COATESVILLE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT
SCHOOL BOARD MEETING AGENDA
Virtual Meeting via Live Stream
December 15th 2020 - 7:00 PM
NOTE: CCAP using a transcription program to help bring you these recaps. We try to stay as true to the dialogue as we can.
ADDITIONS, DELETIONS OR MODIFICATIONS TO THE AGENDA
None
PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM
(Comments on agenda items) Members of the public wishing to make a comment during a remote (virtual) Board meeting are asked to submit their comments in writing to this email address: vboardmeeting@casdschools.org State your name, address, and township of residence.
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT
Hanna was sick, so Fisher read the superintendent’s report
"I deeply regret missing our time together this evening and appreciate the board, Dr. Dunlap, and the administrative team support during this time. This evening, I'd like to update the Coatesville Area School District community in a number of areas:
- The Coatesville Area School District's state mandated comprehensive planning efforts
- Engagement of our legislative delegation
- Return of additional students to in-person learning
- Planning for inclement weather
- A COVID-19 dashboard or tracker on our website that we will launch, after this evening's meeting to support transparency, as we continue to follow the Pennsylvania Department of Education guidance regarding COVID-19 cases.
Comprehensive Planning - Last week, the Coatesville Area School District held our first meeting to discuss the comprehensive plan, which is due in March 2021.
This meeting served as an orientation for parents and community members on the steps of the comprehensive planning process. During the meeting, parents and community members actively shared their expectations for the comprehensive plan and identified areas that they would like to see included in the final product. They were also provided with an essential practices survey, which will allow them to rate, how they feel the district is is performing across 12 different practices.
This week, the entire steering committee made up of community members and school-based teachers and principals and central administrative staff convened to review the essential practices survey data, and to compare that data to district artifacts related to each practice.
The committee was reminded of the goals set by the board. As a reminder to the public, overarching themes are student achievement, finances, operations. school climate and culture. Based on feedback from the steering committee, we are developing a community survey related to the essential practices. One of our meetings in January will focus on goal setting and action planning. I look forward to keeping you apprised of our next steps.
Legislative Report - Members of the board and the administrative team spent time engaging with our legislative delegation. To date, we have engaged Representative Danielle Friel Otten, Representative Tim Hennessy and Senator Katie Muth, as well as Senator-elect Comitta. We look forward to meeting with other members of the delegation as well as with other officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Education to deepen our existing partnerships.
In-person learning - We were happy to welcome back a second group of learners to our buildings. This past week, staff did a wonderful job welcoming back students with many engaging activities; teachers and staff exhibited high energy. So kudos to our principals, our teachers, and the school-based support staff who supported this effort.
We continue to follow the advice of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, as well as the Department of Health, as we consider our next step of when students will return. We committed to doing so in January, and we will follow up with an update prior to the holiday break.
Preparing for inclement weather - As we enter the winter season, we wanted to be sure we shared our plans to address inclement weather. We coordinate very closely with the Chester County Intermediate Unit, surrounding districts, townships, and municipalities that make up our school district, and our transportation contractor, as we determine whether to open on time, open with a delay, cancel in-person instruction, and shift to remote learning, or if during the day, conduct an early dismissal.
Fortunately, we can remain remote and continue learning, without impact to the school calendar by transitioning our in-person learners and our school-based instructional staff to remote learning for the duration of the weather event.
Two very important reminders: 1. Teachers should ensure that they have their devices and chargers and whatever is required to deliver instruction remotely. 2. Teachers are asked to remind in-person students to take their devices with them daily in the event, a transition to remote learning is necessary. Our goal is to communicate a decision via email, social media, school messenger, and the mainstream media by 5:30am.
Dunlap - Mr. Hanna asked me to just share some information about the message that went out this afternoon that no in-person learning will be taking place tomorrow for the Coatesville Area School District. All students and staff will be virtual tomorrow, which happens to be an asynchronous day. So all students will be virtual tomorrow- there will be no in-person learning. All staff is to telework from home, except for the maintenance and custodial staff and they will report the work at their normal time to prepare the schools for opening whenever the storms pass. The district will reevaluate tomorrow what it's going to do on Thursday, and we will get that information out to the parents either tomorrow night or as, as Mr. Hanna stated by 5:30 the next morning, but we want parents to be prepared.
