District leader may be leaving
BOYERTOWN » Just two years after taking the helm of the Boyertown Area School District, Superintendent Dana Bedden may be leaving.
According to a post on the school district’s Facebook page, “Dr. Bedden is a finalist for the Superintendent’s position in Centennial School District.”
Located in Warminster, Bucks
County, “Centennial School District is an above average, public school district,” according to Niche.com, the online school ranking site.
“It has 5,419 students in grades K-12 with a studentteacher ratio of 14-to-1. According to state test scores, 41 percent of students are at least proficient in math and 61 percent in reading,” according to the site.
Boyertown has roughly 6,700 students in a district that is 100 square miles that straddles Berks and Montgomery counties.
“While no final decisions have been made, (Centennial School District) has published that they plan to vote on his appointment at their Board of School Directors’ Meeting on Tuesday, July 28th,” according to the Boyertown Facebook post.
Ironically, that is also the date of the Boyertown School Board’s formal vote on a re-opening plan, a vote that became controversial on July 14 when five members of the board indicated they preferred a full in-person re-opening instead of the hybrid partial re-opening the administration had recommended.
That direction was reversed a week later when a special July 21 school board meeting was convened and Bedden told the board that at this point in time, schools could not be reopened fully.
“Should Dr. Bedden choose to accept the appointment, we have been assured that he would remain with BASD through the beginning of the school year,” according to the school district post.
Bedden was hired in July 2018, after a year-long search.
Bedden previously worked as superintendent for Richmond Public Schools and Irving Independent School District in Texas.
The school board had offered the superintendent’s job to an administrator from western Pennsylvania in April, but he turned the job down at the last minute when his current employer offered him a raise and a contract extension.
The district’s previous superintendent, Richard Faidley, left in July 2017, to take the top post in the Wilson School District in western Berks County. He had been Boyertown’s superintendent since July 2013.
“We know this is a difficult time for the Boyertown learning community and that there are some very important plans set to be approved and implemented in the coming days. We also understand that his possible departure adds to the concerns already being experienced by all,” the district posted.
“Please be assured that any and all work related to our health & safety plan and the return to school for the 2020-2021 school year has been developed as part of a collaborative effort,” according to the post. “Our entire leadership team, in cooperation with our board of school directors, has been involved in the entire planning process and stands ready and able to step up and move us forward into the new school year.”