The Kennett Consolidated School District welcomed Steve Ciprani as its newest school board member on Monday night.

The school board voted 7 to 0, with one abstention, in favor of appointing Ciprani to fill the Region A vacancy that was created when school director Mark Bowden resigned from the position in September.

School board member Dominic Perigo, Jr. made the initial motion to nominate Ciprani to the position, while school board member Aline Frank seconded the motion. There were no other nominations.

Ciprani is a resident of Kennett Square Borough. He and his wife, Linzee, operate Ciprani Consulting, a real estate and recruiting firm.

School board president Joseph Meola administered the Oath of Office and Ciprani immediately joined the eight other board members at the table.

Ciprani will serve on the board until the next school board elections take place in November of 2019. He said that he was interested in a seat on the school board because he wanted to serve the community and because of the importance of a strong school system.

“I was a public school teacher for seven and a half years,” Ciprani said. “Schools have been a fundamental part of my life.”

The Kennett School Board had interviewed the four candidates who applied to fill the vacancy during a public meeting on Oct. 1. Several school board members talked about the quality of the candidates who applied to fill the vacancy, and they said that it was a difficult decision to choose from among the candidates.

“We were fortunate to have a very strong candidate pool,” observed Frank.

Perigo agreed, saying, “All four candidates were great—they were all well prepared.”

School board member Michael Finnegan said that it was nice to have four people from Region A express interest in the position since it can sometimes be a challenge to get people who are interested in volunteering their time to serve on a school board.

School board member William Brown thanked the community for being so involved with the school district.

During his monthly report, superintendent Dr. Barry Tomasetti noted that a local police department had secured a grant for funding that could help pay for the resource officer that is assigned to the schools in the district. Tomasetti said that, because of the heightened security concerns faced by all school districts in 2018, it is good to have police officers who are on duty on the campus to provide security and ensure the safety of the students and the staff.

Tomasetti also recognized Greenwood Elementary School for being honored as a Title I Distinguished School—one of about 150 schools to earn the designation. Greenwood Elementary attained “high progress” status, which means that it was in the top 5 percent of Title I Schools based on ELA and math growth as measured by the state assessment, the PSSA. Greenwood Elementary also met all four annual measurable objectives, as set by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which include the following: test participation in math and reading PSSA exams; attendance; closing the achievement gap in math and reading on the PSSA while factoring in all students; and closing the achievement gap in math and reading on the PSSA while looking at historically under-performing students.

Another highlight of the meeting came when Perigo received a commendation from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association for his 12 years of service as a school board member.

Perigo, a 1977 graduate of Kennett, said that he bleeds blue—as anyone who knows him will attest. Before he served on the school board, he also served the community as a member of Kennett Square Borough Council for ten years. Perigo said he hopes to continue to serve the school district for many more years. He thanked the Pennsylvania School Boards Association for the commendation.

The Kennett School Board will hold its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 12 at at 7 p.m. at the New Garden Elementary School.