CASD knows, you can drop the facade

After many months of not attending school board meetings or writing about the concerns that were shared there by members of the community, the Daily Local News finally responded to the community's requests and sent a reporter to last Tuesday's meeting. We appreciate the engagement and coverage. Although the reporter included detailed reports from the meeting, he also included a statement from Superintendent, Cathy Taschner. 

We found it interesting that Cathy emailed her statement to the Daily Local News after the meeting. Her response is insightful as it shows what she must have believed to be the talking points from the meeting. None of her answers actually address the statement delivered by Ms. Ritter, on CATA's behalf, or the concerns raised by the school board members throughout the meeting. Let's take a closer look at Dr. Taschner's statement, piece by piece.

“CASD superintendent, Dr. Cathy Taschner, said in an emailed statement after the meeting: ‘The district appreciates and values the input of students, teachers, administrators, parents, community members. Often the topics discussed will lead to discourse that challenges everyone to see the perspective of another. ”

While we do believe that many people within the District appreciate and value input, Dr. Taschner and her top administrative team repeatedly reveal that they do not. Our CAP team members have sat on multiple committees with teachers and community members, and none of the input given has been utilized in any meaningful way. Sometimes these meetings are scheduled with little notice, and without adequate time for community input to be incorporated into work before important deadlines. Additionally, over the past five years, concerns about special education, curriculum, unfilled positions, discipline, etc., have not only been left without resolution, the concerns have heightened as the problems have grown more severe. Discourse may challenge everyone to see the perspective of one another, but those perspectives that differ from that of Dr. Taschner and her top administrative team do not make it out of the room where the discussion takes place. 

“While there have been people who have criticized the district, we are not aware of a single instance in which someone has shown that any action against them was taken was absent from wrongdoing prohibited by policy or school code, and solely for criticizing the district. The district has made it clear in policy and practice that it will not tolerate retaliation."

Dr. Taschner's attempt to refute the idea of retaliation is quite wordy and does not actually say that retaliation has not happened. It actually states, “we are not aware of a single instance in which someone has shown that…” Therefore, she is putting the burden of proof on the employees to prove retaliation. Further, public criticism of the district by employees is prohibited by a policy that Dr. Taschner enacted when she arrived. Simply speaking truth that is perceived as negative could result in disciplinary action. And let's be honest - if Dr. Taschner is looking to retaliate against someone, she will start by finding some policy she has created that they failed to comply with. It's nearly impossible for the staff to keep up with the many policies she piles on them. Meanwhile, when she does parse out discipline, she fails to follow a progressive discipline policy, routinely neglects to invite board members to "board hearings," and piles on legal fees for the district by holding hearings with lawyers when the appropriate next step in the process would be a meeting with the head of HR. Does that sound like retaliation in practice?

“While the district has made many positive changes, like all districts, we are in constant pursuit of improvement.”

The positive changes that Dr. Taschner often touts from her first year include new technology, new phones, updated curriculum, and smaller class sizes. The new technology included five Chromebooks per classroom, introduced at the same time entire computer labs were dismantled and eliminated.  Phones often drop calls and parents cannot reach the building or staff member they are trying to contact. Curriculum was being updated on a five-year cycle before Dr. Taschner arrived. She replaced some curriculum with little-to-no teacher input, yet has missed the update cycle in other areas - some of the high school curricula was last updated in 2012, and several newer courses run with no curriculum at all. Class sizes were made smaller when Dr. Taschner first arrived, as she hired more staff, but the number of unfilled positions since then combined with deliberate reductions in staff have led to class sizes growing larger again. At the same time, our student body as a whole is certainly smaller.

“This is true in many areas, including special education. We value students with disabilities and what they bring to our school system.”

What type of statement is this? This actually is offensive. Why would we distinguish students with disabilities from our student body? It is simply a filler sentence that has no meaning. Further, her referenced improvements to special education include adopting a full inclusion program that eliminated numerous support services and resource rooms students had available to them in the past. She may see this as a positive change, but many of those working with the students on a daily basis do not.

“No school is perfect, but we will continue to work diligently to create a system that provides multiple access points and multiple layers of support that will result in meaningful educational progress for students."

