Jenkintown School Board Brief

Dear School Community,

Welcome to the May edition of our newsletter. It has been a wonderful month as we count down to the last day of school. Over the past month, we have been thrilled to see the return of so many May traditions: the Red and Blue Fair, Renaissance Night and Color Day (congratulations to the Reds!). We'd also like to congratulate Mr. Hamilton for being named WMMR "coolest teacher". We wish everyone a successful completion to the school year and a big congratulations to the class of 2022!

-Megan O'Brien

Please use the following link for access to board meeting agendas and minutes.

https://www.jenkintowndrakes.org/school-board/

At the Board work session on Monday, May 9th, the Board approved the proposed final budget for 2022-23. The Board had a Technology Committee meeting on May 9, 2022 led by Mr. Jim Cummins.

At the Board business meeting on Monday, May 16th, the Board approved the following items in addition to all of the regular reports provided in BoardDocs:

-accepted the retirement of Mr. Fred Eyrich. We thank Mr. Eyrich for his service to our students and filling our halls and events with beautiful music. He instilled a love of music in countless students over his career. We wish him well in his retirement and hope he comes back to visit.

-awarded an independent contractor agreement to Mrs. Mary Fitzgerald to assist the district with ongoing curricular work which is identified as a priority in our 2021-2024 Comprehensive Plan.

- GESA (Guaranteed Energy Savings Act) Presentation regarding potential cost-neutral environmental and capital improvements.

- Karen Ovington gave an overview of the proposed final 2022-23 budget and Forecast Five analysis.

If you would like to view these presentations, you can access the meeting recording on the Jenkintown School Board web page - https://www.jenkintowndrakes.org/school-board/

Below is the proposed final budget approved on May 9, 2022. The ACT1 index set by the state for the 2022-2023 is 3.4%. What does this mean? The Board cannot exceed this number without applying for exceptions or going to a referendum vote. The JSD Board voted to not exceed this index earlier in the year.

We are again facing another year of lower assessed value of our community but are working hard to balance the financial resources needed to run our district and meet the needs of our students along with the tax burden on our community. For reference, in 2013-2014, our assessed value was $293,878,939 and in 2022-2023 it is $286,483,789. This is a decline of over 7.3 million dollars in assessed value over the last 9 years. Why is this assessed value of our community important? Our district is primarily funded by local tax dollars (approximately 78% of our budget comes from local tax dollars) and any declines in assessed value have a profound impact on our budget. The final budget will be adopted in our June 13th meeting.

PROPOSED BUDGET 2022-2023 5.9.22 revised.pdf (boarddocs.com)

In light of the JSD's recent gas leak emergency, we'd like to remind everyone to make sure your contact information is updated in the PowerSchool system. Having the most accurate contact information for you is extremely helpful in case of these types of emergencies.

• Thursday, June 2nd 7:30pm - Jenkintown Theatre Arts presents "Peter and the Starcatcher"
• Friday, June 3rd - Junior/Senior Prom
• Sunday, June 5th - Middle School Spring Drama - "The Alibis"
• Monday, June 6th 6:30pm - Middle School Student/Parent Orientation (6th Grade)
• Monday, June 6th 7:30pm- Jenkintown Theatre Arts presents "Peter and the Starcatcher"
• Monday, June 13th 7:00pm - Combined School Board Work Session and Business Meeting
• Wednesday, June 15th - 6th Grade Graduation
• Thursday, June 16th 6:00pm - High School Graduation
• Thursday, June 16th - Last Day of School for all students and teachers
• June 20th-District closed in recognition of Juneteenth
  
  

Athletic Event Schedules can be viewed at this website https://jhs.digitalsports.com/