Board of Directors

Regions

Residents of Franklin Township and London Britain Township comprise Region I. Region II is comprised of Penn Township, New London Township, and Voting District #1 of West Grove Borough. London Grove Township, Avondale Borough, and Voting District #2 of West Grove Borough comprise Region III.

Individual Board member emails are available by region. If you would like to email the entire AGSD School Board of Directors, click here.

Click here to see the Region Map

Joint Committee I
Chairperson: Nick Taylor
Committee Members: Bonnie Wolff, Natalie Ortega-Moran, Ed.D., Herman Engel
Administrative Liaisons: Niki Harvey, Ed.D. & Jason Kotch, Ed.D.

Joint Committee I meets the 1st Tuesday, monthly except for June, July, August and December. The purpose of this committee is to provide regular and routine updates on topics such as Teaching and Learning, Technology, and policies that impact teaching and learning.

Joint Committee II
Committee Liasons:
Kenny Roark – Facilities/Operations and Finance
Bill Wood – Athletics/Activities
Ruchira Singh – Communications
Katie Leonard – Community Engagement

Administrative Liaison: Eric Willey

Joint Committee II meets the 1st Tuesday, monthly except for June, July, August and December. The purpose of this committee is to review operational work of the district and its impact on the budget. Topics included will be finance/operations, facilities, community engagement, communications, athletics and activities, and policies regarding operational activities.

Personnel
Chairperson: Bonnie Wolff
Administrative Liaisons: Scott DeShong, Ed.D. &  Joanne Redden

The personnel committee meets as needed and is called as an executive session.

Committee of the Whole-Strategic Initiatives
Chairperson: Dorothy Linn, Ed.D.
Administrative Liaison: Scott DeShong, Ed.D., Niki Harvey, Ed.D., & Jason Kotch, Ed.D.

The Committee of the Whole meets the 2nd Tuesday, monthly except for June, July, August and December. The Committee of the Whole is a representative body of the entire board. The purpose of the Committee of the Whole is to focus on specific strategic initiatives outlined in the District’s Strategic Plan.

Committee of the Whole-Budget
Chairperson: Dorothy Linn, Ed.D.
Administrative Liaisons: Scott DeShong, Ed.D. & Eric Willey

The Committee of the Whole-Budget meets monthly on the 2nd Tuesday during the months of January through May. The purpose of the Committee is to function as workshops for budget planning and development.

Avon Grove School District's Open Records Officer
Eric Willey
Director of Business Administration
Avon Grove School District
107 Schoolhouse Road, Suite B
West Grove, Pennsylvania 19390-8401
Ph. 610.869.2441
Fax 610.869.8651
ewilley@avongrove.org

Right To Know Forms

Open Records Request Form
Open Records - Fees

AHERA Annual Letter

AHERA Document - 40 CFR 763.93
AHERA -102018 - Signed
Avon Grove SD AHERA  Annual Letter 

School Board

A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors who are elected locally by their fellow citizens and who serve as agents of the state legislature. Each board consists of nine members who serve four-year terms of office without pay.

School directors, although locally elected, are really state officials, co-partners with the legislature. They are designated by school law to administer the school system in each district.

Constitutional Mandate

Public education is fundamentally a state responsibility. A system of free public education is mandated under the state constitution, which states in Article II, Section 14: “The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education.”

Constitutional recognition of the public schools as a legislative function is further found in Article IX, Section 10, in which a school district is described as a “unit of local government.”

Public education thus enjoys special status under the state constitution and is the only public service so mandated by the constitution.

To carry out this mandate, the General Assembly created school districts and school boards in 1834. It conferred broad legal powers to the local boards, making them autonomous in many of their operations. Therefore, the school board is a political subdivision of the state for the purpose of convenient administration of the schools.

Legislative Authority

The General Assembly created the State Board of Education, the Department of Education, the Intermediate unit structure and other state agencies. These agencies administer the state laws that control the state’s public education system. There are, therefore, several governing influences upon a board of school directors.

The School Laws of Pennsylvania is the primary compilation of the statutes enacted by the legislature having direct and pertinent reference to public education, its programs, its operation and its management. In addition, rules and regulation of the State Board, guidelines of the Department of Education, opinions and interpretations of the state attorney general and court decrees all influence local board operations.

Effective school boards concentrate their time and energy on determining what it is the schools should accomplish and enacting policies to carry out these goals.

In Pennsylvania

• Public schools are a creation of the state constitution.
• Public schools are a responsibility of the General Assembly, the legislative branch of PA state government.
• School boards, created by the General Assembly, serve as local legislative bodies for the public schools within the framework of state laws.
• A school board’s authority is applied through the collective decisions of the entire board acting as a governing body.

Board Responsibility

In essence, school boards have three functions: planning, setting policy and evaluating results.

• Planning—Boards are required to engage in strategic planning by regulations of the State Board of Education. Appropriate reports of the results of such planning must be filed with the Department of Education.
• Setting policy—The central responsibility of a board, both in theory and in law, is to be the policy-forming body. Policy means actions of the board that set written goals and objectives for the school and parameters for actions.
• Evaluating results—The board must evaluate the results of planning. Evaluation “completes the loop” and, in fact, leads inevitably to more planning. Evaluation occurs all the time, both formally and informally. As a group, the board is not an administrative body; neither should it be a “rubber stamp” for professional educators. The selection of competent administrators who understand their role is to carry out public policies established by the board is one of the board’s most important functions.