We do not feel this is an accurate statement at all. We do not see diligence towards creating a multiple access point/ layers of support. In fact, we see the opposite occurring. Mental health specialists are spread thin and only available to select students, resource rooms were eliminated, and students have limited access to their case managers as the case managers are co-teaching five classes a day. Further, we are seeing a decline in educational progress for students as demonstrated by schools targeted for improvement by the state and the three schools where students are eligible for the opportunity scholarship program, by virtue of scoring in the bottom 15% of the state.

 

“With respect to discipline, Mr. Palaia, the Director of Elementary and Secondary Education continues to work closely with building administrators to ensure that discipline is handled as events occur and consistent with policy. This year each building has had a discipline committee comprised of teachers and administrators who have worked together to identify strategies to address discipline concerns."

Due to the multiple positions Mr. Palaia must fill (including currently serving as an interim middle school principal as well as managing the policy regarding advertising on school property), we are concerned about how he is able to sustain working the number of hours that he puts in. It is interesting to note that this states that discipline is handled consistent with policy. The discipline code policy looks much different than it did four years ago. At that time we had consistency in discipline as it was outlined by the code. The referenced discipline committees have presented to the school board, but some school board members recognized and commented on their presentations as being “scripted,” much like Dr. Taschner's statement. 

“The Coatesville Area School District is filled with students who come to school every day and do the right thing. Is there more work to be done? Sure. The work of schools is challenging and it will take us all working together to accomplish it, even when we disagree.”

Of course we have students who come to school and do the right thing. However, we have others who may make poor decisions. The role of the schools is to help students make positive choices and when they don’t, it is important that they know there are consequences for their choices. Although we know "the work of schools is challenging," we think Dr. Taschner simply says, “we need to work together” when what she means is that people need to do what she wants accomplished. She wants the community to work together for HER common goal even though they disagree.

What is not included in Dr. Taschner's statement is any explanation of the plan for a sixth grade center and a 7/8 building. This plan was asked for earlier this month when the item appeared on the committee meeting agenda and again at this most recent board meeting. One can only conclude there is not an action plan for the timeline of events, the people responsible for said deadline, or the list of tasks to complete. Additionally, the middle school students have not seen course selection guides to understand how the current range of courses would be divided between two grade-segregated buildings.

There is also no acknowledgement of the reason so many teachers turned out - the item that originally appeared on the agenda pursuing the dismissal of the union president from her teaching position. While this item was removed from the agenda by a majority vote of the school board, the appearance of it in the first place seems to run counter to Dr. Taschner's claim that no retaliation happens "in practice."

It may be easy to produce a prepared and written statement that conveys compassion and caring for students, teachers, parents, and community members. It's much harder to take actions every day that make these individuals feel valued. As we've shown time and time again on this blog, the actions behind the facade tell quite a different story.

School Board Meeting Recap - May 28

May's full school board meeting took place on Tuesday night, with huge momentum from the community. Several items appeared on the agenda that raised concerns from the community, parents, teachers, and staff, causing an outpouring of interest in attendance. Regardless of the tornado warned issued for the area, people still came, in numbers larger than any recent meetings. Those in attendance were rewarded with an engaged board that challenged more issues than we've seen in the past, listened to feedback from the public, and voted down and tabled numerous agenda items put forward by the administration.

The top two items that raised concerns were:

1) A proposal to dismiss Audra Ritter, a middle school special education teacher who also serves as the president of CATA, the teacher's union.

2) The middle school grade configuration proposal: that Scott become a 6th grade center, while all 7th and 8th grade students attend North Brandywine. (The board previously voted to close South Brandywine at the end of the school year because of safety and facilities issues.)

These issues brought teachers, community members, and students out in full force, with many speaking at the podium, holding signs, or just supporting those speaking from the audience. Because of the size of the crowd, board president, Rob Fisher (Region 3), read the board policy on public comment and asked the crowd to be respectful, especially in light of the student presence. Ann Wuertz (Region 2) also reminded the crowd "no person should make any personal charge against any board member or district employee by name or title at board meetings. Such concerns should be presented to the Board President in writing with a copy to the Superintendent."

Now let's give you a brief synopsis of the important things that happened during the meeting itself.

