Amelia Mills (Region III)

About the Candidate

Tell us about you: (Such as your family, children, are they CASD graduates etc.) 

Son, Trip Mills.  Daughter Amy Mills Bullivant

Tell us about what you do for a living:  

Retired Educator

Public Service:  

Coatesville Area Public Library

Campaign Website: None

Campaign Facebook Page:  

AmeliaMills4CASD

"I am hopeful for the future of the Coatesville Area School District, our students, our parents, our teachers and staff, our administration and community members. It takes a Village."

What motivated you to run for the school board?

I am running for the Coatesville school board, because….

I care deeply about our children, our teachers and the Coatesville School District community.

I am concerned about the District’s management: we have raised taxes; implemented sketchy instructional programs; reduced the services provided to our students with disabilities and have disturbing charter school flight. And we lag behind the other districts in Chester County academically and with innovative educational programs.

I believe we (the District) need to CHANGE DIRECTION we need to Go Forward rather than to continue to go backwards.

What skills or experiences do you have that makes you different from the current board members or those running?

I have been in the business of education for over 30 years, working for school districts and education companies.

I have been on the front line, teaching Coatesville students and in the back-office working hard with others in the running of our school district.  I have had the good fortune of participating in big state-wide initiatives such as, The Governor’s Urban Academy and LEAPS (the Leadership Academy for School Administrators) and also with the University of Pennsylvania, Minority Student Consortium.

While in District Office I saw first-hand the district’s academic achievement grow year by year.

We were a slim Central Office staff … we all had to pitch in and work as a team to get the job done so I also worked on Professional Development, New Teacher Induction, the Strategic Plan, Staffing and Grant Budget Management.

After 10 years I retired from the District but I did not retire from education.  For the following eight years I worked as an Education Consultant out of my home office in West Caln.   I supported implementing innovated educational programs in districts and schools across the country, Colorado, Delaware, New Mexico, Texas and Utah to name a few.

In 2018 I joined the staff of the Coatesville Area Public Library where I continue to work with students, parents and community members of the same municipalities served by CASD: Caln, Coatesville, South Coatesville, East Fallowfield, Valley , West Brandywine and West Caln.

Do you primarily see yourself as a representative of the community or as a representative of the school system? 

Community ✔      |       School System

Please Explain:  I see myself as both a representative of the community AND as a representative of the school system. The Pennsylvania School Board Association published the Seven Principles for Governance and Leadership. 

The first principle is Advocate Earnestly:

• Promote public education as a keystone of democracy
• Engage the community by seeking input, building support networks, and generating action
• Champion public education by engaging members of local, state and federal legislative bodies. 

As a CASD School Director, I believe that to be an effective representative of the school district one must also represent the community.  When the school district and the community have two views of reality, there will be great dissatisfaction and distrust.  CASD cannot be truly successful unless District Leadership, the School Board, Parents, Community Members, along with Teachers and Staff work together for the good of the cause.

What type of opportunities/strengths do you feel CASD has and how do we accomplish them?

CASD has an opportunity to CHANGE DIRECTION.  What the District is doing now IS NOT WORKING.

• The District’s Academic Growth as measured by the State is going backwards.
• Many families are moving out of the Coatesville School District.
• More families are sending their students to charter schools.
• School safety has become the primary concern for many families.
• There is toxic climate created by the District Leadership in the way teachers and staff are treated.
• There is a brain drain of talented educators and administrators who have left our District.

I am concerned that our community, does not have a voice … does not have a mechanism for sharing concerns with and getting answers from the School Board and District Leadership.   We have become the SILENCED majority.

I acknowledge there are points of pride:  CASD Sports Programs for one.  However, only a small number of our students will have careers in life in sports.  We need to do more for all CASD students to be successful and have hope for their futures.  We need to DO MUCH MORE.

What is the most pressing issues facing the CASD and how would you address them when you are on the school board?

CASD is going backwards.  We need to change our course.  We need to move forward. And start with the following:

1. Review the most recent Comprehensive Plan and Strategic Goals with Superintendent and School Directors and establish goals based on that plan.
2. Establish collaborative process with stakeholders from the community and the District to regularly review the District’s Comprehensive Plan to determine if established goals are being met; to determine if the plan needs to be changed or modified due to newly identified needs.
3. Establish a School Safety Study Team with community and district members to determine what works, what is broken and how can we fix the issues that surround the District regarding school safety.
4. Establish a Student Academic Achievement Study Team of content area experts to determine what is causing the District’s state scores to decline and to develop a plan to stop the decline and move forward.
5. Repair and restore the relationship of District Leadership with teachers and staff caused in part by the contentious contract negotiations and Superintendent’s endless series of Loudermill Hearings.

How can this be done?  I believe that we need to bring in outside experts with resources and methodologies to guide CASD Leadership, Teachers/Staff, Parents and Community Members through a formal process to review, reflect, brainstorm and implement changes for taking CASD forward. (There are ways to bring in outside support without it being a hit to the budget.)

Please share your ideas on the challenge of balancing the budget, while not cutting too many programs or jobs?