Principles of Governance and Leadership

Pennsylvania school boards are committed to providing every student the opportunity to grow and achieve. The actions taken by the board ultimately have both short and long-term impact in the classroom. Therefore, school directors collectively and individually will…

Advocate Earnestly

• Promote public education as a keystone of democracy
• Engage the community by seeking input, building support networks, and generating action
• Champion public education by engaging members of local, state and federal legislative bodies

Lead Responsibly

• Prepare for, attend and actively participate in board meetings
• Work together in a spirit of harmony, respect and cooperation
• Participate in professional development, training and board retreats
• Collaborate with the Superintendent as the Team of 10

Govern Effectively

• Adhere to an established set of rules and procedures for board operations
• Develop, adopt, revise and review policy
• Align decisions to policy
• Differentiate between governance and management, delegating management tasks to administration
• Allocate finances and resources
• Ensure compliance with local, state and federal laws

Plan Thoughtfully

• Adopt and implement a collaborative comprehensive planning process, including regular reviews
• Set annual goals that are aligned with the comprehensive plan
• Develop a financial plan that anticipates both short and long-term needs
• Formulate a master facilities plan conducive to teaching and learning

Evaluate Continuously

• Utilize appropriate data to make informed decisions
• Use effective practices for the evaluation of the superintendent
• Assess student growth and achievement
• Review effectiveness of the comprehensive plan

Communicate Clearly

• Promote open, honest and respectful dialogue among the board, staff and community
• Encourage input and support for the district from the school community
• Protect confidentiality
• Honor the sanctity of executive session

Act Ethically

• Never use the position for improper benefit to self or others
• Act to avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest
• Recognize the absence of authority outside of the collective board
• Respect the role, authority and input of the superintendent
• Balance the responsibility to provide educational programs with being stewards of community resources
• Abide by the majority decision

Superintendent Performance Standards

24 P.S. § 10-1073.1(8)(b.1)

The board of school directors shall post the mutually agreed to objective performance standards contained in the contract on the school district's publicly accessible Internet website. Upon completion of the annual performance assessment, the board of school directors shall post the date of the assessment and whether or not the Superintendent has met the agreed-to objective performance standards on the school district's publicly accessible Internet website.

The overall evaluation result will be one of the following: Distinguished, Proficient, Needs Improvement, or Failing and will be posted in the Fall of each year during the term of employment of the Superintendent.

For the 2024-2025 school year performance standards, incoming Superintendent Scott DeShong and Assistant Superintendent Niki Harvey (who served part of the school year as Acting Superintendent) were both evaluated as Distinguished based upon their contractual evaluations as AGSD Assistant Superintendents.  For information on the pertinent performance standards and criteria, as well as evaluation results, for Dr. DeShong and Dr. Harvey under the Assistant Superintendent performance standards, see:  https://www.avongrove.org/district/board-of-directors/assistant-superintendents-performance-standards.

For the 2025-2026 school year, the following are the objective performance standards as agreed to by Superintendent DeShong and the Avon Grove Board of School Directors. Ratings will be posted in the fall following the school year’s conclusion.

Standard 1: Shared Vision
The Superintendent will promote student success and create and sustain an organizational vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.

Standard 2: Culture of Learning
The Superintendent will promote student success by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning.

Standard 3: Decision-Making
The Superintendent will promote student success by accessing and using appropriate data to inform decision-making.

Standard 4: Management
The Superintendent will promote student success by ensuring the management of resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.

Standard 5: Family and Community
The Superintendent will promote student success by collaborating, communicating, engaging, and empowering others inside and outside of the organization to pursue excellence in learning.

Standard 6: Ethics
The Superintendent will promote student success by operating in a fair and equitable manner with personal and professional integrity.

Standard 7: Advocacy
The Superintendent will promote student success by advocating for children and public education in larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural contexts.

Standard 8: Personal and Professional Growth
The Superintendent will promote student success by supporting the professional growth of self and others through practice and inquiry.

Assistant Superintendent Performance Standards

24 P.S. § 10-1073.1(8)(b.1)

The board of school directors shall post the mutually agreed to objective performance standards contained in the contract on the school district's publicly accessible Internet website. Upon completion of the annual performance assessment, the AGSD  Board of School Directors shall post the date of the assessment and whether or not the Assistant Superintendents have met the agreed-to objective performance standards on the school district's publicly accessible Internet website.

The overall evaluation result will be one of the following: Distinguished, Proficient, Needs Improvement, or Failing and will be posted in the fall of each year during the term of employment of the Assistant Superintendents.

For the 2024-2025 school year performance standards, incoming Superintendent Scott DeShong and Assistant Superintendent Niki Harvey (who served part of the school year as Acting Superintendent) were both evaluated as Distinguished based upon their contractual evaluations as AGSD Assistant Superintendents.  

For the 2025-2026 school year, the following are the objective performance standards as agreed to by Assistant Superintendent Harvey, Assistant Superintendent Kotch, and the Avon Grove Board of School Directors. Ratings will be posted in the fall following the school year’s conclusion.

Standard 1: Shared Vision
The Superintendent will promote student success and create and sustain an organizational vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.

Standard 2: Culture of Learning
The Superintendent will promote student success by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning.

Standard 3: Decision-Making
The Superintendent will promote student success by accessing and using appropriate data to inform decision-making.

Standard 4: Management
The Superintendent will promote student success by ensuring the management of resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.

Standard 5: Family and Community
The Superintendent will promote student success by collaborating, communicating, engaging, and empowering others inside and outside of the organization to pursue excellence in learning. 

Standard 6: Ethics
The Superintendent will promote student success by operating in a fair and equitable manner with personal and professional integrity.

Standard 7: Advocacy
The Superintendent will promote student success by advocating for children and public education in larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural contexts. 

Standard 8: Personal and Professional Growth
The Superintendent will promote student success by supporting the professional growth of self and others through practice and inquiry.