Ridley School Board bids adieu to two members

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP » Ridley School Board members took time at their November meeting to say good-byE to two of its long-serving members who were not running for re-election in the Nov. 6 election.

Leaving the board are were Harry McElwee, with 35 years as a school director, and George Dawson, who served 13 years.

McElwee said he hoped to make it to 40 years on the school board, but did not run for re-election when he failed to get the endorsment of the Ridley Township Republican Committee. During his tenure on the board he served as chief negotiator of the professional negotiating team and was vice president of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, representing the Ridley School District.

Dawson, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas in the recent election, is a deputy district attorney in Delaware County. He served on the professional negotiating team for the board. He was appointed as a school director when former director John F.X. Reilly resigned to become school board solicitor.

“Ridley is unbelievable. It is a family,” Dawson said of his time on the school board.

In a business matter during the meeting, school directors adopted a resolution authorizing the incurring of nonelectoral debt in the amount of $13.2 million with an interest rate of not to exceed 5 percent per annum. The loan will be used to finance part of a threeyear $46 million renovation project at eight of the district’s school buildings. The work will start next summer and end in the summer of 2022.

In another matter, the board approved a request for approval from Ridley High School assistant principal/athletic director Jack Signor for the boys baseball team to travel to Orlando, Florida, for spring training competition The event will run from March 11 to 15.

In her report to the school board, district Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel noted that Penn State Health Children’s

Hospital recently commended the staff and students at Ridley High School for their support of the Mini-THON held last spring at the high school that raised $19,846 to help fund lifesaving research and world-class care for children and families fighting childhood cancer.

Wentzel also thanked the Books A Million store at Springfield Mall, and their patrons, for donating 100 books to the school district. The books will be distributed to the elementary and middle schools based on reading level.