New Year, New Goals!
Happy New Year! The start of 2025 is a chance for each of us to reflect, grow, and to set goals and priorities for the coming year. At our final meeting of 2024, the Council Rock School Board held its annual reorganization meeting, electing Ed Tate and Yota Palli as President and Vice President, respectively. Ed holds the longest tenure of any current board member, and I’m confident that under his leadership our students’ needs will remain the board’s top priority. I’ll continue to co-chair the Policy and Finance committees, and to represent our district on the Bucks County Intermediate Unit Board.
December marked my first anniversary as School Board Director, and overall I’m pleased with the positive changes we’ve made in the way the district operates, focusing on the three priorities of Educational Excellence, Student Well-Being, and Communication. Though I’m proud of our achievements, it's time to look toward new challenges and opportunities to ensure that Council Rock continues to progress in those areas, and in some additional ones that I mention later in this newsletter.
Educational Excellence
Full-Day Kindergarten is set to begin in the 2025 school year. Now that kindergarteners’ daily classroom time will more than double, I look forward to seeing the improvements in their readiness for first grade, and in their reading and math scores.
For our high schools, we’ve approved new course offerings and greatly expanded the interaction with the Special Education community by establishing a SEPAC (Special Education Parents Advisory Committee) and holding regular meetings with our SE families. In January and February, the SEPAC will begin working on the state’s Special Education plan. We’re also in the process of hiring a new Director of Special Education who will play a key role in accelerating the district’s improvements in Special Education.
Richboro Elementary students moved into their newly renovated building after the holiday break, and held a ribbon cutting for their new school on January 15th. Read more here.
Student Well-Being
Arguably the most complex and important of our goals, student well-being was a key focus throughout my first year as a board director. We brought back the Safe Touches program for second graders, worked to become a Heart Safe School (expected by the end of this school year), and retained a new cafeteria service provider at all our schools.
In an earlier newsletter, I shared how important the Heart Safe School Program is to me personally, as my father was resuscitated using an AED when I was just 12 years old. I’m so glad we pushed for this program to be in our schools. When an emergency occurred at Council Rock South in December, thankfully, the Cardiac Emergency Response team—a required part of becoming a certified Heart Safe School—was in place, and two students stepped in to help. At the January 16th School Board Meeting, they were honored for their quick, life-saving efforts. You can watch it here.
These accomplishments just scratch the surface of what we’d like to achieve in the coming year. We’ve begun long-overdue discussions about high school schedules in terms of daily classes and offerings—and how scheduling conflicts can limit students’ choices. We’re also discussing high school start times. As you may be aware, research clearly supports the benefits of later start times for high schoolers, especially for their sleep habits and mental health, but we need to consider how such changes would impact student athletics, after-school jobs, and other activities.
Communication
Responding to constructive feedback and sending out this newsletter are just two ways I’ve tried to keep you informed about what’s going on in the district. I hope that it’s been easy to communicate with me as a board member.
Communication is also a priority for the administration. You may have noticed the updated district newsletter, “The Rock Report.” The district is also seeking feedback on its communication methods via a survey: here (survey closes Jan 22).
Of course, we also value community input at our meetings. All are open to the public and can be viewed on the Council Rock YouTube Channel. If you haven’t attended a board meeting yet, I encourage you to do that.
Throughout 2025, our board will continue to prioritize those three areas, but I want to highlight two other major projects on the agenda for this year.
First, we’re working with our teachers union on a new contract. More to come as this proceeds.
Second, we’re planning for the future of the district’s buildings—a multi-step, multi-year process. Last year we engaged a demographer to analyze whether the district population is growing or shrinking, in which neighborhoods, and in what age brackets. Armed with that demographic report, we engaged a consultant to create a facilities master plan that includes assessing the ten elementary schools, two middle schools and both high schools, plus other district properties such as the Chancellor Center, the Star Center, and Twining Ford Road properties.
Many of these facilities will soon need intensive work. At our upcoming facilities meetings, we'll discuss which projects will be prioritized, how many projects the district can afford and over what time period, and which projects will be required because of the district’s growth. In the past, I’ve shared my interest in preserving the administrative building—the historic Chancellor Center—which is a gem in Newtown Borough and an impressive symbol of the Council Rock School District. However, repairs and restoration of the building are likely to be very expensive. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue.
The district’s February 6 facilities meeting will begin at 5pm in order to accommodate more board discussion of these important topics. I hope you’ll consider attending.
As always, feel free to reach out with feedback or ideas. tracey.osecki@crsd.org
Upcoming Meetings
Thursday, January 23, 2025 – Education Committee
Thursday, February 6, 2025 – Facilities Committee (starts at 5 PM)
Thursday, February 13, 2025 – Finance Committee
Thursday, February 20, 2025 – Board of School Directors
Thursday, February 27, 2025 – Education Committee
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all meetings take place at 7 PM at The Chancellor Center, 30 N Chancellor St, Newtown, PA 18940.