Adjustments to the Agenda

• Tom Seidenbuhl (Region 3) asked to remove the dismissal resolution for Audra Ritter from the agenda. While on the surface this could be a positive thing, we believe the resolution would have failed, and Tom wanted to remove it so it could be presented again in the future. The vote passed and the item was removed from the agenda. [Yes: Seidenbuhl, Hills, Wuertz, Assetto, Carter; No: Rhone, Marshall, Fisher, Keech] REMOVED
• Brandon Rhone (Region 1) added two new items to the agenda:
• Resolution to conduct an independent audit of special education [Yes: Rhone, Assetto, Hills, Marshall, Fisher, Keech, Carter, Wuertz; No: Seidenbuhl] ADDED
• Request Superintendent and/or Business Manager to conduct an RFP for a solicitor for the school district to be completed by June 7 [Yes: Rhone, Assetto, Hills, Marshall, Fisher, Keech, Carter, Hills; No: Seidenbuhl, Wuertz] ADDED

Public Comment - Part 1: This part of public comment can only relate to agenda items

• Several individuals had planned to speak on the resolution to dismiss Mrs. Ritter. They were directed that they would need to wait until the end of the agenda to speak, since their chosen topic was no longer on the agenda.
• A retired resident spoke about how he believes our culture, not our diversity is what is affecting the budget and performance results. He expressed concerns about property values and attractiveness of the area for people looking for a place to live because of the taxes and performance metrics for the district.
• Jill Santiago (candidate for Region 1) spoke about the lack of planning for many items on the agenda, specifically the middle schools. She spoke about holding people accountable when they refuse to acknowledge facts and encourage the board to be courageous when voting.
• A parent of an incoming 7th grader spoke about the middle school configuration and in particular the condition of North Brandywine and the number of students that would be located in that building due to safety concerns as well as the effectiveness of that learning environment. She shared alternatives of splitting all grades between Scott and North. She also talked about an alternate idea of having Scott be a 6th grade center and putting grades 7-12 between the two buildings on the high school campus.
• Another parent spoke about the middle school reconfiguration vote and the lack of information provided to parents, indicating she had attended the parent meetings and felt dissatisfied and had many unanswered questions about North's capacity, the repairs needed to make it a safe environment, and how the students are planning to visit and tour buildings before the reconfiguration is approved. She requested facts written down in outline and for the decision to not be made in haste.
• A parent asked the board to vote no on A Child's Place as a childcare provider due to the lack of transparency and information available to the public. She expressed concern that the change from the YMCA to this new provider is being made with no explanation or clarity to the public on why. She requested the vote be tabled until more information is made available for public inspection.
• A final speaker began by praising the board for making the students safe and feeling welcome, keeping teachers happy, improving IEPs, improving scores, and lowering taxes...while the audience gasped, she crumpled her paper and said, "I'm sorry, that was the wrong speech." She then expressed concern that free preschool and free childcare will not bring people back, and remarked on how the Opportunity Scholarship Program allows children to leave district schools performing in the bottom 15%. She finally commended the administration/board for bringing the community together, even if through their inaction.

Student Representatives

• The student representatives gave their reports, and Diamond Marrow made her final remarks as a student representative to the school board, commending the board and administration for the opportunities they provided her, and on those in attendance for their unity. She received huge cheers from the crowd and congratulations from several board members and well wishes for her future.

Consent agenda

• As we have noted in the past, the consent agenda is made up of uncontroversial items that the board does not need to discuss in order to approve, and that no member intends to abstain or vote against. 
• <correction> Despite the public comment item about the childcare RFP, this item was not pulled from the Consent agenda.

Motion Items Debated:

