LANSDALE- January’s action meeting was held at the North Penn School District Educational Services Center on Thursday, January 23. The board started the meeting with a video to recognize the board members for School Director Recognition Month.
Superintendent Todd Bauer started the meeting by honoring the life of the late Donald “Doc” Ryan, North Penn’s former Athletic Trainer and Director, with a moment of silence. He followed it by highlighting the impact Doc had on him and everyone in the North Penn Community.
“Doc was a friend, a gentleman, just the best of the best,” Bauer stated. “We thank you, we miss you, but this community is better because of you.”
The committee reports to Personel, Finance, Safe Schools, ECI, and Facilities & Operations can be accessed virtually here.
The NMTCC Board met on January 22, where the JOC joined them to review details on a study regarding NMTCC’s programming and capacity, district enrollment projections and NMTCC enrollment trends, and current/future economic and workforce demands projections for the county. Along with this, the committee is looking to rearrange the tech center to accommodate more students and programs without expanding the actual building. Al Reosch also referenced the improvements in the past years. They added more than 250 students and five new programs within the past few years.
The board met in an executive session immediately before the meeting to consult with the solicitor regarding legal developments relating to Title IX.
“Earlier this month there was a federal district court decision in Kentucky that vacated the 2024 regulations that have been issued under Title IX. The impact of that is largely a reversion back to the regulations that were in place prior, the 2020 regulations,” Solicitor Kyle Somer stated. “Earlier this year, the board adopted policies 103A and 104A relating to non-discrimination against students as well as staff. We also kept in place current policies 103 and 104 because three of the district schools were subject to an injunction order that required that the prior regulations be implemented at those schools,” he continued.
“The policy committee will meet on Monday, January 27, and take up policies 103A and 104A and hear recommendations on what to do with them and whether they should be amended, suspended, or repealed. There will be an opportunity to further discuss the impact of these developments at that time,” Somer said.
Following the solicitor’s report, Mr. Christian Fusco pitched in to clarify what was said.
“In terms of what this means in a practical sense for our students, it sounds as though the district is no longer going to enact policies and procedures to protect these students, which is absolutely not the case. This is a reporting requirement that the federal government made law and is now resending as a law, but it really isn’t going to change much at all about the practices the district engages in in these types of situations. So to any families that are hearing this that are concerned, please know that this is a technical issue more than it is a logistics issue. We are still very much interested in protecting every student that is in our building,” Fusco added.
The board approved the appointment of Mrs. Tara B.G. Houser to the position of Chief Financial officer, beginning on or before June 1, 2025, and ending on June 30, 2029, and the $300,000 Department of Community and Economic Development, Solar for Schools Grant.
Chief Financial Officer Mr. Steve Skrocki explained that this grant will be used to purchase Photovoltaic Solar Array Equipment which will be used in the North Penn High School renovation project. The results for the grant are to be released by May, which aligns with the renovation’s timeline. If won, the payoff time of this portion of the project will be reduced from 10 years to 7 years.
The final item to be approved in the Superintendent report was the final amendment to the Movie Lots sale agreement. There is a court hearing on Monday, January 29th at 1:00 PM in courtroom 13 at the Montgomery County Courthouse to ensure that North Penn is receiving a fair selling sale.
The tax rebate program has a record number of applicants with 613 this fiscal year, receiving an average rebate of $350.
Biding for phase one of the North Penn High School renovation is to be held Thursday, January 31st at the ESC at 1:30 PM.
All upcoming meeting information is posted in BoardDocs.