And so as you heard in Mr Hannah's report, please make sure your students are prepared and ready for another virtual learning day on Thursday, but that decision has not been made yet. As for parents of students in non-public schools and charter schools, the decision that was made there shouldn't be any confusion, whatever the decision up of that school that your child attends by their administrative team is what parents should follow. However, under school code 1361 public schools have to provide transportation for charter schools and non-publics.
It is a little gray the district could under 1361 to say we are transporting students because it's a snow day, but it's not a snow day. In this day and age now schools have the ability to go virtual. So that the district is not showing favoritism to one entity or another, today, all of the non-publics and charters were surveyed, and there was a variety of different plans that those school have. They may end up making a different decision before tomorrow, and parents should follow whatever that decision is. However, we did contact and speak with the bus service, and we are going to be picking students up if they are in session and not virtual at their regularly scheduled times. And because the home school district Coatesville has to make the decision for everything, because of the impending weather, we decided that we would at least offer a two-hour early dismissal for tomorrow so that's why that was in Mr. Hanna's message.
And we just wanted to be fair to those schools in the event that they are opening and running a hybrid schedule that they can continue to do so, but there will be a two-hour early dismissal. Again, we will be making a decision tomorrow, sometime in the afternoon, early evening, about the course of action is to take place Thursday.
COVID-19 dashboard/ tracker will launch on our website this week to support transparency, as we continue to follow Pennsylvania Department of Education's guidance regarding COVID 19 cases. The data aligns to current guidance by PDE as well as the Department of Health.
The dashboard will identify and define COVID-19 cases. During a 14 day rolling period, this identifies schools that are closed. And when they will reopen as a result of positive cases, reporting criteria definitions and possible symptoms of COVID-19. We commit to update the dashboard on a weekly basis.
In addition, you will hear a budget update tonight, which we intend to do with regularity, as we enter the budget process.
Lastly, this evening, I would like to showcase our students. Once a month, we hear from our student representatives, Ali Carling and Liza Patel, who do an amazing job, sharing with us what is happening in their school. They are the embodiment of what we strive for as educators. They have both made us so very proud.
We would also like to share more with our families, regarding the great work of the Coatesville Area School District students. So tonight, I asked you to join us in marveling at the Coatesville Area Intermediate High School Orchestra, with a carol they prepared virtually.
"We continue to follow the advice of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, as well as the Department of Health, as we consider our next step of when students will return. We committed to doing so in January. And we will follow up with an update prior to the holiday break."Dunlap also wanted to reminded the public of the COVID tracker that would be on the website right after the board meeting. (You can see it here)
PRESENTATIONS
1. 2021-2022 School District Budget Update - Tomás Hanna and Lori Diefenderfer (In Mr. Hanna's absence, presentation was made by Dr. Dunlap & Lori Diefenderfer)
Main Goals
Pay expenses
Reverse negative fund balance and build reserve
Academic needs
Dr. Dunlap stated that if the district can't meet debt service then dept of ed will take the funding allocations off the top. Anyone being paid off the funding allocations will likely be paid less, because the state will get their share first.
20/21 budget shows that over 45% budget is related to support of other schools and special ed. Staffing is 36%. Transportation is 5%.
Special ed cost spent per student for the 2019 school year for charter schools, compiled by pa dept of ed, shows average $11,500 per student. The cost is a tier 3 level, charter schools receive that money upfront in full.
Chart shown with charter school special ed costs reported by charter schools to pa dept of ed. Coatesville special ed tuition rate for 2019 was 34,041. Collegium actual cost per special ed student was 11,581.09, a 22,451.91 per student. No charter comes close to using what Coatesville is paying. Funding formula needs to be reviewed and changed.
Millage history shown, no increase in 2019/2020 school year.
Debt service schedule shown, starting in 2023 scheduled debt payments will be double what it is in 2021 and 2022.
Budget timeline shown. Next step is to either adopt resolution by 1/26/2021 to stay within the index of 3.9% OR use Act 1 index plus possible referendum exceptions and adopt preliminary budget 1/26/2021.
Dr. Dunlap shared that Mr. Hanna stated the administration is recommending that the board stay within the index of 3.9%.
