{"id":116537,"date":"2026-02-17T23:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116537\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:33:06","slug":"antietam-sd-facilities-director-honored-for-efforts-following-2023-flooding-berks-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116537\/","title":{"rendered":"Antietam SD facilities director honored for efforts following 2023 flooding | Berks Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"

MT PENN BOROUGH, Pa. – A ceremony at Antietam High School honored the district’s facilities director, Ken Bonkoski, for his efforts following the devastating flooding in July of 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Ken is a person who lives that commitment to others, to community, every day,” said Antietam Superintendent Tim Matlack. “If help is needed, you will never hear the word ‘no’ from Ken.”<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Department of Education selected Bonkoski as one of the recipients of the RISE Award, which honors a non-teaching school employee who provides exemplary service to students.<\/p>\n

“After the flood, Ken wasn’t just managing a building; he was helping to steady the community,” said PA Secretary of Education Carrie Rowe. “He was walking damaged hallways with contractors, coordinating timelines, answering hard questions [and] making sure that students returned here to something that was safe and solid.”<\/p>\n

From the moment the creek waters started to rise to flood stage threatening the school, Ken sprang into action to no one’s surprise.<\/p>\n

“In your whole life you do things as you go on, monumental things, different building projects,” said Bonkoski. “It was like everything got wrapped into one day. You know, all the stuff that I knew had to facilitate within that short of a time period.”<\/p>\n

His humility is one of his greatest assets. Bonkoski says all he did would not have been possible without his team, and the support of the community.<\/p>\n

“We all do it because we know that our common goal here is for the kids,” added Bonkoski. “You know, it’s always been that way for me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MT PENN BOROUGH, Pa. – A ceremony at Antietam High School honored the district’s facilities director, Ken Bonkoski,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[55406,31553,55405,8513,28,9804,128,130,129,15764],"class_list":{"0":"post-116537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-antietam-high-school","9":"tag-carrie-rowe","10":"tag-ken-bonkoski","11":"tag-mt-penn-borough","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-department-of-education","14":"tag-reading-city","15":"tag-reading-city-headlines","16":"tag-reading-city-news","17":"tag-tim-matlack"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}