These everyday heroes volunteer their time to ensure student success in public education
The Times
January is “School Director Recognition Month” in Pennsylvania. Public education is more than just learning the basic math, science, English and history — it’s a platform for students to reach their potential. It inspires hope for a new generation and a successful future.
This institution exists in part because individuals volunteer their time to make informed decisions about the issues facing public schools. Every January, we celebrate these everyday heroes — the nine elected school board members who serve our students and educational system.
School directors volunteer, on average, 20 hours a month to help run the schools in our community. The school board makes difficult decisions for the betterment of our students. They vote on multi-million dollar budgets and are charged with policy making, planning, goal setting, and the care of facilities, labor relations, taxation and responsible funding. These dedicated volunteers reside in our community. They are our friends, neighbors, community leaders, parents at your school and engaged senior citizens.
During this month of recognition, you, the school directors’ fellow community members, can show your appreciation for their service. Thank them for advocating on behalf of Bensalem Township’s collective interests and making the difficult decisions. Most importantly, thank them for being everyday heroes and making students’ success their priority.
Bensalem’s school directors oversee a $150.6 million-dollar budget providing a quality education for the more than 6,400 students in nine schools staffed by 467 teachers, 55 administrative employees and 461 full and part-time support personnel.
They advocate an education system that is prepared to meet the extraordinary needs of more highly skilled jobs and new career opportunities. They set high standards of performance and accountability, offer new choices and options for parents and students, offer flexibility in regulation and service delivery and work to ensure adequate funding and broad community engagement.
The locally elected volunteer public servants in Bensalem Township are are Kim J. Rivera, president; Heather D. Nicholas, vice president; Marc Cohen; Stephanie A. G. Ferrandez, Esq.; Rachel Fingles, Esq.; Kathleen Lesnevec; Anand Patel; Pamela Strange and Vanessa Woods.