Comments/discussion:
Fisher - Clarified that this board has no angst or dislike for charter schools or any other non-public schools. This board believes that any child or family should have the right to choose their education. The problem is not the charter schools, but a flawed funding formula. The information came directly from the PA dept of education. Both public and private schools report spending to the PA dept of education by law. The average that CASD spent on average for any tier special ed student is $11,562. (All confirmed by Dr. Dunlap)
The problem lies in the funding formula which is not the fault of the charter schools. Collegium spent $11,581 on average for the special ed students, but billed CASD $34,000 for each one of those students, a difference of $22,000 for each student. (All confirmed by Ms. Deifenderfer)
As a board and community we need to do something about this. This is not fair to the families and students who have remained in the CASD.
Rhone – Viewing this from a vendor or service aspect, any one of us would take issue with a vendor charging that much for a service that we know is no where near that cost. Additionally if they are charging 34,000 and only using 11,000 are the students getting the services they need? What is happening with the excess? The issue is not the charter school, the issue is the system (funding formula).
Bookman – Thank you for detailing what is happening. It is important that we pay attention to this. When we want the best for our students. Board is very supportive of students, staff, admin. The board and district are dealing with Covid issues, dealing with things that have been detrimental to the district. We've been wanting the kids back in the schools, we know the importance of education. As a district, we haven't been getting the fair share for the best interest of the kids. We understand the frustrations of the community, we are looking at these issues. There is so much that has to be worked out, we need to work together as a community.
Keech – Clarified that the reason the number is so high in the formula. To get an average, the district takes the total dollars spent on special education and divides by number of students utilizing services. The dept of education uses an arbitrary number (instead of the actual number of students) that is 10% below the actual number of students. This causes an artificially high average per student (which is then used to calculate what CASD pays to charter schools). The charter school is not required to spend the money in the areas we send it to them. PDE formula is detrimental to any district with higher than average number of special ed students. This pulls money away from students that remain at CASD. We can't improve services since we are spending so much more than what we should, and the charter school is getting an extra bump in what they are able to spend on their kids. We need to keep communicating to our legislators that we need help changing the formula to have a fair distribution of funding. None of the charter schools listed fall within our district, so we additionally don't have representation in their schools. These costs increase every year, despite what we do to cut costs in other areas.
Bookman – Budget is key. Pay attention to the average cost. Thank you to everyone who has been working diligently, overtime, all hours of the day.
Assetto – Helped start a charter and his kids went to parochial schools. 47% of the CASD budget is going to support of other schools. Over 5 years that is 300 million hard earned tax dollars. With just half that amount we could build 2 elementary schools and have 30 million left to put toward a STEAM school. If this community wants to improve then we must work together to build a stronger school district. It's time to believe in this district, our students are worth it.
ITEMS HELD FROM CONSENT AGENDA (All items were held - These are just the ones the board had a discussion on).
FINANCE COMMITTEE
C. George Krapf Jr. & Sons, Inc. – Second Addendum to School Bus Transportation Contract - That the Board of School Directors approve the Second Addendum to the School Bus Transportation Contract with George Krapf Jr. & Sons, Inc., as presented. (No Enclosure)
Comments/discussion:
Fisher asked Dunlap to give context to this agenda item.
Passed ☒ Failed ☐ Vote: 9-0
PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEM
(Comments on any school-related topics) Members of the public wishing to make a comment during a remote (virtual) Board meeting are asked to submit their comments in writing to this email address: vboardmeeting@casdschools.org State your name, address, and township of residence. Please limit your comments to three (3) minutes. It is the Board’s practice not to engage in dialogue with speakers.
Nichole Batt - "As a parent of children in the Coatesville school district, can you please provide insight as to why you as a board are continuing with your plan to have students return to campus?
The infection rates in our county are rising. Please see the attached screenshots of the data from 12/6/2020. It is irresponsible to send these children back into the classroom with infection rates rising for bus drivers, teachers, school administrators, and support staff to be potentially exposed to life-threatening circumstances. I can understand and empathize with [the] frustration from parents regarding this school year and the challenges that have come from children not being able to be in school. I really do feel and experience my own challenges with my kids being remote. These frustrations and outcries from parents cannot be allowed to influence common sense and governance that is laser-focused on the safety of all involved. Yes, special education students should be in the classroom-- but not at the expense and sacrifices of safety for teachers, bus drivers, and staff. Where is the equity for students who don't have special needs? There isn't any. All students should stay home until infection levels have returned to safe levels once more-- at least until after the new year."
