Hampton Township School District receives team award
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Hampton Township School District was awarded the District Team Leadership Award for 2019 by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), an achievement sought by school districts throughout the nation.
Team leaders from the school district were presented with an award at the CoSN conference in Portland this April. Austin Independent School District in Texas, which has an enrollment of more than 75,000 students, was given honorable mention and runner-up to Hampton, said Dr. Michael Loughead, HTSD superintendent.
Last year’s District Leadership Team winner was St. Vrain Valley School District in Colorado, which has a student enrollment of more than 30,000.
This is compared to Hampton which had an enrollment of 2,796 at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. Despite the smaller size, “for Hampton to be recognized, it shows you some of the things we are doing,” said Loughead.
Dr. Edward McKaveney, director of technology for HTSD, said CoSN is the “premier professional association for school system technology leaders” and has many members across the country and internationally.
Hampton is a member of the National CoSN organization and the PA CoSN state chapter, said McKaveney. He said Hampton was recognized for “enhanced student learning by utilizing creative budgeting, grants and innovative teams to provide new digital learning opportunities” in high, middle and elementary schools.
Along with a plaque, the district received a $2,000 honorarium and a $5,000 DonorsChoose.org gift card.
Hampton was invited to provide a brief video on its accomplishments at the conference, which they also showed at the school board meeting last week.
The award highlighted a number of Hampton’s features including obtaining successful grant funding for innovative projects, transforming former computer labs into creative learning spaces and hosting new courses to successfully prepare students for an “unpredictable future,” said McKaveney.
Hampton highlighted a number of its accomplishments, including its participation in the regional Remake Learning Day and also providing access to technology for all students by shifting from shared carts of computing devices to personally assigned laptops or iPads. New instructional offerings and courses highlighted include maker spaces in elementary schools, robotics and print-making studios at the middle school, and Robotics 1 and II courses as well as high school advanced-placement courses in computer science and research and Capstone courses.
“These ongoing efforts are made possible through significant district-wide collaboration and a commitment to advancing student opportunities,” said McKaveney.
Hampton completed the nomination for the school district. The winning team is based on its community-building initiatives, innovation in and outside the classroom, sizable impact and partnership development, according to the CoSN website.
Loughead noted it’s important to keep all students in touch with the latest in innovative technology whether in elementary, middle and high schools.
“We look forward to generations of this going forward,” he said.
Gail Litwiler, school board member, congratulated the team and said “this is no small deal what’s happened here. It’s absolutely outstanding and amazing.”