District Newsletter

Murray Avenue School Counselor Christina Harris has officially been named the Pennsylvania School Counselor Association’s School Counselor of the Year!

This prestigious state-wide award recognizes Ms. Harris’s tireless work, passion, and commitment to the field of school counseling. Day in and day out, she demonstrates what we in Lower Moreland have always known—Ms. Harris is truly exceptional, and her positive impact on our students and school community is immeasurable. Ms. Harris will be formally honored for this remarkable achievement at the PA School Counselors Association Conference this December.

Please join us in congratulating Ms. Harris on this well-deserved recognition!

Did you know that you can sign up for notifications on the district app? Instructions can be found here.

We are excited to share some wonderful successes and updates regarding student wellness across the Lower Moreland Township School District. Thanks to recent funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through a Project AWARE grant, we have been able to directly support new resiliency activities in all of our schools, giving our students the tools they need to thrive both in and out of the classroom.

You can read more about the overarching goals of the Project AWARE program here.

We are already seeing the positive impact of this funding through two highly successful recent initiatives:

Mindfulness in Our Elementary Schools To support the emotional well-being of our youngest learners, we partnered with Mindful Little Yogi. This fantastic program introduced our elementary students to mindfulness techniques that help them manage stress, build focus, and develop early resiliency skills in a fun and engaging way.

Social Media Wellness at the Middle School Promoting the thoughtful and safe use of technology is a major priority for us. To support this, we teamed up with the Organization for Social Media to host a comprehensive wellness program.

Our middle schoolers participated in a highly engaging daytime session focused on the impacts of social media and how to navigate the digital world responsibly. Because we know this is a team effort, we also hosted an evening session just for parents. This gave families a great opportunity to learn more about the risks of social media and discuss strategies for balancing its benefits with healthy screen-time habits at home.

We are incredibly proud of how our students and community have embraced these opportunities, and we look forward to sharing more updates with you as our Project AWARE initiatives continue to grow!

We want to share an essential update regarding our school meal program. The standard 30-day carryover (grace period) for federal free and reduced-price meal eligibility from the 2025–26 school year officially expired on Wednesday, October 14, 2026.

What Does This Mean for Your Student?

Under federal guidelines, meal eligibility statuses do not automatically roll over indefinitely from year to year. Because the grace period has concluded, students without a newly approved 2026–27 application on file have transitioned to paid meal status, meaning standard lunch charges now apply; however, breakfast remains free to everyone.

How to Reapply

If your household has not yet submitted an application for the current school year, it is not too late! Applications can be submitted at any time throughout the academic year. If your financial situation has changed, or if you simply missed the fall renewal, we strongly encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Approval takes effect immediately upon processing. Please visit our district portal at https://www.schoolcafe.com/LOWERMORELANDTOWNSHIPSD and select Apply for Beneifts to complete the quick, secure, and confidential online application.

Thank you for your partnership in keeping our students nourished, focused, and ready to learn!

As part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining a robust, modern, and reliable digital learning environment, Lower Moreland Township School District is moving forward with comprehensive wireless access point (AP) upgrades across our schools.

At the end of last school year, the district shared that its federal E-rate application for the district-wide wireless replacement was approved, securing crucial funding support for these infrastructure enhancements. Work is officially launching at Pine Road Elementary, where the Technology Department recently completed site preparations and deployment scheduling. Physical installation at Pine Road will take place over the coming days, and the department plans to complete district-wide upgrades across all buildings by winter break.

The Local Right to Education Task Force 23 of Montgomery County is an organization, sponsored by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, that brings together parents, school district representatives, county mental health/developmental disabilities representatives, and local support agency offices to inform parents and to address individual and systemic issues affecting our students who receive special education services. Additionally, parent input is critical to providing services to our students and this task force is one way of obtaining that input on a larger scale. Please consider attending a meeting at your earliest convenience. All meetings are virtual.

The link to the Task Force’s website, including a list of meeting dates, is here.

Red Ribbon Week is the nation's largest and longest-running annual drug-use prevention and awareness campaign, educating youth on healthy decision-making. The school counselors took the lead in organizing event in each school to recognize the campaign's important message.

Please support Murray Avenue School's entry for the National Red Ribbon Week Voting Contest by clicking THIS link. Voting will end on November 17th at 11:59 pm (ET). Please note that after you are prompted to enter your email, you will receive a confirmation email that may appear in your spam box. Please check there, mark the email as "report not spam" and confirm your email to successfully submit your vote.

Dennis H. Best, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Email: dbest@lmtsd.org
Website: www.lmtsd.org
Location: 2551 Murray Avenue, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
Phone: 215-928-0272