No major decisions were made at Monday night’s school board meeting. The two highlights of the meeting were the presentation of a demographic study for future district planning, along with a celebration of Emmaus High School’s national merit semifinalists.
Demographic Study
How many students will East Penn have a year from now? Five years from now? Ten years from now? These are the basic questions a demographic study of the community seeks to answer. The district hired a professional demography firm to conduct such a study, which presented its preliminary findings last night. There is a lot of detailed information in the study, but here are some of the overall highlights:
- Without new housing development, the student population of the district would decline slightly over the next decade.
- Taking everything into account, including new housing development, the district will grow by between 27 and 343 students over the next five years.
- The district will be able to accommodate this modest growth over the next couple of years. But a thorough facilities study is the next step to determine if the schools will need additional space in the medium- and long-term.
You can see the study presentation slides here, and watch the presentation and discussion for yourself here.
National Merit Semifinalists
National merit semifinalists are high school students who have scored exceptionally well on the PSAT (Preliminary SAT) test. There are only about 16,000 students nationwide who are named semifinalists. Being named a semifinalist is a high academic honor, and it also makes students eligible for a college scholarship. We are fortunate enough to have three national merit semifinalists at Emmaus High School this year:
- Matthew Magee
- Caitlin O’Brien
- Naqiya Peatiwala
This recognition reflects both their hard work, their academic ability, and the high quality education they’ve received in East Penn. You can watch Superintendent Campbell present their impressive list of accomplishments here.
