Spring-Ford High School Announces 8 National Merit Scholarship Finalists, Most it Has Ever Had

Submitted Photo

National Merit Finalists, Aleena Ataher, Harish Bayana, Siddhant Chavan, Deepak Kejariwal, Ryan Pierce, Aryan Singh, Samuel Thomas and Nicholas Tufillaro

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Spring-Ford Area School District.

The Spring-Ford Area School District has announced that eight Spring-Ford Area High School students have been recognized as National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists.

Congratulations to Aleena Ataher, Harish Bayana, Siddhant Chavan, Deepak Kejariwal, Ryan Pierce, Aryan Singh, Samuel Thomas and Nicholas Tufillaro!

"Earlier this year we announced that these ‘elite eight’ were semifinalists, and now they've moved on as a group of eight as finalists," said Spring-Ford Area High School Principal Dr. Patrick Nugent. “This is by far the largest number of Spring-Ford students who have advanced to Finalists.”

These eight students joined more than 1.5 million students in nearly 21,000 high schools to enter the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) qualifying test in the fall of 2018. 

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. 

Qualifying scores vary from state to state and from year to year, but the scores of all semifinalists are extremely high. More than 15,000 students advanced to finalist standing this month. 

All finalists will now be in the running for National Merit Scholarships.

Batdorf Named North Coventry Township Manager

Mercury File Photo

Erica Batdorf 

Blogger's Note: The following was issued by North Coventry Supervisors Chairman Jim Marks.

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to announce that Erica Batdorf has been hired as the next Township Manager of North Coventry Township effective April 20th. 

As you may know, our current and long-time manager Kevin Hennessey is retiring at the end of April after serving 17 years as manager and prior to that as the township solicitor. While we are sad to see Kevin leave the North Coventry team, we are excited to have Erica joining us and look forward to welcoming her to the position of manager.

Erica, who is also a township resident, has spent the last 3 1/2 years as Township Manager of West Vincent Township in Chester Springs and prior to that held the position of Assistant Borough Manager for the Borough of Pottstown where she was second in command to the Borough Manager.

Erica brings a diverse skill set to North Coventry and will no doubt serve the Township to the highest standard as she has done elsewhere her over her career. 

Erica will be reaching out to our employees and volunteers as she gets settled into her new role to introduce herself and establish lines of communication with our entire team so we can together tackle the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead.

Pottsgrove Prepping for Impact of Corona Virus

Although it was not on the agenda, talk inevitably turned at Tuesday night's Pottsgrove School Board meeting to preparations to deal with the impact of the corona virus sweeping the nation.

As discussion turned from Charles Nippert's lengthy treatise on the need for charter school funding reform and his views on cyber charter schools, board member Bill Parker said he had to ask.

What preparations, Parker asked, was the administration making in case Pottsgrove decided to, as other schools have, to close schools for a lengthy period of time, either because of the threat of the virus or to conduct a "deep clean" of the school?

Superintendent William Shirk replied that he had met that day with the teachers union to work out the particulars of how that might work.

For grades 6 and older, there are ways lessons could be provided at home through computers and the teachers could provide those lessons remotely.

For younger students, lessons would have to be provided largely through "packets" that they take home because "the technology stays in the school," Shirk said.

Shirk also mentioned a consideration not much raised in these discussions, the meals the schools provide to students. For low-income students, that breakfast and lunch may be the most nutritious meals of their day and without the schools to come to, they may go hungry.

Parker raised another point, the potential economic impact of the virus keeping people from fully participating in the economy, which could have a ripple effect through people's finances and their livelihoods.

He suggested that the board and administration begin considering a tax freeze, or even a tax cut in the coming budget deliberations in order to provide some relief to taxpayers.

"And then ask the townships to follow suit," Parker said.

School Board President Robert Lindgren thanks the board members for their thoughts, and offered extensive thanks to the staff and administration for the thoughtful way they have approached this potential health crisis.

