The Avon Grove School Board held its annual reorganization meeting on Dec. 6.

The main order of business was the selection of a president and vice president for the next year.

School board member Bill Wood nominated Tracy Lisi for the leadership position. Bonnie Wolff seconded the motion. There were no other nominees, and the board approved Lisi's selection as president by a vote of 5-4. 2019 will be Lisi's second straight year as the board president. She is entering her fourth year on the school board, and was elected from Region II, which includes the areas of Penn Township and New London Township.

Next, board member Jeffrey Billig nominated Wood for the role of vice president. There were no other nominees and the board approved Wood's appointment as vice president.

In 2019, the Avon Grove School Board will include the following members: (Region I) Charles Beatty III, John Auerbach, and Lynn Weber; (Region II) Billig, Rick Dumont, and Lisi; and (Region III) Herman Engel, Wood, and Wolff.

The next order of business for the board was to establish meeting nights and times for 2019. The school board will continue to meet as a committee-of-the-whole on the second Thursday each month, and regular meetings will take place on the fourth Thursday of the month.

There was a suggestion from Weber to start the committee-of-the-whole meetings at a later time because the 6 p.m. starts were difficult for her. She said that she has a hard time making it from work to the meeting by 6 p.m., especially if traffic is heavy.

“Personally, it's hard for me to get here by six o'clock,” she said.

Several board members pointed out that the committee-of-the-whole meetings have the earlier start because they tend to be lengthy. A later start would mean that the audience members, board members, and the school district's administrators would be out later.

Superintendent Dr. Christopher Marchese pointed out that the board had had the exact same discussion at the reorganization meeting last year. He said that one thing that is important for the community is to have some sort of consistency with the meetings so that residents know when the meetings are if they are interested in attending them. He suggested having the committee meetings start at 6 p.m. and having committee-of-the-whole meetings and the regular meetings start at 6:30 p.m. The 2019 committee-of-the-whole meetings would have later starts than in 2018, but the regular meetings would be moved a half an hour earlier.

This compromise worked, and the Avon Grove School Board voted unanimously to approve the meeting times for 2019.