January is School Director Recognition Month and as area boards get together for their first meetings of the new year, many are starting the year off right with kudos and thanks.
The members of the Boyertown Area School Board were treated to a short speech in their honor by Superintendent Richard Faidley at the Jan. 13 meeting.
“These dedicated volunteers reside in our community. School directors are our friends, neighbors, community leaders and parents,” Faidley said. “Although communities make a special effort to show appreciation to school directors in January, their contribution is a year-round commitment, and deep appreciation is extended to them always.”
He gathered the directors to take a photo, and added that the community “should know the faces of those who make the decision that affect our children.”
In West Pottsgrove, members of the Pottsgrove School Board were thanked both by Superintendent Shellie Feola and by second-grade students at West Pottsgrove Elementary School.
“A lot of people don’t know how many hours these volunteers put in,” said Feola.
Pointing to a recent meeting of the board that oversees the Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center, Feola said, “I just spent four hours last night with several of our board members and a lot of people in the community might not know that.”
The second graders, whose proud parents filled the often-empty seats of the meeting room to see and photograph their little one reading a short essay, thanked the board for everything from field trips, to materials to hiring great teachers.
The theme for 2015 is “stronger school boards. stronger schools. stronger Pennsylvania,” according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
A fact sheet put together by the statewide advocacy group reported that 4,500 school directors serve Pennsylvania’s 500 public school districts; and the “typical” Pennsylvania school director is male, well-educated, 55-59 years of age, married with two children attending public schools, and voluntarily devotes 16-20 hours per month to school board business.”
PSBA also noted that “43 percent of school directors identified public service, desire to give back and contribute to public education as the primary motivating factor in their decision to run for school director.”
