LANSDALE- The North Penn School District Board of School Directors met for an action meeting Thursday evening where they recognized North Penn merit scholars, the boy’s and girl’s water polo teams, and approved a myriad of items under the Superintendent’s Report, including the contract for renovations for Crawford Stadium.

The Board recognized the North Penn merit scholars for their accomplishments in the 2017-2018 National Merit Honor Scholarship Competition.

“Out of the 1.6 million students who took the qualified test, approximately 34,000 in the country are being recognized as commended students for placing among the top 5% and 16,000 have been named semi-finalists and represent less than 1% of the high school seniors in the country. At North Penn High School we had 33 students recognized as commended students and 13 as semi-finalists,” remarked NPHS assistant principal Mary Scott.

The Board also recognized the North Penn boy’s and girl’s water polo teams for their impressive seasons where they both emerged as state champions.

“We have one of the most decorated water polo teams to ever come through our state. The girls are working off their 5th straight state championship and the boys have won the first back-to-back championship for our school since the 2006-2007 season. It is the first time in our state’s history that the same school has won both girl’s and boy’s water polo in back to back seasons,” said head water polo coach Jason Grubb.

After recognizing the two groups of North Penn students, the Board heard from each committee report. Moving forward to the Superintendent’s Report, there was a long list of agenda items, all of which were approved, with the exception of the 2019-2020 real estate tax rebate program which was tabled for further discussion during the January Finance Committee meeting. Items that were approved included Montgomery HVAC commissioning for $14,141, Oak Park and Gwyn-Nor HVAC commissioning for $10,000, a contract to Criterion for water sampling and testing for $16,278, the 2019-2020 school calendar, the 2020-2021 school calendar, program of studies changes for grades 7 and 8 as well as grades 9-12 for 2019-2020, the approval of Kristin Johnson as the non-member Treasurer of the Board, a bid award for North Penn High School PA system and IP phones, and the Architerra contract for Crawford Stadium.

Chief Financial Officer Steve Skrocki recommended approval for the October 2018 and November 2018 Treasurer’s Reports, budget transfers from October 1, 2018 to October 23, 2018 and October 24, 2018 to November, 2018, and the October 2018 and November 2018 invoices.

Before the Board adjourned, Director Jonathan Kassa commented about the decision to table the rebate program.

“I want to make a clarification that for the tabling of the rebate, that’s just for further review. That’s not a tabling in order to not have a rebate program. We just want to make sure that we have the numbers in front of us and some more time to reflect on the final decision,” Kassa noted.

The North Penn School District Board of School Directors will meet again for a work session meeting on January 8th, 2019 at 7:30 PM at the Educational Services Center.