• Scott Field Agreement - This was an agreement to develop an indoor training facility on Scott Field and to update and repair the concession stand. TABLED
• Mr. Rhone requested this be tabled given that the current phase of work is ongoing and he felt this should be postponed until more questions can be answered about financial aspects and long-term use and maintenance. Motion to table the agreement passed. [Yes: Keech, Fisher, Marshall, Rhone, Assetto, Carter; No: Wuertz, Hills, Seidenbuhl]
• Middle School Grade Configuration - Scott as 6th grade center and North Brandywine as 7th/8th grade building TABLED
• Two board members (Rob Marshall (Region 3) and Mr. Rhone) expressed regret that they had not asked deeper questions earlier in the process. Mr. Marshall indicated that he is not comfortable with the plan because he doesn't know what it is, the timing, and how things will be done. He has heard things in the community that concern him. He inquired if teachers were asked to apply for their jobs, but Dr. Taschner clarified that she merely asked for preference of location and tried to honor those where possible. 
• Mr. Rhone agreed that he does not feel comfortable voting for the configuration because he believes he has a responsibility to have a clear understanding of items before he votes yes/no. He requested further dialogue and documentation.
• Henry Assetto (Region 2) said he believes there is another way to solve the problem in the district and had presented an alternative to this plan months ago.
• Motion to table the agreement passed. [Yes: Keech, Fisher, Marshall, Rhone, Assetto, Carter; No: Wuertz, Hills, Seidenbuhl]
• Professional Development approvals - Bayridge Consortium (Dr. Villa on co-teaching) and Ellin Oliver Keene (Units of Study) contract for professional development in 2019-2020 school year, paid for with Title II funds. MOTIONS FAILED
• Mr. Rhone asked if the requested survey had been completed, and Dr. Taschner indicated she only received 29 responses to the district's survey, so she did not provide the results. Mr. Fisher requested the results be provided anyway.
• Mr. Marshall noted he had a survey completed by 255 teachers, with 95% saying no to Dr. Villa and 91% saying no to Ms. Keene. Mrs. Wuertz asked if that was a district survey, and Mr. Marshall told her the survey was conducted by CATA.
• The motion failed. [Yes: Wuertz, Hills, Seidenbuhl; No: Keech, Fisher, Marshall, Rhone, Assetto, Carter]
• Resolution to conduct an independent audit of special education. Motion passed. [Yes: Rhone, Assetto, Hills, Marshall, Fisher, Keech, Carter No: Wuertz, Seidenbuhl] PASSED
• Request Superintendent and/or Business Manager to conduct an RFP for a solicitor for the school district to be completed by June 7. Motion passed. [Yes: Rhone, Assetto, Hills, Marshall, Fisher, Keech, Carter, Hills; No: Seidenbuhl, Wuertz] PASSED

Public Comment - Part 2: This part of public comment can be on any topic

• A retired special education teacher shared several concerns from her experience: training for special education is inadequate, teachers have requested training and not received it, and teachers cannot call special education supervisors or directors with questions like they once could.
• A representative from Lincoln University thanked Rob Marshall for setting up an effort to recruit job candidates from Lincoln University to work in the district. Rob shared his interest in using this relationship to increase the diversity of the employees in the district and that he has five resumes to pass along to Dr. Taschner for job openings in the district.
• 2015 CASD Graduate, Layne Taylor, spoke about how she has seen a decline in the district's offerings following her graduation. Her criticism included the CPM math program and how it does not prepare students for college math, her view that the EQUITY training topics create division among students when the real problem is discipline, and her plea that teachers be allowed to do their jobs without unreasonable restrictions and hold students accountable without being called in by administration.
• Audra Ritter spoke on behalf of CATA and its leaders surrounded by a force of teachers standing at the front of the room with her. She shared that the teachers are in mourning, and expressed a desire for teachers to have clean buildings, supplies and curriculum, to teach certified areas where they are experts, honest communication, respect, and being treated and valued as professionals. She asked for necessary changes to restore Coatesville pride.
• Katie Hadzor asked two questions and teachers stood for each: "Do you know how many teachers fear retaliation for speaking out or speaking up?" "Do you know how many teachers feel there is a lack of consistency in discipline?" She concluded with "we love our teachers."
• Another parent spoke about the middle school configuration plan, her personal experience working with lung cancer patients. She had expressed concern about asbestos at South last year, and also brought forward concerns about how the remediation at North is happening and whether it will be a safe location and ready for students. She asked for the district to make sure the right people in the building to ensure it is taken care of safely and is a safe place for teachers, staff, and students.
• Vince Rose shared his personal experience with his daughter who is graduating this year and the many positive experiences she had in the district, specifically calling out several individuals that helped her both academically and emotionally. He also commended the board for its engagement on agenda items and encouraged them to do more of that in the future.
• A parent who spoke about the middle school configuration before the meeting returned to thank the board for tabling those items, and thanked them for looking out for the best interest of all of the kids and restoring her faith.
• The next speaker was a parent who spoke about the agenda item that was removed for the termination of Audra Ritter. She indicated the proposed punishment does not fit the crime, and it is clear that she is being targeted because she is a vocal union president and the superintendent needs her out of her way. She requested that Mrs. Ritter be reinstated and put back in the classroom with her students where she belongs, and that if she is terminated many more teachers will leave. She asked the board to use their savvy and intellect and do the right thing.
• The final speaker came up and reiterated what had happened during the meeting, and then called out Dr. Taschner for refusing to look speakers in the eye while they were speaking. She then expressed frustration with continual tax increases while schools fail.

