Dear Abington School District Community,

As we conclude the 2023-2024 school year, I would like to thank our teachers and staff for their ongoing efforts to promote learning, growth and strength of character among our 8,600 students in grades K-12. I would also like to reflect on some of our amazing accomplishments that we, as a school community, have achieved this year, despite whatever obstacles may have been in our way. This newsletter highlights just a few, but I would specifically like to applaud our 674 Abington Senior High School graduates in the Class of 2024 who amassed an astounding $10.1 million in scholarships to continue their training and/or education.

Further, we made significant progress toward outlining a plan to meet the needs identified in our previously conducted Facilities Feasibility Study. I thank everyone who attended the May Open House and Community Forum events as part of our District’s long-term facilities planning process. Over 100 residents attended these events, which included guided tours of Abington Middle School, conversations with District leadership, and a chance to ask questions of the independent consultants retained to assess our school buildings, and offer comments about the process so far.

I was impressed with the observations and insights I heard at the events and enjoyed speaking with many of you. Attendees also completed a ThoughtExchange survey, which revealed a consensus that the Abington Middle School building is inadequate and requires significant improvements, emphasizing student safety, comfort, and accessibility.

Throughout the summer and into the fall, the District and external consultants will be working on developing options to prioritize and fund investment projects in our school facilities. As we move forward with this process, your input remains essential in shaping the future of the Abington School District.

We are committed to sharing information and updates on this process, and gathering community input on the proposed options and financing plans. We will seek your input on the proposed plans when they are available later this fall. In the meantime, I encourage you to stay engaged and informed in this process by visiting our dedicated website - OneASDOneFuture.org. If you have any immediate questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to share them by visiting OneASDOneFuture.org/connect.

Above all else, as we move through this process, we will continue maintaining and managing our school facilities to provide learning environments that help our students excel. Once again, thank you for your participation in this process, as well as throughout the school year. We look forward to continuing our One ASD, One Future efforts together in the 2024-2025 school year.

Have an enjoyable and safe summer!

Regards,

Dr. Jeffrey S. Fecher

Superintendent of Schools

The Abington Pledge of Character and the monthly associated themes have been continuing in schools across the District. The initiative will return in the 2024-2025 school year.

Thanks to longstanding partnerships with the Holocaust Museum and Education Center (HAMEC) in Elkins Park, as well as Gratz College in Melrose Park, students across Abington School District have had rare opportunities to learn firsthand about the horrors of the Holocaust, which was especially meaningful surrounding Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Throughout the month of May, the HAMEC brought Holocaust survivors to elementary and secondary schools, where they had an opportunity to speak about their experiences and teach students the importance of empathy and acceptance of differences. Further, social studies teachers at Abington Senior High School had an opportunity to tour the museum as part of one of their after-school faculty meetings.

Abington School District has a long history of partnering with the HAMEC to bring Holocaust education to students. In 2017, the District was honored with the museum's first-ever Holocaust Education Award for being one of the first school districts in the country to provide Holocaust and genocide curriculum for students in grades 5-12. One of the most important aspects of the educational program is bringing in survivors to speak with students and share their experiences firsthand.

In addition to partnering with the HAMEC, Abington Senior High School offers a Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity course as a dual-enrollment social studies elective through Stockton University, and also partners with Gratz College to provide additional dual-enrollment credit opportunities, including:

• Survey of American Jewish History,

• Hebrew,

• and for 2024-2025, African Americans and Jews: The Margins and Mainstreams of American Life,

• and Antisemitism and the Modern Jewish Experience.

Gratz also sponsors each year the Mordechai Anielewicz Creative Arts Competition, which invites students in grades 7-12 to learn about the Holocaust and respond by means of creative expression. Abington Middle School student, Jorga Davis, won second place in this year's competition.

Partnerships like these, as well as efforts in anti-bias training, have helped Abington Schools earn designations as "No Place for Hate" for the past 15+ years from the Anti-Defamation League. For the 2023-2024 school year at Abington Senior High School, the ADL trained a group of students, as well as teachers Ms. Sandler Ligi and Ms. Katz, to be Anti-Bias Peer Trainers. These Senior High students are now members of the school's No Place for Hate Committee, and are already planning events for next year, including turn-around training for a new batch of student leaders.

These efforts are all tied to the mission and vision of Abington School District, the latter of which emphasizes a focus on inclusive and equitable practices.

For the 17th consecutive year, Abington School District has been honored with the Best Communities for Music Education designation from The NAMM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. Now in its 25th year, the Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement for providing music access and education to all students.

To qualify for the Best Communities designation, Abington School District administration answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program and community music-making programs. Responses were verified by school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit supported in part by the National Association of Music Merchants and its 15,000 global member companies and individual professionals worldwide. The foundation advances active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving, and public service programs. For more information about The NAMM Foundation, visit www.nammfoundation.org.

In May, the Business Office hosted four separate community meetings to assist senior citizen taxpayers in completing the forms for the Senior Citizen Tax Rebate Program. The meetings were held the week of May 20th at the Crestmont Clubhouse, Ardsley Community Center, Abington Township Free Library and Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in Rockledge. To receive a rebate for the 2023-2024 school year, senior citizens must submit their forms to the Business Office no later than June 30, 2024. These residents would have needed to have applied to the state's rebate program no later than December 31, 2023.

Pending approval at the June 25, 2024, meeting of the Board of School Directors, to receive a rebate for the 2024-2025 school year, senior citizens must submit their application to the state no later than December 31, 2024. The tax bill will be mailed in July, and the Abington School District application will be due by June 30, 2025. For the coming year, the state has increased the minimum income required for eligibility from $35,000 to $45,000. For more information and eligibility requirements, visit the designated page on the ASD website.

A new program called Summer EBT, or “SUN Bucks,” has been authorized by a bipartisan U.S. Congress to provide food dollars to low-income families with school-aged children over the summer months. The program aims to reduce food insecurity and improve children's nutrition during summer break. Governor Shapiro’s administration announced that the Commonwealth would participate in this program beginning in the summer of 2024. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees the program, and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) coordinates the benefit issuance in Pennsylvania.

A student is automatically eligible for 2024 Summer EBT/SUN Bucks if they are enrolled at a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or School Breakfast Program (SBP), AND they qualify for free or reduced-price school meals for any of these reasons:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or

• Medical Assistance with income that qualifies them for the NSLP/SBP, or

• Household meal application with income that qualifies, or

• Are homeless, runaway, migrant, foster, or in Head Start

DHS and their County Assistance Offices offer family support for Summer EBT/SUN Bucks.

The DHS Summer EBT/SUN Bucks webpage for families can be found here. This webpage provides information about the benefit, Frequently Asked Questions, the SUN Bucks family application, and an eligibility navigator tool to help families determine if they need to apply.

• Tuesday, June 25 - Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

• Tuesday, August 13 - Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

• Tuesday, August 27 - Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

• Tuesday, September 3 - First Day of School (Grades K-6, 9)

• Wednesday, September 4 - First Day of School (Grades 7-8, 10-12)