Response to Action Item Letter
StaffingItem / Question / Answer
Are there any exigent vacancies regarding staffing? If so, what is your timeline for the resolution of the same? Specifically, what plan exists to replace the job functions previously assigned to the Operations Manager, LTI Coordinator, and Safety Officer? What safeguards are in place to ensure that staffing decisions are made objectively and that all staff is held accountable for their performance? / Vacancies: Math Teacher, Biology Teacher, Spanish Teacher, LTI coordinator, 2 paraprofessionals
Timeline: Collecting resumes and conducting interviews, ASAP
Operations Manager: Teresa Gerchman
LTI: Keina Hodge
Safety Officer: unchanged, Andre Wilson
Staffing: School based decision, we are working with Big Picture Learning and school to find good candidates, interview candidates, have them teach model lessons
Accountability: All staff receives multiple evaluations throughout the year, staff will be written up if not in compliance, everyone is on a 1 year offer, and the school leader at the end of the year will recommend who should be asked back based on their performance. Teachers and administrators can be put on Improvement Plans during the year, and let go prior to the end of the school year.
Which staff members have authority to spend the school’s funds? What safeguards are in place to ensure that funds are spent on items or labor that are reasonable, necessary, and geared toward the mission of the school? / No one on staff can spend the school’s funds without prior approval. All items are coded back to the budget to make sure there is money in the budget line for that item. Teachers who want something must get approval from administration, at this point Teresa Gerchman, before a purchase can be made.
The purchase is then entered into the state system for payment. Each month Karen Thorpe and Dorcell Spence (DOE) come to the school to review the budget and address any areas of concern.
The school has no credit cards.
The Board requests Innovative to assign an administrative person tasked with: (a) organizing meetings of the sub-committees especially Finance, School Culture, and Marketing, and (b) organize and update the school’s website to ensure compliance with the posting of Board Minutes, the Financial Checkbook, and CBOC Meeting Notes. / (a)This will be Karen Thorpe for Finance, Teresa Gerchman for School Culture and Janis Oppenheimer for Marketing
(b)This will be Cheryl Simmons once we have access, recommendation of IS is that a new web site manager is adopted such as Carbon Square
Who monitors the completion of staff tasks and resolves deficiencies, if any? / This would be Jackie Adam-Taylor with the support of Sean Gallagher. Teresa Gerchman became the interim school leader while Ms. Hunter was on leave. Now that Tricia Hunter has returned from maternity leave, she completes this task.
The Board had previously recommended the creation of a Leadership Team; what decision-making process was engaged in to resolve the Board’s interest on that matter? / A leadership team does exist, it had meetings prior to Patricia Hunter going on leave. Meetings have beenreestablished and occur weekly on Tuesdays.
On the team will be the Special EducationCoordinator, Assistant School Leader, Climate Officer, Teacher Leader, Teresa Gerchman in lieu of Operations Manager, Keina Hodge in lieu of LTI coordinator
What is Patricia Hunter-Crafton’s projected timeline to return and who is tasked with ensuring she is made aware of relevant changes to the school in her absence? / Nov 23rdis projected return date. Board along with Teresa Gerchman will need to make her aware. It is not appropriate to be sharing information with her on a regular basis while she is on leave.
What procedures are in place to ensure a smooth transition from Sean Gallagher to Patricia as our School Leader? / Sean Gallagher is not serving as the school leader. We are doing a team approach to ensure the school is moving forward. Teresa Gerchman is covering discipline and school operations. Jackie is covering academics and overseeing teaching staff in their classrooms and for PD.
Special Education Services:
Item / Question / Answer
What is our current count of Special Education (“S.E”) students? Do any IEPs remain expired/not received? How many S.E. staff members do we have and is there any need to hire additional staff in this respect? / We have 63 students as of Friday, we have 2 expired that we are working on setting up meetings on, they arrived that way, all others have been addressed. We have also contracted with Boost Learning to complete the support team. 1 Director of Special Education, 2 Special Education Teachers, 2 Special Education Paras. Currently we need to hire a permanent math spec ed teacher and 2 paras. One potential para is spending 2 hours with Sue Ogden on Monday to see if he would be a good fit on the team.
