Discipline within CASD: Perception Vs Reality

As most of us in Coatesville are aware, discipline is an area that we need to address.  Not only did CCAP show this need in our Charter School Survey results, but just recently, the district also agreed with this concern when they shared their Comprehensive bridge plan draft on January 28^th.  This is certainly an area of discussion for many who enter and leave the Coatesville Area School District.     

Why is it important to have discipline in school?  Discipline holds students accountable for appropriate conduct and behavior. It gives them the opportunity to understand consequences, learn shared values, and prepare for life. Learning to identify how to avert inappropriate behavior also contributes to positive growth in social-emotional learning.  Discipline is a self-improvement practice that we owe to our children. It needs to be taught from a very young age, and if done correctly, will continue to help create better choices throughout life. 

As you read last week, CASD instituted PBIS in the past and is now actively looking at ways to implement it to fidelity in the future.  Promoting positive behaviors within the classroom and other school settings instead of instantly issuing punitive actions like detention, suspension, or expulsion, can encourage learning and discourage future misbehavior.

What type of behavioral concerns do we have? These are the most common:

• Disrespect - students speak and act in a disrespectful way to adults and peers 
• Defiance - students openly refuse to listen to adults
• Bullying - students consistently intimidate others
• Disruptive- students become physically or verbally aggressive

To the majority, discipline is very easy to define.  A student does something that violates the Student Code of Conduct and a consequence is issued for that behavior.  These consequences should be equal across the board to ensure that there is no bias and it  should be consistent to establish the authority within the building.  Simple, right?  

Unfortunately, it's just not as simple as we would like.  In order for us to be consistent across the board, we would have to assume that everyone is exactly the same and that is just not the case.  There are a number of factors that need to be considered when disciplinary action is being given to a student.  When it comes to laws, the district is required to adjust when it comes to discipline.

_________________________________________________

So… why is it perceived by so many that there is very little discipline within our schools when behaviors like these occur?   Is it in fact perception or is it a true reality?   To us, it is all semantics.   The fact of the matter is that it is unrealistic for any district to expect any other perception to come from this without adequate knowledge and a true explanation of special education law.    Unfortunately, by not being proactive in educating our parents and our staff on what we can and cannot do by law, the district has set a precedent that has given truth to the perception that we lack consequences within our schools.  Maybe the question should be, is there a better way to communicate the truth of the law to families and our community? 

Understanding your rights as a parent are so important to advocate efficiently for your child.  Sadly, Coatesville Area School District has not been proactive in keeping their entire staff accurately informed about education law. It would be wise for staff to know what they can and cannot do in order to avoid lawsuits– as you can see from all the legal fees we’ve paid over the last three years.  My hope is that CASD will do better.  Not only can the district be proactive in properly educating school staff on these complex laws, but we also think it would be beneficial for our district to start educating our families and community on these laws and their rights as well. Honestly, we would have a much smaller “perception issue” if we were just transparent about what school staff is and is not able to do within the schools.   

Since this is such a hot topic that comes with so many facets and complex talking points we will be doing a deep dive into understanding the “Discipline Within CASD.” Over the next few days we are going to be talking about the ways discipline works and how it can impact everyone within the district.  We hope to be able to give you a better understanding about discipline and the truth about the law, while bringing clarity to current perceptions throughout the community. We will all benefit from knowing how we can best support our students here in the Coatesville Area School District. 

See you tomorrow when we start the conversation about Discipline for Students with Disabilities.

Welcome Back!

We hope that this first week of school has been wonderful for all of you.  We (CCAP) have noticed a much calmer and optimistic atmosphere.  Sure there have been some hiccups and unexpected issues, but we must say that the administration, teachers, and staff have been doing an absolutely amazing job at rolling with the punches.  Wouldn’t expect anything less from this wonderful staff!

With everything going on these last few weeks, we wanted to do a back to school review!

Dr. Dunlap started his first week on the job as our new interim. Teachers at the 7/8 grade center reported that he was extremely helpful in the final push to prepare for back to school night. Teachers also shared that he was formally introduced to the staff, he received a warm welcome of applause and a standing ovation. His welcome address to teachers came from his heart not a script, and he expressed a desire for unity to help students. Teachers shared how impressed that are with him already.

