Chamber Holds Monthly Meeting At Peters High School

The Washington Chamber of Commerce held their monthly briefing at Peters Township High School. Superintendent Dr. Jeanine French welcomed chamber members to the recently opened facility. French’s presentation covered several areas that the PTSD concentrates on and other topics that face school districts no matter where they are located in Pennsylvania. French described the district’s return on investment of each student. Most recent figures showed that Peters spent just shy of $18,000 per student where neighboring districts spent $4000 dollars more per student to achieve similar or lesser results on student performance. French credits the “Fundamentals” approach the district uses. She states that the district does not go for the “latest bling” but concentrates on basics like having students beginning to be able to read for understanding at the end of third grade. They make sure courses in the high school are challenging. They feature 21 AP courses along with other college affiliated programming. And the district is expanding its focus on technology careers. French touched on funding biases indicating that Peters receives the least amount of funding per student from Pennsylvania than any other school district in Washington County. French says that the formula Pennsylvania uses sends more money to school districts that do not have a tax base that can support the school district. According to French the Peters Township School District has just over 4000 students and enrollment has been relatively flat despite its population growth.