The school board approved a three-year contract with Edlio, the district’s website vendor, for a branded mobile app at a cost of $6,593 at the June 27 meeting.
“There’s a lot of functionality through the app,” Superintendent Thomas Mitchell said.
A mock-up of the landing page features a large “Westmont Hilltop” at the top of the app in school colors with sections for news, events, photos, a link to the district website and more.
Mitchell said while safety and security messaging will still come from direct district communication, the app will have many other uses, such as allowing parents to directly fill out field trip permission slips and enter doctor excuses for a student missing school.
He added that Westmont staff are being trained on the Edlio app now and rollout of the new offering should be in the beginning of August.
The board also approved a three-year contract with School Messenger for the district’s safety and security notifications as well as official communications.
Prior to this, Mitchell said the school used SwiftK12, but that company is ceasing operations, so the board moved to another provider.
The approved cost of the contract was $4,850.
School directors also passed the 2024-25 budget at the June gathering with no tax increase.
Expenditures are estimated to be about $26.3 million and revenues are projected to be roughly $26.8 million, resulting in a surplus.
Mitchell said the additional funds are due to the budget reflecting the full allocation listed in Pennsylvania’s proposed budget.
Westmont’s portion basic education funding is estimated to be $4,922,697, district Business Manager Jacklyn Hanik said.
That’s the same amount received in the previous school year.
For the upcoming academic term, the district is expected to get $1.1 million in an adequacy investment from the state.
That new funding source is a result of the historic Fair Funding Lawsuit in which commonwealth Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer ruled that Pennsylvania was not adequately funding public schools.
“The budget is built on the premise that the state is upholding their obligation to fairly fund public education,” Hanik said.
Mitchell said he’s excited by this year’s budget, especially because there’s no millage increase.
Other business discussed at the meeting included the proposed cellphone tower at the high school.
Following years of litigation, the district is moving forward with the structure on the hill behind the high school.
At this time, Westmont officials are waiting on construction to start, Mitchell said.
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