Delaware Valley Regional board frames yearlong goals; plans education foundation and cross‑district coordination

At its Jan. 13 meeting, the Delaware Valley Regional High School District board spent most of its public session setting a slate of goals for the coming year, including proposals to launch an education foundation, share aggregated student outcome data with sending districts, coordinate co‑curricular programs, and formalize a training schedule with the New Jersey School Boards Association.

The board opened with a procedural roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance before moving into a broad goal‑setting discussion. A board member proposed starting an education foundation to engage the community, draft bylaws and recruit volunteers; members recommended parent mixers and a month‑by‑month action schedule to build volunteer capacity. The board chair said the foundation and other goals should be actionable and tied back to the district's strategic plan.

A district staff member described a five‑year lookback of student data that compares cohorts by sending district and recommended sharing aggregated results with superintendents and boards so districts can identify supports without using the data punitively. Board members emphasized that the comparison should be used to support students, not to rank districts, and asked staff to circulate the analysis to superintendents and to make the aggregated data available to board members.

Members identified K–12 articulation — coordinating curriculum and student supports across the district and its seven sending districts — as a continuing priority. The board discussed using regular superintendent and board presidents meetings, plus targeted supervisor‑level gatherings (for example, music or athletics supervisors), to operationalize alignment in curriculum and co‑curriculars. Several members pointed to recent joint music performances as an example of successful cross‑district collaboration that could be scaled.

On governance and training, the board asked the policy committee to develop a training and development cadence, including orientation and periodic sessions with the New Jersey School Boards Association, and recommended memorializing a schedule of retreats and ethics training so it becomes part of the annual calendar.

Toward the end of the public session, the chair announced that the board would convene an executive session to address the CSA evaluation (personnel) and a negotiation matter; the chair said the board had advertised that no action would be taken following the closed session. Board member Miss Pelli moved to enter executive session; board member Mr. Hash seconded. The motion carried with the assent of members present.

The board agreed to circulate a written draft of the proposed goals after the meeting, solicit edits by email, and return a refined set of goals for formal consideration at a future public meeting. Staff were asked to report back on planned superintendent, president and supervisor meetings and the data sharing approach during subsequent board meetings.