School boards in the area are reorganizing this week, and that means that a new group of school board members will be sworn into office, while other school board members have officially completed their terms in office.

Serving on a school board can be a demanding and thankless job—there are lots of difficult decisions to make and countless board and committee meetings to attend. There are teachers’ contracts to negotiate, construction projects to plan, and many personnel decisions to make. The school board members who take on these duties do so without pay, of course, offering up both their time and their talents to help the community in which they live.

This year, the school districts in southern Chester County are saying farewell to some longtime members. For example, on the Kennett School Board, the departing members—Rudy Alfonso, Steven Ciprani, Aline Frank, and Dominic Perigo, Jr.—combined to serve for 35 years on the board. Perigo led the way with 13 years. Frank was a school board member for 12 years, while Alfonso served for 8 years.

In the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, three departing members—Victor Dupuis, Gregg Lindner, and Carolyn Daniels—served for a combined 22 years on the board. Gary Olson in Oxford and Charles Beatty in Avon Grove are also longtime school board members who have completed their terms.

Chester County is fortunate to have public school systems that rank among the top-half in the state. A few school districts in the county are among the very best in the state. One reason for the success is the work of school board members.

We’d like to wish a fond farewell to the departing school board members who served their communities well, and offer good luck to the new school board members who are now taking over those duties. It’s a challenging job, but one that’s worth doing—and doing well.