District Personnel Members Honored During Board of Education Meeting

In the midst of the National Education Association’s “American Education Week”, the Manchester Township Board of Education, along with Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway, took time during their November meeting to recognize the continuous efforts of several departments in the school district.

“What makes a good school district is not just test scores – there are many factors. What makes a school district a school district is the staff that they have,” said Trethaway. “This (American Education Week) is also a week that recognized the professionals that makes up Manchester Township School District. Hopefully, we recognize this group more than just tonight or just this one week, but it is a nice time to take a step back and really see what’s involved in a school district.”

The superintendent explained that Manchester is a larger district than some others in the region, and therefore are required to provide a higher quantity of services, such as transportation, maintenance, medical, psychological, food services and a host of others. The first unit to be recognized was the administrative department.

“In our administrative unit, we have 13 members. I happen to be fortunate to have an excellent administrative team; they do a lot more than just supervising,” Trethaway said.

“They do evaluations; they’re in charge of security, supervision, busses, and a lot of different things. I like that last clause in their contract where it says, ‘anything else that the superintendent deems necessary,” the superintendent joked. Accepting the award on behalf of the administrative team was Barbara Smith.

The next group to be recognized was the Manchester Township Education Association (MTEA), one which “covers a lot of territory”, according to Trethaway. “We have about 450 members in our education association. About 335 are teachers and then (the rest) are professionals who cover a lot of areas.”

Trethaway listed these professionals as media staff, nurses, guidance, child study team, social workers, one-on-one aides, paraprofessionals and secretaries. Receiving the award for the MTEA was Charlene O’Hara, a paraprofessional at Manchester Township Middle School.

Following these groups in order to be recognized by the board was the Manchester Township Educational Support Association (MTESA). “They have one of the most important responsibilities, in getting the students safely back and forth from home to school and back again. Many of the bus trips we take, whether it’s for field trips and activities or sports, they’re there,” Trethaway stated. In addition to bus drivers, the superintendent also listed mechanics, bus aides, custodians and maintenance personnel under this group heading.

“We had a preliminary visit from the county as far as our monitoring goes, and without getting any prompting from me at one of our meetings, the county business administrator came up and said that he really wanted to remark how well our buildings and grounds are taken care of. They don't just say that to every school district,” Trethaway added. Accepting the award on behalf of this department was Joan Brush.

The final department to be recognized was confidential staff, which numbers 10 members – they include secretaries in the superintendent’s office and other personnel. “I couldn’t do my job without them, we really rely a lot on those confidential secretaries,” Trethaway continued. “They do an outstanding job, and I can’t begin to express our appreciation to them.” Terry McWeeney received the award on behalf of the district’s confidential staff employees.

After the distribution of awards, board president Donald Webster Jr. called for a round of applause for the district personnel who were honored at the meeting. “I just want to offer the board’s appreciation for everything that the staff does,” Webster remarked.

Trethaway also thanked the staff of his personal office for their continued efforts working in the school district.