He said there had been discussion with Shirk for several days about making preparations, "and we thought we would have a week or two, but it came on us a little faster than we anticipated."

Lindgren was likely referring to the announcement made earlier in the day that a health care worker and the mother of a student, and another child who was a part-time worker at Ringing Rocks Elementary School, worked with someone who had tested positive for the virus.

The mother was self-quarantining herself for 14 days, although she has shown no symptoms of the illness. The district also informed parents the mother's potential exposure occurred March 3 and the Ringing Rocks worker had not been in the building since Feb. 27.

"We will continue to be as measured, as rational, as reasoned as we can be in our approach to corona virus," he said.

Click here to read the Tweets from the meeting.

Council Approves 10-Year Comcast Franchise Deal

Photo by Evan Brandt

CHAMPIONS ALL: Pottstown Mayor Stephanie Henrick and Councilman Michael Paules took a few minutes Monday night to congratulate four Pottstown High School female wrestlers, all of whom won medals at a regional tournament in Gettysburg over the weekend. Their names are sophomore Mia Bumbarger, junior Julianna Figueroa, freshman Xiyah Robinson and freshman Daishawnia Dean

If you were thinking that a potential 10-year franchise re-up with Comcast would attract a crowd of angry villagers upset about rising fees, then you don't know Pottstown.

Sure, there were a few Facebook bros who talked about what council should do, and how Comcast should face competition, but when it was time for people with something to say to show up and say it when it actually mattered .... no shows.

So without any input from the public, council unanimously adopted the new franchise agreement,
ending the previous 15-year agreement and replacing it with another 10 years.

According to Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr., who negotiated the contract over the course of the year with Borough Manager Justin Keller, it includes a one-time technology grant of $65,000.

It also maintains two channels for PCTV, channels 22 and 28.

Keller said last week the deal with provide a 5 percent franchise fee to the borough, which works out to about $350,000 to $400,000 a year over the term of the contract.
That's about all there is to it folks.

Council also approved plans for a renovated McDonald's on Shoemake Road, a renovated car wash across the street and a whole bunch of beer gardens in the coming months.

You can read about them here, in the Tweets from the meeting.

PHS Freshmen Win STEM Competition, Save Lives

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Pottstown High School freshmen Will Levey, Abdel Elgendy and advisor Andrew Bachman at the regional Governor's STEM competition, which the two Pottstown students won.

Pottstown High School freshmen Will Levey and Abdel Elgendy proved they were up to the challenge of the 2020 PA Governor's STEM Competition.

The two-man team took on schools from southeast PA, most of which were made up of five-man teams. 

Nevertheless, they earned the regional championship and will move on in May to Dixon University where they will compete with regional champs from across the state. 

The challenge was to design and build a prototype that can accomplish a series of tasks, provide a solution to a community based problem, and improve the lives of Pennsylvanians. 

The problem they were tasked with stated, during the Summer vehicles with windows up create unsafe conditions for children and pets in parked cars.The challenge? Develop a detection and alert system that will save lives. 

Will Levey and Abdel Elgendy present their winning design.

With guidance from their advisor, high school engineering teacher Andy Bachman, they spent more than 40 hours after school in the Engineering Technology lab developing the prototype for a “Hot Car Death Prevention System.” 

They gave a 20-minute presentation and demonstration of their “children’s car seat with sensors and alert system.”

Using the engineer and design process, Levey and Elgendy developed a project charter, Gantt Chart, created electrical schematics, designed and 3D printed components, documented their progress, formulated a bill of materials (BOM), and submitted a 7-page proposal with work cited. 

"We are all proud of these two young men who have used creativity,critical thinking and hard work to develop an idea the has the potential to save lives," Bachman said. 

Update on COVID-19 Cases in Montgomery County

Blogger's Note: The following was released at 8 p.m. from Montgomery County officials. We post it here as a public service.

Montgomery County officials and the Office of Public Health (OPH) announced two additional presumptive positive cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Montgomery County today. There are now a total number of four COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County.