It was quite the meeting! We were excited to see so much engagement from the community, and felt it was met with strong engagement from the board. We hope that people keep coming to meetings and speaking their minds, talking to board members, and sharing their views. It's the information from the community that is helping the board ask tough questions and understand when information they are presented seems wrong. So keep it up, Coatesville!

Loudermills near and far, but who really knows what they are?

A Loudermill hearing is part of the “due process” requirement that must be provided to a public employee, prior to imposing of severe discipline or dismissal. An employee is notified by the employer in writing of the accusation. Then, a date and time are set. At this informal hearing, the employee is given the opportunity to present his/her side of the story, prior to the employer’s decision on discipline.

These hearings are held at the District office. In attendance for the district is the solicitor, the Director of Human Resources, and the principal of the building where the accused works. Sometimes a board director will attend. The accused is in attendance with his/her union representation.  During the hearing (typically an hour), a court reporter takes a transcript.

From 2009- 2014, The Coatesville Area School District had 5 Loudermill hearings (approximate average: one per year). These hearings were for egregious actions, such as watching porn during school hours, no call no show, assaulting a principal, misappropriation of funds, and inappropriate contact with a student, non-sexual.

Since 2014, there have been 51 Loudermill hearings held at CASD (approximate average: one per month.)

So, you ask what have been the results of these Loudermills?

Two of the fifty-one led to termination. One of which was won in arbitration and the teacher was reinstated. The other one, was given back pay. Others have resulted in anywhere from 2- 30 days of suspension without pay. Others received a letter of warning in their file and some did not receive any discipline.

For example: One person who did not complete IEP’s got a 2 day suspension. Another person who did not complete IEP’s, got a 10 day suspension, they had a second hearing after still not completing IEP’s, the result of this hearing was a 20 day suspension, the member resigned while serving the 20 day suspension. The case of "spreading rumors" was given a 30 day suspension by the district. A settlement was reached and the member served a 10 day suspension. The person who talked about having a Loudermill hearing, was given a 10 day suspension for it.

The district pays for the solicitor and the court reporter in all cases. If a settlement agreement is reached, the district pays the solicitor to develop the agreement and communicate with the attorney for the union.

These hearings are one reason that teachers feel intimidated and feel like they teach in a hostile environment. Imagine, going to a Loudermill hearing, a hearing that is meant for you to explain why you should not be terminated, for tapping a student on the head to say “Good job”. Or not reporting that a student had Tums in their bag immediately, instead of in the middle of the day. Having a hearing to explain why the district's firewall did not prevent an inappropriate ad from appearing as you show a video that is part of the curriculum. Then you sign a settlement agreement that states this is all confidential. What if you do make a mistake, an honest mistake? 

Written By Lyryn Yacoe

Middle school merger spells disaster

As we mentioned in our social media posts, the proposed middle school grade configuration is a vote coming before the board today for which there has been little transparency and no communicated plans. It is being proposed as if it is the only option, however an alternative exists - to maintain grade 6-8 configuration at the two remaining middle schools, and allocate students based on regional boundaries and building capacity. We became aware of an email from a teacher with similar concerns and much more specific details, and were given permission to publish it today. 

Dear Esteemed CASD School Board Members,

Before I begin, I need to apologize for using an anonymous email address to contact you.  To be 100% transparent about my choice for anonymity, I fully and unequivocally fear strong negative retaliation from our district's administration for contacting you, but could not hold my silence any longer.  Unfortunately, this is the best I could do to send you information.

To give you the best perspective I can on who I am, I have been full-time teaching in CASD for over a decade, and much of that time has been in North Brandywine Middle School. 