Where to start! I believe we need to take a close look (a formal analysis) of outsourcing costs. Are we really saving money OR are we just moving costs to another budget line? I believe we need to take a close look (another formal analysis) of all legal fees paid by the District. In particular, how much do we spend on attorneys to have disciplinary hearings of administrators, teachers and staff? I believe we need to take a close look at the data on the success or lack of success of our instructional and professional development programs. If the District is not moving forward, perhaps these programs should be retired and/or replaced. I believe we need to take a close look at the data on the success or lack of success of District Leadership. Based on the data, take the appropriate course of action.

The hiring and retaining of highly qualified teachers and administrators has become more and more challenging. How would you help CASD address this issue?  

I believe that we need to bring in outside experts with resources and methodologies to guide stakeholders through a formal process to review, reflect, brainstorm and implement a best-practices process for hiring and retaining highly qualified teachers.  We need to survey and formally gather open and honest input from current teachers and comments from exiting teachers.  We need to do something about what we hear/see other than punishing the messengers. (There are ways to bring in outside support without it being a hit to the budget.)

What are your thoughts on the current discipline problem and what will you do to address it?

I believe that the District has a broken approach to discipline. I have spoken to many parents while campaigning, while walking my dog, while working in the Coatesville Library and while “hanging out” with grandparents.  The story is the same.  There is a lack of meaningful discipline.  Their kids get hurt.  They have no choice but to take their kids out of the District.

In 2017 there was a wonderful group of caring and interested administrators, parents, grandparents and community members who came together formally and regularly to review, reflect and brainstorm.  Unfortunately, District Leadership chose not to continue with this group and it never got to the implementation step.  Instead, District Leadership put in some behavior modification programs to address the problem.  (Waiting for data to validate success or lack of success on the behavior modification programs.)

What are some of your ideas for improving school safety and significantly reducing bullying in our schools? 

Discipline, school safety and bullying are interrelated.

Establish a School Safety Study Team with parents, grandparents, community members, teachers, guidance counselors and district administrators to determine what works, what is broken and how can we fix the issues that surround the District regarding school safety.  A range of data should be collected and analyzed from surveys of parents, students and teachers to teacher-generated discipline incidents reports (along with principal-generated).  At one time CASD had a zero tolerance policy for bullying.  At one time CASD had programs for students on how to respond when being bullied.  Where did these programs go?  Where they replaced with something better?  Or not?

If a parent comes to you with a particular school issue, how do you see your role as school board member to resolve that issue?

I see my role as one who listens to the issue, researches the circumstance of the issue, shares the issue with School Principal and District Leadership and other School Board Members as appropriate and prepares and delivers a response to the parent.  For some issues a more formalized follow-up may be required based on how serious the issue or response to the issue may be.  No response to a parent/community member is not acceptable.

How transparent do you feel the district is now?

⭐⭐☆☆☆

Looking forward, what are your views on transparency and what kinds of school-district information should be made public? (Excluding information that pertains to student records and the particulars of personnel records that would constitute an invasion of privacy.)

I find the lack of transparency on the part of the District to be troubling.  If one compares the web sites of other school districts to CASD, one would find that the other districts provide much more information on their strategic goals and more precise details in their published comprehensive plans. CASD is less transparent about the how and what the District does to educate our children; hire and retain teachers; gathered data from parents, students, community members; and the District’s academic performance on state standardized tests.  If one comes to a School Board Committee Meeting to learn/understand there is no chance for dialog and to get answers to questions/concerns.  Does CASD have any Strategic Goals?

Effective, consistent, and open communication has been found to be strongly correlated with successful organizations. It is important that a District communicate with all parties – students, employees, parents and community – proactively and intentionally.

What should be published?

• District’s strategic goals noting short-terms actions, long-term actions and how they will be measured.
• Academic performance on standardized tests.
• Details of most financials, such as Independent Financial Audit and Vendor Contracts
• Survey results from teachers, staff, parents and community members. (should CASD give surveys)

Pretty much all information should be public or made available upon request except information that pertains to student records and the particulars of personnel records that would constitute an invasion of privacy.

Are you committed to a yearly survey of families, students, graduates, community residents, faculty and staff about what they see as major strengths and shortcomings of the district and its schools?  

Are you committed to yearly surveys?   ✔

Are you committed to publicly sharing the results? ✔

Why or why not? Yes, I am committed yearly surveys.  Common practice in successful Pennsylvania school districts is to survey Parents, Community Members, Teachers/Staff and Students annually.  The surveys might be in different formats paper, in-person interviews, phone, and online.  Regardless of the formats, School Directors should carefully analyze the collected data, make public the findings and respond to key issues identified.   Sadly, we have not surveyed the CASD community re: CASD’s Special Education initiatives.  Sadly, parents regularly raise concerns at most school board committee meetings and school board meetings about CASD’s Special Ed initiatives.  And, most sadly, District Leadership expresses a belief that “everything is just fine” and tries to silence those who believe otherwise.

Have a question for the candidate?  

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