Jan Battle - "How can CASD withhold funds from neighboring charter schools when they know they are violating the law and more importantly depriving students of their funding? Should not all students in Coatesville get the money allocated to them by law regardless of the public school they choose and yes, charter schools are public too.
CASD is wasting money on lawyers instead of spending it on students by not following the law."
Elisabeth Geers - "Thank you for the opportunity to submit these public comments into your CASD 12/15 school board meeting minutes. I would like to plead with the CASD to resolve the 18 million dollars in funding CASD is withholding from Collegium Charter School. I am very upset as a tax paying and CASD resident that I have to send you this message. CASD has confirmed that the monies owed to Collegium were allocated in your 2020-2021 budget. However, since November 2019 CASD has not paid funds due to Collegium.
We love living in East Fallowfiield Township and have no doubt that your teachers and workers on the front lines of teaching the children are doing their best during the pandemic. However, PA legally provides the right to choose your family's education institution. 2,300 students that attend Collegium reside in the CASD, not to mention 490 students that are in need of special education support. This is enough to bring forth some human decency and understanding about who is affected by this withholding of funds, our children.
There are many reasons that we choose Collegium to educate our children and those are specific to our family. One of the reasons is that ever since moving to the area in 2001, before we had children, we saw direct examples of the CASD's mismanagement of funding. It is in the public record.
CASD has been violating the law since November 2019 by not paying Collegium Charter School the funding it is legally entitled to. Despite this, Collegium has continued to teach, employ, and develop the best children, administration and teaching staff.
Please set an agenda item for the entire CASD to discuss the plan to make good on the 18 million dollars of debt to Collegium. Let us get back to the business of supporting families in education at this very uncertain time."
Mikhail Fedorenko - "First, I want to thank you for your public service, especially in this turbulent time.
I would like to express my concerns at the heart of this issue to protect the right of Pennsylvania’s families to choose the public school I believe is best for our children.
The matter is that since November 2019 CASD has not paid Collegium Charter School significant monies it owes under Pennsylvania Charter School Law. Section 1725 of the law clearly states that school districts shall pay charter schools for students who leave a school district to be educated by a charter school. In this case, CASD is violating the law.
Collegium has been forced to seek monetary relief from PDE in the form of a redirect request. Although Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Education has ruled that a school district that has refused to pay charter schools violates the law, the response from PDE for the 2020-2021 school year has been insufficient.
Although Collegium is actively defending itself against the illegal inaction of CASD and the inadequate support from PDE, the fact remains that those parties’ combined negligence is jeopardizing every single member of the Collegium Community.
As of now, CASD owes Collegium over 18 million dollars in delinquent payments for educating over 2,300 students living in the CASD area. Among the 2,300 students are approximately 490 children for whom Collegium provides special education instruction and supports under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The amount CASD owes Collegium for educating our students residing in its district is just a small portion of the average per-student amount CASD receives from the government, but it still refuses to pay Collegium any amount at all. Yet, a lot of CASD parents continue to choose Collegium over CASD to provide higher-quality education for our children, even with the lower per-student funding.
In my opinion, CASD is attempting to thwart Collegium’s ability to educate our children by refusing to pay for students being educated at Collegium school instead of in their district. In doing so, CASD is also attempting to undermine our families’ right to choose the school that we as parents choose for our children.
Please review this unlawful action against our right to choose the school we want for our children.”
Patricia Campoverde - "I want to express my concern, as a parent of a student attending CCS, to protect the right of Pennsylvania families to choose the public school that we believe is the best for our children. And that it is wrong that CASD has been breaking the law since November 2019 and that Collegium is receiving little support from the PDE.
They should reconsider the right that Collegium also has and pay what they are owing."
Carla Blakely - "Is it true CASD is in debt over 18 million dollars to Collegium Charter alone?
When will that money be paid to help cover the costs of those who chose Charter over this school system?"
