Credit: Souderton Area School District
Souderton Area School District community members Thursday evening reiterated their requests for greater transparency surrounding school board proceedings.
For several months, parents have been urging the school board to facilitate access to information through more detailed agendas and minutes, recordings and livestreaming of board meetings and indefinite storage of meeting recordings.
In response, the board approved a policy in February to begin recording committee meetings alongside board action meetings and to extend the video storage time from 30 days to one year. But at Thursday’s full board meeting, community members continued to characterize the changes as insufficient, pressing specifically for the attachment of documents to BoardDocs agenda items.
“We have this awesome BoardDocs software. Other school districts use it really well and put everything out there that’s gonna be voted on, budgets, full documentation,” said John Waldenberger of Telford. “Put everything out there. We want to know. It would be great to see it in advance.”
“I am asking for the agenda items to be included in BoardDocs. As an example, tonight, there was an agenda item of financial statements and check listings, but I couldn’t find anything,” said Corinne DeGeiso of Upper Salford. “Making this information available versus giving us a 30,000 feet overview would make for a more informed community.”
“We do all have the right to know what the money is being spent on,” said Rosemary Buetikofer of Souderton. “I don’t think we should have to do right-to-know requests. I think you should attach these items to the agenda.”
While the board took no immediate action on the speakers’ requests, board president Ken Keith thanked them for their comments.
District events
Student representative Emma Potter reported on some recent high school events, including a social studies field trip to Washington D.C., a film festival and the boys’ lacrosse and baseball teams and the girls’ softball teams qualifying for District One playoffs. She also announced that the high school will offer a new film studies course next school year.
Superintendent Frank Gallagher gave an update on some district construction projects, including the beginning of construction on a new brick facade at Oak Ridge Elementary School, the beginning of the roof replacement at Indian Valley Middle School and the installation of a new electronic sign at Franconia Elementary School. He also announced that the district received its first therapy dog, a golden doodle named Wheeler.
Student recognitions
The board took the opportunity to recognize numerous high school students, including music students who participated in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association performances and ensembles, Alexander Espenship who placed 4th in the “Agribusiness” category at the Pennsylvania FBLA State Competition and science fair students who won first place in local competitions.
The board additionally played a video about the district’s low incidence special education program, which teaches life skills, functional skills and academics to students with special education needs.
The board also hired Stuart Marjoram as the new assistant principal at Indian Crest Middle School and Fox Rothschild as the district solicitor for the 2024-2025 school year.
The next Souderton school board meeting is on June 26 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit soudertonsd.org.
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