It is no secret that we did not support the previous superintendent, Cathy Taschner. The years of mismanagement (and the removal of supports and programs) will be felt for years to come. On many occasions, the fund balance was drawn from without any deposits. The numbers are undeniable evidence that she was not fiscally responsible with our tax dollars. The lawyer fees during her tenure were astronomical and many times redundant. Though we recognize and have publicly written about the severity of the charter school funding formula, that still does not answer the root question of “why students were leaving the district.”
It has been almost one year since CCAP took that bold move to started blogging. Although some accused us of spreading negativity, we simply worked hard to find the truth, supported it with data and actively engaged our community by respectfully educating about the district. In the case of any misinformation, we are and always will be quick to listen and make any corrections.
Over the past few months and with some guidance from Dr. Dunlap, we have seen the new Coatesville School Board create amazing goals as well as work toward some new positive, cost-effective changes within our district. CCAP believes that CASD's new leadership team has the ability to make much needed positive and impactful changes to not only our schools but our community.
Well, folks, the honeymoon is over. Though CCAP has remained considerably quiet over the past eight months does not mean we haven’t been watching. Our district cannot afford to be complacent one more time. We are looking forward and although improvements are being made, we believe the district is not tending to some key areas:
The first being communication
CASD is still struggling to consistently communicate with its stakeholders. We will give Dr. Dunlap credit for explaining the distressing financial picture at each of the board meetings as well as live streaming it. We will also applaud his proactive approach with the “Pandemic Preparedness Plan.”
However, we are still left to wonder: Does the entire community know our plight? Is CASD making a continued effort to reach all taxpayers? How is our district communicating with the 55+ communities? Are we actively finding ways to reach out to our taxpayers who send their children to charter or private schools?
CCAP and its leadership, fully aware of the financial position we are in, have been diligent in our efforts to help the district where we can. We have repeatedly met with the District and offered volunteer services to help the district with numerous tasks, one of them being our social media content and communications.
Initially, the District was on board with partnering with CCAP to create these district events. By partnering, it would first and foremost bring awareness and promotion to district events happening within the district, all without allocating an administrator's precious time to create them. Second, by having these events visible on the district's Facebook this essentially would also be creating more traffic for the district's Facebook Page. Unfortunately, though, this partnership was dissolved because of a community member voicing concerns about CCAP co-hosting the events. This misunderstanding could have been easily cleared up in a matter of seconds if the district would have simply put out a statement that said: We do not have the time nor the resources to create events for the district’s Facebook Page, so the district has decided to happily accept the added help from CCAP. Please note: CCAP is not co-hosting these events they are merely just the creators of the Facebook event process. It takes a village. (Ok… so we added that last sentence.)
Ultimately, CCAP has no benefit in providing this service to the district for free other than the return of seeing the district succeed. If the district has other offers of free services to help them, we would be pleased to support them in any way we can. We also need to continue to find ways to reach out to those other groups.
Another concern of ours is that we have events taking place with little notice to the public- sometimes being only one or two days’ notice. We have concerns that staff in some buildings aren’t even aware of the events happening that involve the students and families in their building.
It’s not only the snippets above; we still believe the district is not acting proactively. Another example of the lack of communication is the reconfiguration plan. Without sharing the multiple options, the district actually created what they didn’t want. They didn’t want people to misunderstand that the plans are only ideas to present to the board. It seems that the community has latched on to the idea that the campus will be reconfigured. This is poor communication. The board has to discuss the reconfiguration publicly. Community members must have the opportunity to weigh in, and the school board must vote on and approve any changes
The lack of communication with the reconfiguration plans is unacceptable.
Additionally, the information about the focus groups for the superintendent search has very little visibility. One post on Facebook is not enough. Why were these focus groups not mentioned in the principals' morning messages? Why not include the information in the district newsletter? How about an NTI call? Announcements at sporting events? Ask local religious leaders to share with their congregations... these are just a few options in order to inform and engage the community. Find out what obstacles the community has in attending. See if CASD can utilize resources to overcome those obstacles.
CCAP has not and will never waiver in the fundamental belief that the foundation of the Coatesville Area School District depends on the leadership it holds. Our leaders have a responsibility to not only uphold our district's mission statement, but also create a safe work and learning environment for our teachers, staff, and students. No matter who the superintendent and board members are at the time, they should always strive to be authentic, transparent, and open to hearing and working with our community.
As the proverb goes, "With great power comes great responsibility." If you don’t want the power (or to do the work), step off the soapbox. CCAP has high expectations for this board. Just as we kept the last board accountable, we are going to do the same for this one. They should be asking to see a communication plan. They must demand better from the administration. This is something that can easily be fixed without adding any additional burden to the budget.
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