PRIMARILY THIS EMAIL IS TO ASK THAT YOU AT LEAST POSTPONE IF NOT CANCEL THE PLANNED MERGER OF NORTH AND SOUTH BRANDYWINE AND HALT THE CREATION OF THE 7th & 8th GRADE CENTER.  However, this is not just a plea, as I will provide you with my reasoning, including photos in some instances, of why I believe this to not be the right choice in any shape or form for CASD School District at this time.

I will be addressing why I feel this merger is wholly not advantageous to a real learning environment through comments on occupancy, the general state of the building and classrooms, and the needs that need to be addressed before the students arrive coupled with current goings-on construction-wise in the building.

First and foremost, is the major problem of occupancy according to multiple public statements at board meetings, as well as the original plans which I have personally seen when there was talk of building a new middle school a number of years ago, North Brandywine Middle School's main building has a maximum SAFE occupancy of 750 persons.  According to discussions I've had with NBMS building administration, when you add on the modular buildings (more on the state of those later) you get 100+ additional persons (this estimate is due to the fact that I've heard multiple "guesses" as to the actual occupancy numbers added by the modulars from both upper and building administrators.)  This raises the building total occupancy to approximately 850+ persons allowed to be SAFELY in the building.  Please note that, I keep addressing the safety portion because there is a massive difference between SAFE occupancy and OPERATIONAL occupancy.  

According to what I've been led to believe, there are almost 800 students currently enrolled in 6th and 7th Grade moving to this building next year as the plan currently stands.  That number is only students, which already puts us very close to the SAFE occupancy of the building and would severely hamper our EDUCATIONAL OPERATIONS.  When you take into account the teachers, aides, office staff, administrators, psychologists, cafeteria workers, custodial staff, and others also in this building, NBMS will probably very regularly be just under or even over the safe use levels mandated by law.  To put this into perspective, when I first started here in the mid-2000s we had approximately 600 students in this building, and this building was almost quite literally bursting at its seams, and we are talking about adding an additional ~250 persons to that.  To continue, in the mid-2000s, a person could barely traverse the hallways during class changes back then due to crowding, students were packed into classrooms of 30 or more, and the cafeteria was wall-to-wall children with cafeteria tables unsafely forced into every crevice of that space.  

Many of my fellow faculty who have been here with me this long have stated very similar beliefs, and there is a general fear of this building's maximum occupancy creating a very poor place to learn.  We as a faculty believe wholeheartedly that there is no way possible to house all these people. This is regardless of the fact that very misleadingly on paper North Brandywine has the most space for this merger as well as the most number of classrooms (some of which honestly are not fit for students in any way at this time, or have been converted for other important uses.)  So based on simply the case of occupancy, many of us fully believe we are putting the safety and the actually ability to have an educational environment of the CASD Students and Faculty at risk in an attempt to "save taxpayer money" by this merger and it shouldn't be attempted at this time.

Secondly, the general state of the building is atrocious and not ready for even more students.  Let's start with the general state of the building.  Just from a cleanliness status alone, the hiring of ServiceMaster has left this building filthy and uncared for.  When we had our our own CASD Maintenance staff in the building you could always count on cleaning and repair jobs being done in a timely manner, including replacing light bulbs, fixing clogged toilets, unjamming lockers, mopping halls and rooms, and emptying trash, but ServiceMaster's attention to details (as well as their contractual obligations) are few and far between.  Currently there is so much general filth on just the hallway floors (i.e., spit out gum, stains, skids, and general layers of dirt) that I have repeatedly heard parents entering the school commenting on the state being "disgusting."  

Most offensively, there is the terrible issue with the NBMS sewer connection.  We have

repeatedly had entire bathrooms closed and students barred from using them due to sewer back-ups, proof of this is easily found in the multiple maintenance requests filed by our office to the CASD Plumber throughout the year.  Just to clarify, I do not mean just students intentionally (or unintentionally) clogging the toilets, which also does horrifically often happen (and takes CASD Maintenance weeks to move the official requests filed with the office to completion,) I am referring to actual raw sewage waste backing up into the bathrooms.  (Please refer to PHOTO 1, a toilet in the main bathroom near the cafeteria that currently has had black sewer backup in it for days with only a plastic trash bag over it & PHOTO 2 which is a leak in a small faculty bathroom near the previous photo that has what appears to be bacterial scum growing on the surface of the trash can that holds the spillover, also left for many, many days, in the attachments.)  

