BORSEA Funds Libraries

Every year the The Boyertown/Oley Valley Retired School Employees Association (BORSEA) fundraises to provide a $1000 check to the Boyertown and Oley Valley School Districts. The money from this check is to be used to buy more books for the students to check out of the library. This year the Vice president of BORSEA, Robert Trainer, presented the check to the Boyertown School Board. The Board voted unanimously to accept the check.

Program of Studies

BASH’s Principal, Jared Sparks, along with several other teachers from across the district suggested a series of proposed changes to the Program of Studies to the Board. There were no suggested changes to the middle school program of studies as Mr. Sparks and teachers felt the changes that had been made last year were adequate.  The High School’s Program of Studies presentation started off with a reflection on changes made last year. The most significant of those changes was the removal of the flex period and the extension of homeroom. Overall positive feedback from students and teachers points towards the change being a success. One of the new suggested changes is for lab to now be embedded into Chemistry courses, as well as adding a new Pre-AP Chemistry course. For social studies, it was suggested that AP European History to be changed to AP World History.

A new addition for the 2026-2027 school year, mandated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, is the requirement for all schools to have students take at least a half-credit course of Personal Financial Literacy. BASH plans to hire 2 more teachers so that they will be able to add this course to the curriculum.  An alternative was also provided: instead of hiring new teachers, the credit requirements for Math and Social Studies could be reduced by half a credit, allowing the current staff to use that extra time to teach the course. A downside to this alternative is limiting Business, Math, and Social Studies offerings, as well as a half-credit drop in graduation requirements. Another alternative would be maintaining current credit requirements, but reducing the options students have when selecting Business, Math, and Social Studies courses. This would mean many smaller honors and AP courses might not continue to run. Mr. Sparks requested that a decision be made by early spring so that the school can begin to properly plan for the school year.

Senior Presentation

Similar to the last School Board meeting, the School Board had a student present their Senior Presentation. This meeting the student to give their presentation was Ciera Cameron. Ciera is the third student to present their senior presentation to the school board this year. She gives her presentation between 12:00 and 23:27 within the recording of the meeting.

Budget

The Districts CFO gave a presentation on the finances for the year.  One of the budgetary initiatives that was included in the presentation was the allocation of budget for an all day kindergarten program. This sparked debate among the board as several members believed that the district should focus on the students in the district who are struggling, with Director Nieman saying that, “Lets just say 6000 [students], 4000 of those are in the middle, who need help, and yet we want to do this, that, and the other thing. Let’s start focusing on them.”

The full meeting can be watched here.