Kimberly A Smith - "My name is Kimberly Smith. Recently I was made aware of funding issues between my son's charter school that amounts to 18 million dollars from 2019 and 2020. My son, Noah Nieves attends Collegium charter school. Noah is in his second year at Collegium attending the 3rd grade.
"I was appalled to find out that the above mentioned 18 million dollars was denied from the Coatesville Area School District going back to November 2019. According to the Pennsylvania Charter School law, section 1725 states that school districts are required to pay charter school for students who leave a school district to be educated by a charter school. CASD is violating the state law. Collegium has reached out to the PDE for monetary relief from the Commonwealth but the response from the PDE for 2020-21 the school year has been insufficient."
I am very pleased with the education that Noah has been receiving from Collgium. My family pays the mandated school taxes every year. My question then is, why is this funding problem still not reserved? Please advise as to when this problem will be resolved."
My children are in second grade. They are logging in approximately two and a quarter hours per day with their primary teacher. How do I quantify that number?--- They are taken off zoom twice in the morning for independent breaks. This totals for one full hour each morning where they are not with their teacher. So when we look at the total week, we see our children only getting nine to nine and a half hours a week with their primary teacher. At times, they may have a breakout session in place of the independent times, but they are more of a rarity. I, as the parent of elementary children, find this amount of time insufficient for proper education to be provided. It allows for too much asynchronous time for children their age. And speaking of that, giving elementary age children a full asynchronous day seems futile. My children are consistently done work in under two hours every independent Wednesday. It is truly a wasted day. The special classes such as gym and art are only partially "live" on zoom which is unfortunate. And so we may see those special teachers "live" only two or three times in a whole school week. So again more asynchronous work for such young students.
I also have concerns about the quantity of the work, however, they are being provided what is deemed required and appropriate. However, as a parent looking over their shoulders at this work, i does not seem like enough. We have been giving our children extra assignments to fill in these gaps, these very worrisome gaps. But again, we were provided a schedule, required and appropriate, by the district for our elementary children. One might ask should we question the time and content provided? I say without hesitation yes. And now that virtual has become a six month plus reality, I am greatly concerned. There seems to be no end in site; no hybrid option at present.I have relayed this information to the principal and now I am giving you the specifics as well. I have voiced my concerns at the last board meeting as well. The virtual school is not enough, not at all. I am very concerned regarding the potential long term ramifications of such a lean academic platform. I am concerned about time lost with educators, time lost with peers, time lost functioning in a real classroom, time lost in after school activities, time lost with all the things, both social and educational, that school gives our children.Things that cannot be replicated in the home. No matter what new rules are created surrounding the pandemic: masks, social distance, safety measures, hand washing, health screenings, and the like- what remains steadfast and true is this- in person learning is best. I implore you to open our schools as soon as possible. A virtual solution that started last March has gone on far too long. Our children are the ones losing out on a true and deserving in-person education. Please help our children. Please open our schools."
First, I am concerned about the communication
received yesterday regarding inclement weather and the proposed plan for what
would potentially have been snow days. I understand that districts
are able to apply to PDE for approval for Flexible Instruction Days to allow
for remote learning as opposed to traditional snow days. Has the
district done this? If so, can you please direct me to where this
information can be found on the CASD website? Additionally, the
2020-21 school year calendar currently has five built-in snow days, spanning
February through May. These dates are much more likely to have
students attending in-person learning than right now. That being the
case, would it not be more beneficial to student learning to utilize those days
as opposed to another day of remote learning now for our students, one that
must be quickly developed by teachers who have been working from their
classrooms and no longer have all instructional supplies at their
homes? I urge the board to reconsider the decision to utilize remote
learning in lieu of a snow day, at least until the built-in snow days have been
exhausted for this year.
Secondly, I am greatly concerned with two
aspects of the secondary bussing situation as it currently exists. As I
understand it, all students in grades 6-12 attending charter, private, and CASD
schools are picked up by the same neighborhood bus, transported to a transfer
depot where they then depart their original busses, rearrange themselves and
reboard the same busses, now headed to their respective
schools. This first raises a concern regarding COVID and safety
precautions. We are mixing students from at least eight different
buildings on the busses and then transferring them to other busses without
adequate time for cleaning nor assigned seating, to better facilitate contact
tracing should it be necessary.