We have an open Region II school board director seat.  Since Henry Assetto, Region II candidate is already sitting on the board, CCAP reached out to the other Region II Candidate Becky Harlan to see if she would be applying for this open position. This was her statement:

"As many are aware, Ann Wuertz resigned and an open seat in Region 2 must be filled. Although my plans still include running in the formal election in November, at this time I will not be applying for the open seat.  In January, I will be able to commit my full dedication to the board, our district, and our community. Currently, my family obligations are such that it would be unfair to seek that seat at this time. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. I look forward to serving our community in the future."

Last night was the August monthly board meeting that lasted only 35 minutes. Please see Channel CASD live stream or see the board agenda for the topics.

The Adopt-a-Coatesville Teacher program still has many teachers, administrators, and staff members who still need to be adopted this year.  This does NOT mean you need to spend money.  Most of our teachers tell us how valuable just a note is throughout the year with words of encouragement!    If you haven't already, please stop by and adopt a your teacher today. 

Not sure who to adopt?  Check out school lists here. 

IF you are ready to adopt, please fill out the adoption form here!

We want to let our community know what events are happening within the schools and even in our community!  CCAP tries hard to keep our Events Calendar up to date as best as we can. If we have missed an event, please feel free to reach out and contact us to let us know so we can add it!  Here are all the upcoming events in our community to look out for! Also, please direct message us on Instagram or @Coatesvillecap on twitter for us to promote school events.

Last but not least, many parents have been asking about how the district is going to roll out with Chromebooks this year.  Hopefully on Monday, you received  the morning message from your principals with a little information explaining where the district is in this process.  If you did not see it, you can see what was sent out below.  Many of us here at CCAP are actually part of the technology task force the district put together; we are working weekly to create and implement a plan.   If you would like to join in this process we meet every Wednesday at 6 pm in the administration building. 

What this District Needs Now

CCAP believes we now look ahead. We roll up our sleeves and we do the hard work to improve relationships in the community and in the schools. We need to improve the educational standards and experiences for our students. Henry Assetto gave an energizing speech on Tuesday in order to make motions to move forward. We were excited about his ideas and the needed changes they can bring. Please enjoy Henry's vision, and consider how you can help contribute to our schools and community. 

Last school board meeting we had the architect’s presentation for a new $30+ million elementary school. I want to bring the architect back with a presentation about naming North Brandywine a secondary 7 to 12 magnet academy school based on the principles of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. What this district needs now is a vision of 21st-century education. What the school district needs now is a dream, a new dedication, a new direction. We are at very important crossroads. We must change the perception of the school district. People, we built a beautiful state of the art elementary school: the Rainbow Elementary School. Did it stop the bleeding out of kids to Charters? No! Did Rainbow Elementary encourage anyone to say, “OH honey, we will have to buy a home in Coatesville so our child can spend five years in Rainbow Elementary?"  No!  Did Rainbow change anyone’s perception of the Coatesville School District? No!

When I began teaching in Coatesville 50 years ago, this was an innovative school district. Other school districts came here to see what Coatesville was doing. Those days can and must come back again. A STEAM academy will do that. Right now no other school district in the county has a STEAM Academy Magnet School. Yes, Downingtown has STEM but STEAM is not STEM. Downingtown STEM School has 800 students and they are expanding it to 1000 students. Now is the time if this district is serious to bring politicians together, national state and county and have them see that we are serious.

Now is the time if this district is serious to bring politicians together national, state, and county, and let them see we are serious about breaking the cycle of poverty that has damned this school district for 50 years. Politicians dealt this community a knockout punch with their social experiment of wave housing: the majority of the poor in one community. That experiment was a great success for the rest of Chester County, but a colossal disaster here. It is time to get Coatesville kids more actively involved in their own learning. They are going to have to compete for jobs with kids from the other school districts who are in the top 100 schools in Pennsylvania. Almost all of the Chester County School Districts are listed: Tredyffrin-Easttown, West Chester, Downingtown, Unionville, even Kennett, and Phoenixville are among the top 100 school districts in Pennsylvania. We say Coatesville is a diverse school district; Downingtown is now more diverse because it is actively attracting new immigrants from Asia and other new families. Even though housing prices are less here, they move there because we are not providing the kind of 21st-century education they want for their children. We must attract new young families, new residents to this district. We cannot continue blindly down the same path because we will continue to get only the same result. We cannot continue to raise taxes and spend money. That is unsustainable.

