The North Penn School District is a regional public school district that consists of thirteen elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school. It serves the North Penn Valley, a 42-square-mile (110 km2) area in the Montgomery County suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The district serves the municipalities of North Wales Borough, Lansdale Borough, Hatfield Borough, Upper Gwynedd Township, Towamencin Township, Montgomery Township, and Hatfield Township. The Montgomeryville census-designated place is located in the district.
A small portion of Bucks County known as Line Lexington is also contained in the North Penn School District.
The district was created by merging smaller, local districts in 1956. North Penn High School is today one of the largest traditional public high schools in Pennsylvania. The district enrollment for the 2006-2007 school year was 12,993. The district offers advanced placement curriculum and English as a second language.
The current president of the North Penn School District Board of Education is Vincent Sherpinskey and the current superintendent is Curt Dietrich.
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Penndale Middle School, located in Lansdale, includes grades 7-9. The building first served as Lansdale High School from 1930–1955, then after North Penn School District was incorporated, as North Penn High School from 1955-1971. Penndale is the largest of the three middle schools in the district, with 1,410 students. Students in A.M. Kulp, Gwynedd Square, Knapp, Oak Park , York Avenue Elementary School and a portion of Bridle Path and Inglewood attend Penndale. Penndale's incumbent principal is Dr. O'Sullivan.
North Penn School District was ranked 42nd out of the 498 ranked Pennsylvania school districts in 2008 by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The ranking was based on student academic performance as demonstrated in 3 years of PSSA results.[1] In 2007 the district ranked 49th out of 500 Pennsylvania schools districts in student academic achievement.[2]
Graduation Rate:
2009 - 96%[3]
2008 - 96%
2007 - 96% [4]
The school is in Corrective Action II 1st Year for chronically low academic achievement of special need and low income students.
PSSA Results
11th Grade Reading
2009 - 79%, In Pennsylvania, 65% of 11th graders on grade level.[5]
2008 - 81%, State - 65%
11th Grade Math:
2009 - 73% on grade level. In Pennsylvania, 56% of 11th graders are on grade level.[6]
2008 - 74%, State - 56%
11th Grade Science:
2009 - 53% on grade level. State: 40% of 11th graders were on grade level.
2008 - 47% [7]
College Remediation: According to a Pennsylvania Department of Education study released in January 2009, 39% of North Penn School District graduates required remediation in mathematics and or reading before they were prepared to take college level courses in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education or community colleges.[8] Less than 66% of Pennsylvania high school graduates, who enroll in a four-year college in Pennsylvania, will earn a bachelor's degree within six years. Among Pennsylvania high school graduates pursuing an associate degree, only one in three graduate in three years.[9] Per the Pennsylvania Department of Education, one in three recent high school graduates who attend Pennsylvania's public universities and community colleges takes at least one remedial course in math, reading or English.
In the 2011-2012 school year the districts's total budget was $199,340,461.[10] In 2007, the district employed 844 teachers. The average teacher salary in the district was $66,919 for 181 days worked. This was $12,000 greater than the average salary for a teacher in Pennsylvania.[11] As of 2007, Pennsylvania ranked in the top 10 states in average teacher salaries. When adjusted for cost of living Pennsylvania ranked fourth in the nation for teacher compensation.[12] Additionally, the teachers receive a defined benefit pension, health insurance, professional development reimbursement, personal days, sick days, and other benefits.[13]
The district administrative costs per pupil in 2008 were $862.95 per pupil. The district ranked 130th of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts for administrative spending. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 per pupil.[14]
The district is funded by a combination of: a local earned income tax, a property tax, a real estate transfer tax, coupled with substantial funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the federal government. Grants can provide an opportunity to supplement school funding without raising local taxes. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pension income and Social Security income are exempted from state personal income tax and local earned income tax, regardless the of income level.[15]
In the 2009-2010 budget year the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided a 2.02% increase in Basic Education funding for a total of $8,895,702. Seventy five Pennsylvania School Districts received a 2% increase. Over 15 school districts received Basic Education Funding increases in excess of 10% in 2009. Muhlenberg School District in Berks County received the highest with a 22.31% increase in funding. The state's Basic Education Funding to the East Pennsboro Area School District in 2008-09 was $8,719,677.38.[16] The amount of increase each school district receives is determined by the Governor and the Secretary of Education through the allocation made in the budget proposal given in February each year.
The district received an extra $1,346,099 in ARRA - Federal Stimulus money to be used in specific programs like special education and meeting the academic needs of low income students.[17] This funding was for 2009 to 2011.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 1,581 students received free or reduced lunches due to low family income in the 2007-2008 school year.[18]
School district officials did not apply for the Race to the Top federal grant which would have brought the district hundreds of thousands of additional federal dollars for improving student academic achievement.[19] Participation required the administration, the school board and the local teachers' union to sign an agreement to prioritize improving student academic success. In Pennsylvania, 120 public school districts and 56 charter schools agreed to participate.[20] Pennsylvania was not approved in the first round of the grant. The failure of districts to agree to participate was cited as one reason that Pennsylvania was not approved. A second round of state RTTT application judging will occur in June 2010.[21]
The district offers a variety of clubs, activities and sports.
By Pennsylvania law, all K-12 students in the district, including those who attend a private nonpublic school, cyber charter school, charter school and those homeschooled, are eligible to participate in the extracurricular programs including all athletics. They must meet the same eligibility rules as the students enrolled in the district's schools.[22]
References:
|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". School Economics 101. North Penn School District. http://www.npenn.org/557710323155936523/site/default.asp. Retrieved 21 October 2011.