Jenkintown School Board Brief
February, 2022 Vol. 1 Issue 1
Message from Dr. Megan O'Brien, School Board President
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Jenkintown School Board Brief newsletter. We hope to provide the community with monthly updates regarding school board business. Please use the following link for access to board meeting agendas and minutes.
How to Navigate the Board Docs Public Access Site - A Tutorial
We encourage the Jenkintown community to access all of our public meeting documents using the Board Docs system. The first public meeting of each month is a "Work Session". The agenda will be posted on the Friday before with agenda items only and no supporting documentation. The supporting documentation is available to the public to view prior to the second monthly meeting, known as the "Business Meeting". All of the meetings are public, and a yearly calendar is posted with meeting dates, under the school board tab on the district website https://www.jenkintowndrakes.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Board-Mtg-Schedule-22-23.docx-2.pdf.
You can access School Board agendas and meeting minutes using the following link:
https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/jenkintown/Board.nsf/Public or see the location circled in yellow above. We hope the pictures below will help you follow along with ease!
Summary of Board Action Items for February 2022
At the Board work session on Monday, February 14th, the Board approved:
- A new elective course for the 2022-23 academic year: Contemporary Issues and Current Events, which will be developed by Dr. Holly Maluk.
At the Business meeting on Monday, February 28th, the Board approved:
- New, one-year extracurricular clubs for JES, including a School Gardening Club and Finance Club.
- Accepted the retirement of Mr. Mark Stover. Mr. Stover has served our students for over 38 years and will be sorely missed. We thank him for his dedication to our students and we will have big shoes to fill. Good luck Mr. Stover and please come back to visit!
- 2-year Act 93 administrators' contracts.
- An update to our 2021-22 Health and Safety Plan - https://docs.google.com/document/d/144Su2kGIT0whbxhbP2GVuYi-S9Q9WX8jQUcLOflIH0I/edit
Capital Plan
- Capital Improvements: In November 2020, the Board approved a contract for KCBA to complete a comprehensive facilities study to allow us to plan for strategic long-term management of our facilities. In March 2021, during our property subcommittee meeting, KCBA presented the completed study to the Board, administration and public. This study provided the details of both scope of work needed and financial costs. On 2/28/22, we opened bids for larger capital improvement projects based on this study. The first larger projects are slated to begin in Summer 2022 and include reconfiguring classroom spaces, upgrades to some bathrooms and HVAC upgrades in the pit gym. Additionally, smaller projects identified on this study have been addressed already. The study is instrumental in allowing the Board to be fiscally responsible in planning for these improvements.