 Next year I would like to see us reconfigure the middle years again in a better way with 6th and 7th grade at Scott, 8th and 9th grade at the Intermediate building, and 10th, 11th, and 12th at CASH. We now have empty rooms at CASH and the Intermediate school, why are we overcrowding North? Let’s convert North to a STEAM academy magnet and change the perception of the school district. 

The Coatesville community has always been an industrial community. It is the hard-working people of Coatesville who produced the steel that would help win two world wars. It is the hard-working people of Coatesville who made the steel that built the skyscrapers of American cities. We must bring industry here to help us break the cycle of poverty.

 I want Lockheed Martin to come here to help build a first class aeronautics and robotics physics lab. I want Dow and DuPont Chemical to come here and outfit a first class chemistry lab. Bring in Disney or United Artist to provide music rooms, a dance studio, and a first class theater. Bring in Chevron and Amazon to encourage STEAM. I want Seed Your Future or Food for America to build a greenhouse and a bio- technical lab. Get Coatesville kids into true environmental green education, hydroponics, and conservation. Plow up the center courtyard of North, and put in a garden and get kids excited about back to nature.

Forcing teachers to put desks in groups is not true cooperative learning. Having kids excited and involved in real world problems that have reason and purpose is true 21st-century education and cooperative learning. Kids involved in their exploration a real-world problems with challenges are not discipline problems.

I want to create a consortium of university professors from all of the major universities in Southeastern Pennsylvania: the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, Drexel, Temple, Villanova, West Chester, and Lincoln, and have them design a 21st-century curriculum for our magnet academy school, and perhaps, one of those universities will even consider adopting our STEAM Academy Magnet School and make it a college high school. Yesterday I met with a state legislator and the representative from York who said they started a magnet STEAM Academy and it has made a difference.

We must become competitive in this county because our children are worth it. Our community is worth it. It is the time for this community to enjoy the prosperity that the rest of Chester County, the richest county in the state, and one of the richest in the nation benefits from. It is time to expand the tax based and lower the tax rate. It is time to build in this community: The Brandywine Valley STEAM Academy Magnet School will be the beginning of making that dream come true.

With emotion Mr. Fisher I make a motion that the school district begin an intensive investigation into bringing a STEAM Magnet Academy to the Coatesville Area School District.

I am not finished. I will move this board to bring back supervisors or coordinators to the school district, full-time classroom teachers who are experts in their field of study, master teachers who are members of the National Teachers Organization. I don’t want to hear what some professor in California who wants to sell his latest book on educational psychology has to say. I want our supervisors to bring information from the National Council of Teachers of Math, the National Council of Teachers of Science, and the National Councils of English and Reading, and I know what the National Council of Teachers of Social Studies recommends: best practice in each subject area. I want the supervisors to become a cabinet to advise the superintendent, the school board, the administrators, and the public of what is best practice in each subject area. And as a member of that cabinet I want a director of development and grant writing.

Does this district really want to raise test scores? Then follow the advice of these national teacher organizations. We must stop making excuses and watering down or passing kids along. We must raise expectations not lower them. Our children must see that it is an education that will set them free. It is an education that will provide them with a better life in the future. We must become a more challenging competitive school district that encourages new residents to move here and investors to build development, increasing the number of taxpayers, lowering the tax rate, and increasing property values. Supervisors can empower our teachers with what is best practice in each subject area. So it is time to empower our teachers. 

Mr. Fisher I make a motion that this district create a cabinet of master teachers as supervisors to bring recommended best practices from the national teachers association and director of development and grant writing to the Coatesville school district. 

Thank you.

  

Henry Assetto, Region 2 School Board member