PVSD Lunches Going Up

The cost of lunches in the Perkiomen Valley School District will be increasing 5 cents in the elementary and middle schools to $2.40 and $2.65 respectively, and 10 cents in the high school to $2.70. Breakfast costs will increase 15 cents to $1.25.

District business administrator Jim Weaver explained Monday that PVSD belongs to the National School Lunch Program and is required to participate in an arrangement known as paid lunch equity.

Paid lunch equity means that school district must show they are charging an amount that is a fair proportion to the government's contribution.

"If we do not increase prices, we cannot participate in the National School Lunch Program or we may be fined," Weaver said. 

Weaver also said this is the first increase in breakfast prices since the 2006-2007 school year.

Program for gifted and talented students reevaluated

The board heard from Assistant Superintendent Barbara Russell and Supervisor of Teaching and Learning Barbara Powers on the next steps for the board regarding revamping the Gifted Student Program for the district.

The district recently did an evaluation of the gifted and talented program to see how it could better serve the students in the district. After gaining board approval, the district retained a facilitator and asked "internal stakeholders" to provide suggestions on focus areas for the evaluation.

Volunteers from PVSD and other surrounding districts, including school staff and parents of gifted students, spent two days studying the current program and interviewing students and teachers. The third day was spent in a debriefing meeting at the district office.

Surveys were also sent to staff, parents and students.

The report from the volunteers noted several strengths about the current program and made some recommendations. 

The plan is to form action teams to work on each of the recommendations and have a plan to present to the board by early spring 2013. 

Russell said the action teams would plan on reporting to the board during next year's budget process so that anything that might need to be provided for in the budget could be discussed at the appropriate time.

The board was provided the full report, and Russell said she hopes to have a summary of the report available on the district website "very soon."

Student organization presents ideas for energy savings

The second presentation involved a group of students called the Take Action Sustainability Committee.

The students were introduced by math teacher Josh Craven and science teacher Amy Brecht. 

"This grew out of a project in my AP [Advanced Placement] Statistics class," Craven said.

The committee, comprised of juniors Peter Moran, Caroline Oehlerich, Mike Sago, Jenny Minnick, and Ben Kershner, began studying ways for the district to save money on energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint. 

The committee settled on an Energy Services Company, or ESCO, as an avenue to reaching their goals. 

Working with an ESCO was a good idea, according to the students' research, because the ESCO will front any costs for upgrades that the district needs. Those costs will be paid back over a period of up to 20 years.

The ESCO signs a contract with the district stating how much the improvements will save the district, and they are legally obligated to that amount. If the savings aren't realized, the ESCO is contractually bound to refund the difference between the promised and actual savings. 

The students spoke to a company called AMERESCO, who came out and did a preliminary audit. AMERESCO then provided a list of about 20 improvements that the district could choose to do.

Board president Lynn Bigelow asked if this company had been successful in any other districts.

"They have been successful in several, in particular the Paul Revere School District in Massachusetts," said Oehlerich. "Paul Revere School District is very similar to PV."

Board member Randy Bennett praised the committee for their work.

"We have a group of students that have done what we encourage our students to do. They had an idea, worked as a team, and brought this to us. I suggest we follow through with this idea, and my second suggestion, have Mr. Subers [Brian Subers, the district solicitor] or Mr. Weaver educate us on the process," Bennett said.

Subers agreed. "Districts have done it and done it successfully. This is something that can be done, it just needs to be done in the proper format."

Bigelow thanked the students and said the board would work on getting more information to discuss the issue at the July 2 board meeting.