Hatboro-Horsham Defends Student Performance

HATBORO / HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —While a resident criticized recent rankings of the Hatboro-Horsham School District, several school board members and the schools superintendent defended how the district is doing.

"These numbers are staggering," resident Barbara Murphy told the school board at its meeting last month about its niche.com rankings.

School Board member D.J. Schultz touted the district's improvement, noting that rankings in Niche have the district at 98th place in the state, an improvement of 13 places over the previous year.

Schultz stressed that the district still has a lot of work to do on improving test scores, but said that Hatboro-Horsham High School's overall state ranking was in the Top 11 percent, while also ranking in the Top 5 percent for most improved public school.

Rankings in math proficiency, reading and language arts proficiency, and student-teacher ratio were in the Top 20 percent. The district graduation rate was in the Top 5 percent.

"I do not hang my head in shame. I hold my head high for a great deal of pride. I am proud of the work we have done," Schools Superintendent Scott Eveslage said. "This is not to say we're patting ourselves on the back because we have a lot of work to do."

The superintendent said he has worked in a lot of area school districts and that school officials want students to improve and the district to show improvement.

"We're trying to listen to our students and make our schools to be better places," Eveslage said. "You should expect transparency and honesty. Students who don't share the growth don't need to be shamed, they need to be supported."

School Board President David Brown also took offense to the remarks.

"It's not very often that I respond to name-calling and things of that nature," Brown said. "I do take umbrage with someone saying to the board or myself that we don't care about our students. We are here volunteering our time to ensure that students have the best education opportunities in the district. We all care very much. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here."