Then there is the general mold problem that festers in the building.  There are many examples of mold like the ceiling of the current faculty room near the air conditioners (see PHOTOS 5 & 6), and, until recently with repair work that was done, the ceiling of the Auditorium, and, as previously mentioned, the two modulars immediately attached to the NBMS Main building (before you reach the outer set of modulars currently used for 6th Grade) have not been used all year because mold appears to be growing unchecked in those rooms.  When those classrooms were attempted to be used at the start of the school year, multiple teachers and students complained of symptoms similar to those found in allergic reactions to mold, and the decision was made to no longer use them... which ended the complaints. However, the mold has gotten so bad that it is also growing on classroom supplies (as seen in PHOTO 3) simply left out in classrooms.  PHOTO 3's original source was shown directly to the Chester County Board of Health Inspector for their analysis when they were in the building surveying the cafeteria space, and they stated it was most certainly mold.  Upper administration has stated that they will be moving South Brandywine's AC units to North Brandywine's campus to combat this (while they pointedly avoided mentioning mold, but labeled it as "cooling and other moisture problems"), but there are not enough units at SBMS to cover the entire building based on the count of units that we were told in a meeting regarding this merger.  Many of us are of the belief that these states of filthiness, disrepair, as well as the sewer and mold issues need to be fully and unequivocally resolved and not just temporarily fixed with the stop-gap attempts that have been done this year before we even consider putting the health of more CASD Students and Staff at risk.

Finally, the general needs of the building that need to be completed before 800 students arrive are too many.  First I want to talk about asbestos tiles.  Throughout the year upper administration has been piece-meal removing the original asbestos tiles from classrooms.  While this is certainly a necessary procedure, it has been exceptionally disruptive to learning as the classroom needs to be cleared of materials and the student relocated while the procedure is completed, but it has also created terrible secondary issues.  Primarily, removing these tiles is a major health hazard, and the company that has been handling the removal has been consistently poor at following proper safety procedures.  Please note the following website which indicates the wording on the signage as regulated by OSHA:  https://safetyblog.nationalmarker.com/education-training/osha-implements-new-asbestos-lead-signage-standards-as-of-june-1-2016/  Please now note that the signage being used by the company removing the asbestos tiles, which have been attached to

several classrooms still being vented while students and faculty are in the building in Photo 6 which does not mention ASBESTOS, but simply warns to not enter.  Then there is the fact that they have repeatedly put the health of students and teachers at risk WHEN THEY HAVE LEFT VENTING ASBESTOS TILE ROOM DOORS WIDE OPEN (see PHOTO 7) with no visible signage.  Photo 7 was taken moments before students arrived in the building.  That being said it has been observed to take roughly on average 4-5 days for each classroom to have its tiles removed and then the room vented.  This leaves a dry concrete floor in the classroom that then needs to be sealed to prevent concrete dust from settling in the entire space, and this next process takes an additionally observed 2-3 days.  That means 6-8 days (if everything goes off one after another with no disruptions) per classroom.  

Upper administration has stated that this will be completed before the start of the school year, however there are so many classrooms as well as large group spaces (i.e., the library, main office, and large classroom spaces) needing the tile removal that it is hard to believe that with 8 weeks of summer remaining that this will be finished by the directly stated date of "beginning of August return of teachers to classrooms" by Upper Administration. This is not even including the proposed installation of AC units from SBMS as well as the standard summer maintenance the building should receive before students return.  We are doing a massive disservice to our students if we rush this merger into happening for the next school year, and many of us at NBMS feel this would be folly to even fathom the idea that it could be possibly ready for Early August, let alone the arrival of students 3 weeks later.  We

cannot do that to our students, where we hope that things will be finished and ready, even if we were to ignore the sewer issues and mold issues and just focus on these things.

Thank you for reading this very important email on why you should please VOTE NO on the merger of NBMS and SBMS at this time.  I hope it has convinced you that CASD is not ready for this merger, that leaving the buildings as they are would be wholly better, and that rushing into such a catastrophic merger would be disastrous to our student's education.  Many teachers are with me in begging you to not continue with what we see as a doomed-to-fail venture.

With hope for the future,

A CONCERNED NBMS TEACHER