That will not be the case with a sewer system, said Taylor. "This is a monopoly interested in making money. The local government is not interested in making money," he said.

Slinkerd said that Fortune 500 companies like Aqua and PA American Water are better equipped to manage sewer systems than small townships. "Profit is not evil," he said.

PAL Carnival Coming?

Seth Lawrence talks about how the proposed carnival would be 

arranged on the PAL site in Upper Pottsgrove.

Before the Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners started talking shit (whoops), they heard from Seth
Lawrence about the Pottstown Police Athletic Leagues efforts to stage a carnival and fireworks at its fields off Chestnut Grove Road.

The carnival is planned for five days at the end of May and beginning of June, said Lawrence.

The group is hoping 4,000 to 5,000 people will visit over the five-day span, said Lawrence, who noted that the site currently has 1,000 parking spaces.

Concerns were raised about the impact of the event on neighbors of the site; safety; and the fact that currently, the township zoning code does not allow such events there.

Lawrence said the event would be similar to the fair the Norco Fire Company stages each year in July, and that the fireworks planned would last for 25 to 30 minutes.

More discussions are needed before the matter is decided, but the group is on a tight time-line and we might see some votes at the board's next meeting on April 15.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Shall We Sell the Sewers?

Rupert Reading Blitz Gets Kids Reading at Home



Photos courtesy of Pottstown School District
Saami Gant shows off one of his new books provided during the Dow Day of Caring Reading Blitz and Giving Home Libraries at Rupert Elementary School on March 26.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Rupert Elementary School Principal Matt Moyer.

Rupert Elementary School hosted the Dow Day of Caring Reading Blitz and Giving Home Libraries event on Tuesday, March 26.

 

Kassidy Drost and Chelsea Reisman both selected the same book. 

Each student received a red Dow tote bag and selected five brand new American Reading Company books to take home and keep. In all, they gave away about 2,000 books to our students.

  

After book selection, volunteers went to each classroom and spent some time reading some of the books to our students. We even had some of the authors here to read to the classes.

 

The volunteers had a blast, and all commented on how impressed with they were with our staff, and how polite and respectful each of the students were during their time here. Additionally, students will receive a card with a code for 5 FREE online books!

     

This event was made possible because of Moyer's work with the yearly district-wide United Way Campaign. Kathy Kohler from the United Way offered to bring this event to Rupert due to the district's support of the United Way.

 

This is the first Dow Day of Caring Reading Blitz and Giving Home Libraries event to be held this far outside of Philadelphia.

 

Kiera English with her new book.

The groups that helped make the event possible were: The United Way, Dow, American Reading Company, and the Chris Long Foundation.

Information UW’s literacy initiative and partnership with Chris Long.

Every chapter of a child’s life is worth cheering for. And when we fight for youth success, we empower the next generation of learners, leaders and achievers. It’s why we’ve decided to get off the sidelines and help turn the page on our region’s literacy crisis.

United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, in partnership with The Chris Long Foundation, launched the First Quarter for Literacy campaign, an initiative of Philadelphia Eagles Defensive End Chris Long to help Philadelphia area children improve their reading skills and to put new books into the hands of 5,000 local children.

In December, a 25-day crowdfunding initiative, Second Quarter for Literacy, was launched to bolster

Jahvon Jackson shows off his new book bag.

Long’s initial investment by making additional strategic investments into programs designed to help more children throughout the region read on grade level by the end of third grade.

 

Grade level reading by 4th grade is a critical milestone, as children begin to transition from learning to read, to reading to learn. Children who are not reading on grade level by fourth grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers.

 

To combat this problem, the Second Quarter for Literacy initiative will help: 

• Expand the Parent-Child Home Program to provide more families in need with the knowledge, skills, and materials they need to prepare their children for success in pre-K and beyond
• Launch a 1:1 interactive, web-based tutoring program designed for use in classrooms for grades 1-3
• Expand Philadelphia’s Read by 4th campaign into suburban communities

To make a lasting difference, it’s not enough to simply know about a problem. It also requires stepping up to be that difference – for this generation, and the next.

For more information, click this link.

YWCA: Pottstown's Teaching Women are Exceptional

Photos Courtesy of the Pottstown School District

Pottstown School District had many educators recognized at the YWCA Tri-County Area's Tribute to Exceptional Women.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

Congratulations to Na'imah Rhodes, Laurie Kolka, Kim Petro, Jamie Fazekas, Denise Schleicher and Beth Berkhimer,who where honored at the YWCA Tribute to Exceptional Women Dinner.

Na'imah Rhodes is congratulated by her family.

Rhodes is the Early Childhood Education teacher at the high school. She has made it her daily affirmation to motivate, teach, and cultivate strong values in her student's lives each and every day. Self-love, respect, and acceptance of others is the theme of her classroom. 

Taking much pride in what she calls "teaching outside the box", in such a way that she makes herself relatable to her students. 

Her style of teaching has generated much needed conversations in and out of the around topics of injustice, racism, and equality. Rhodes was recognized with the Coretta Scott King Award.

Laurie Kolka

As a female leader who is school and community driven, Laurie Kolka brings a cheerful, can−do attitude to the schools. Laurie is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction/Professional Development at Pottstown School District. 

Her leadership has been transformational, including leading initiatives and driving funding sources to provide the students, staff, and families with new opportunities, experiences, and resources.

She work tirelessly to raise involvement through her work on community groups such as Pottstown Trauma Informed Community Connection (PTICC), Family Advisory Committee (FAC) and Peak Pre-K Counts. 

 Kolka was honored with the YWCA Shooting Star Award. 

Kim Petro, left, and Beth Burkhimer

As an educator at Pottstown Middle School, Kim Petro works to be kind and patient with all her students. Petro creates an environment that builds her students up and allows them to learn and grow at their own pace. 

Petro is very aware of all of the different types of learners that she has in her classroom each period, and because of this she accommodates and modifies her assignments and grading system to suit their every need.

She  received the YWCA Shooting Star Award.

Beth Burkhimer has long been an advocate for the students at Pottstown Middle School.

She works closely day in and day out with the most challenging students as the Dean of Students at PMS.

As a positive presence at PMS, Beth inspires students to work hard and believe in themselves every day.

Beth is a true servant to our children and a valuable member of our community.

Jamie Fazekas is congratulated by Rupert Principal Matt Moyer.

As a staff member at Rupert Elementary School Jamie Fazekas is an inspirational teacher to her students.

Fazekas’ passion for her students is incredible, and she is one of the many educators in the Pottstown School District impacting students’ lives every day.

Fazekas empowers her students by giving them a voice and ensuring that the students are in a safe place throughout the entire school day.

She was honored with the YWCA Education Award. 

Denise Schleicher, second from left, is congratulated. 

Denise Schleicher has dedicated over 15 years of educational service to the Pottstown School District as a 4th grade teacher.

As you enter Schleicher's classroom you will see students participating in Literature Circles, STEAM projects, Kahoot sessions, and building roller coasters.

Schleicher extended her career by writing a book called, ‘The Ugly Christmas Tree.’

The book implements lessons on empathy, promoting messages of kindness, beauty comes from within, and the importance of dreaming big.