The newly identified individuals are an adult male and an adult female who both reside in the same household in Lower Merion Township.

Like the two previous patients, both newly identified individuals have mild symptoms that do not require hospitalization and are currently in isolation at home. Each was exposed to the virus while traveling out of the country to an area where COVID-19 is present. 

No other details about the patients will be released to protect their privacy.

The two cases announced earlier in the day are an adult male Worcester resident and an adult female who lives in Lower Gwynedd.

Both of those individuals have mild symptoms that do not require hospitalization and are currently in isolation at home. Each of those two were exposed to the virus while traveling in an area of the United States where COVID-19 is present. The OPH is continuing to monitor all the patients and identifying anyone who may have been in close contact. 

"Montgomery County officials have been preparing for the eventuality of COVID-19 within the County, and are taking the appropriate steps. I want to remind everyone to follow the CDC COVID-19 prevention guidelines, and if you have symptoms stay at home and call your healthcare provider," said Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh, Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.

“Spread is expected, but please don’t panic. There has been no evidence of community transmission in Montgomery County,” said Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh, Chair, Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. “If you have coronavirus symptoms, please stay home and call your healthcare provider for further instructions.”

“We are asking all employers to consider alternative work models such as working remotely and staggered schedules,” said Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr., Vice Chair, Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. “Employers should also consider offering or adding paid sick time.”

The Commissioners also signed a Declaration of Disaster Emergency, which will enable the County to mobilize resources with less red tape.

This is an evolving situation. To get the latest information and updates regarding COVID-19, visit the Montco COVID-19 Data Hub at www.montcopa.org and click on "Corona Virus Update."

Pottstown Schools Response

Blogger's Note: The following information from Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez was posted on the Pottstown School District web site:

• Our nurse and administration are working with Montgomery County Health Department, and other state/county officials to be as prepared and safe as we can be.
• Earlier this month, the state Department of Health (DOH) activated the Health Emergency Operations Center to streamline cross-sector coordination. We will coordinate our efforts locally and state-wide.
• This CDC Fact sheet is very helpful in understanding Coronavirus or COVID-19 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html
• Our Maintenance and custodial staff are cleaning surfaces and classrooms with appropriate sanitation methods.

TIPS TO KEEP YOU SAFE:

• If your child is sick, please keep them home until they are feeling better.

• Cover coughs and/or sneezes with your forearm/elbow. Do not use your hands.

• MOST IMPORTANTLY: Wash your hands often using soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

As more information becomes available, we will share it with you. Should you have any specific health concerns regarding your child, please contact your pediatrician and connect with our school nurses."

Here is a video posted on the school district web site about the virus:

Input Sought on Health and Human Services Plan

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Montgomery County.

The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services will host six Town Hall Meetings facilitated by Public Consulting Group to present the draft Health and Human Services Strategic Plan and gather feedback.

The department is looking to reach residents connected to public human services due to professional or personal circumstances as well as other residents who are passionate about the well-being and future of the Montgomery County.

One of those meetings will be held in Pottstown on Tuesday for two sessions; one from 1 to 2:45 p.m. and the second from 5:15 to 7 p.m.

It will be held in the second floor conference room at the Pottstown Integrated Wellness Complex (formerly the YMCA), 724 N. Adams St. (Follow the signs to "TCN.")

The draft plan draws on input from HHS staff and external stakeholders gathered through surveys and focus groups conducted in the fall of 2019. The presentations will cover:

• Key Components of the Strategic Plan
• Strategic Priorities
• Guiding Principles
• Time frames
• Key Performance Indicators
• Implementation and Governance

Registration is encouraged, but not required. To register for a session, please follow this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050949afae2fa3ff2-hhsstrategic1

For more information about the Department of Health and Human Services, visit https://www.montcopa.org/hhs or www.montcopa.org/HHSStrategicPlan, or call Office of the HHS Director at (610) 278-3677.