Additionally, I am tremendously concerned about
the inappropriateness of having 6th graders and 12thgraders
together on the same bus. Given that some students start 6th grade
at only ten years old (most at eleven) and the possibility of some
students
attending high school until the age of 21, there could potentially be a
ten plus year age difference between students on the same bus. Even if
we
ignore the potential decade-spanning age difference, the difference in
maturity
and age-appropriate conversation between 6th graders and older
high school students, especially in an unstructured setting like a school bus,
is frightening. I understand the need to decrease the number of
busses due to budgetary constraints, and I recognize that the transportation hub
has helped enable this to happen. However, I question whether the
cost savings counterbalance the potential risks. We have young,
impressionable students hardly out of elementary school co-mingling with legal
adults in an environment where the only adult supervision is primarily
responsible for focusing on the road. How is this a safe, appropriate
solution for our students? Again, I urge the Board to reconsider
this and explore what other options may be available and more socially
appropriate and safe for our students."
Chris and Meredith Gomez - "Good evening.
Our names are Chris and Meredith Gomez and we are residents of Caln
Township. Our daughter is a 5th grader
at Caln Elementary. We appreciate the
time the Board took in the last public meeting to comment individually about
their decision for most students to remain virtual through January due to the
trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That said, we are very concerned that some Board
members expressed repeatedly how difficult it was to make this decision. When you consider that the world, the
country, the state, the county, and the district are all experiencing more
cases, hospitalizations, and deaths than at any point during this pandemic, the
decision actually sounded quite simple.
We can certainly expect the recently passed Thanksgiving holiday and
upcoming Christmas holiday will increase virus spread. What was so difficult about the decision to
keep our students, teachers, and staff members safe? We appreciate the desire for our students to
return to in-person learning in some capacity, but the choice for the safety
and health of our community should be of the utmost priority and an easy
decision to make.
Some Board Members continue to cite what other districts are doing in regards to the pandemic. This seems irrelevant. While we respect the need for local districts to discuss and help each other, we would expect this district to do the right thing in regards to any subject regardless of what Downingtown or West Chester is doing. We didn’t elect their school boards to serve us. Maybe it is just poor wording on the part of those Board Members, but we expect our school board to lead and take charge, perhaps in respectful opposition to neighboring districts, and frankly without concern for their final decisions.
We’re also disappointed that from meeting to meeting, we rarely hear praise for the teachers and staff at our schools. Our daughter is a fifth-grader at Caln Elementary and her teacher, her counselor, the principal, her related arts teachers, and her gifted teacher have been nothing short of amazing. Some members of the board seem to be in opposition of teachers and minimize the heroic efforts they are taking to make all of this work for our community. They are learning new technologies, new ways of teaching and putting in more hours than most would like to admit. If the school board does support and respect the teachers and staff, it is not coming through in the comments made at meetings.
Finally, we are disappointed at the repeated disdain with which some Board Members treat remote learning, as if the return to the classroom is the only way our students could ever learn. There is continuous talk of how remote learning is hard and that some students are struggling, but no acknowledgment of the inverse. If anything, this time has made it clear to my wife, a high school teacher in another district, and I that there are many valuable ways to learn, that some students are going to excel in this format and even prefer it. It also fails to acknowledge that there are some amazing things happening as a result of this remote learning. For example, our daughter is a part of the gifted program. In year’s past, this consisted of a pull-out session with just one or two other students. This year, it has meant pull-out sessions with all the gifted 5th graders across the district. She has gotten the opportunity to meet and work with students she would not have otherwise. It seems instances like this are being overlooked in the rush to condemn remote learning. There are valuable lessons to be learned and new opportunities for innovation.
Whenever we are able to move on from COVID-19
and return to the classroom, we hope CASD will revisit this time as a learning
opportunity, to explore new models for learning from K-12, and how to make
opportunities of all kinds available to students and promoting them as healthy
choices instead of one-size-fits-all pathways. For without being bold, this
district will always be looked down upon as underachieving."
Alicia Cristinziani - "Why are funds being withheld from Collegium Charter School for educating children the Coatesville Area School District has failed to do? This is taxpayer money and illegal. As a resident of Coatesville, I and many others would be forced to move or sell my home to another area if it weren't for the charter and school choice."
INFORMATIONAL
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