What procedures are in place to ensure that IEP services are delivered in compliance with the law? / Sue Ogden is her Special Education Coordinator, it is her role to ensure all IEP are in compliance and students are receiving necessary services. She has contracted with providers for services not offered within the building such as PT, OT or Speech. She has also hired a psychologist as need for student evaluations.
Sue attends DOE trainings and is regular communication around compliance and new requirements.
School Culture:
Item / Question / Answer
What procedures are in place to ensure that minor disciplinary infractions are dealt with in a manner that prevents their disruption of the school? / If a teacher is in need of assistance they dial 104, the main office, and a support person goes to the room to remove disruptive student. Andre Wilson goes to the room as the first responder but others who are available including para, mentors or administrators. Students are then escorted to ISS. Students who are not in the classroom and do not have a pass are escorted back to their classroom, if the teacher did not send the student out they are brought to ISS. ISS is manned by a para educator; the systems within ISS were created by Andre Wilson and include class work, notification to parents. A permanentcandidate for this positon is doing a trial week starting on Monday 10/19, he has run similar program in PA. In additional a hall monitor is being brought on starting on Monday to assist with clearing halls and removing disruptive students from classrooms. This will be Mr. Wilson’s team.
What procedures are in place for major disciplinary infractions - especially those involving weapons, drugs, or violence - that could result in a recommendation of expulsion? / All reportable offenses, major infractions, are required to be reported to DOE, reported to Board, reported to police and entered into the eSchool system within 5 days. Andre Wilson is the first point of contact for all referrals; he would then pull in Teresa Gerchman to ensure all materials are compiled and in compliance including student witness statements.
What procedures are in place to ensure that disciplinary actions are performed in compliance with the law? / Code of conduct meets state law requirements, all student infractions are coded passed on the code of conduct, and consequences are delivered based on the code of conduct.
What measures are in place to ensure that students on disciplinary incidents are recorded on a weekly or monthly basis? / All incidents are processed by Andre Wilson, they are then entered into the eSchool discipline system, this occurs daily. A report can be run for any time frame.
Finance:
Item / Question / Answer
Given the new student count of 216, what financial changes were made to the budget to ensure viability of the school moving forward? / The budget created to look at school viability used 19.13 teacher units, the actual units assigned to the school is 19.73 so the budget remains viable.
Which expenses have we added since the approval of the June budget and what plan do we have to pay for them? / Mentors for students
Para Educators for special education students
Additional dollars from special education
Do you recommend any modifications to the current budget? / Yes, this will be shared in detail at the Finance committee meeting on 10/19
Does the school currently have a line of credit outstanding with any private businesses not previously identified in our budget? / There is no line of credit but the school has a relationship with WB Mason and staples that they can order without a PO
Internships
Item / Question / Answer
What is our timeline for initiating the internships? What criteria do we have for determining student preparedness for the internships? / As students are ready they will be able to seek out an internship. The goal was for 10th graders to go into internships 2nd quarter and 9th graders to go into internships 3rd quarter. Student preparedness is being monitored through an internship readiness checklist.
Which staff members are tasked with finding internship programs? / Keina Hodge
What role do you expect the Internship Committee to have in conjunction with the staff? / Community outreach and support of LTI Coordinator and advisors in execution of internship portions of the personalized learning plans.
Academic Excellence:
Item / Question / Answer
What procedures are in place to ensure our students are ready to test for any 9th and 10th grade state or federal standards? / The only assessment our students will be taking this year is the 10th grade Science assessment, this is a mix of standards with a focus on Biology, and 10th graders are taking Biology. A curriculum map was created and given to the teacher that covers all standards, Jackie is collecting lesson plans to make sure standards are being addressed
What plans do we have for offering high-achieving students academically-demanding coursework? / We will be working with students on doing independent study classes; we have two students who are starting work on a Marnie Biology class since they have already completed Biology. We are also working on identifying Plato classes other students can complete to get ahead in course work.
Parents/Other:
Item / Question / Answer
What do you perceive as the reason for the minimal attendance at Parent Night held on October 1? What will be done to address that issue in the future? / Attendance at the parent night, as well as the PTO meeting was actually average for a HS. Unfortunately attendance decreases as the age of students move up. In the future will try to be more strategic about planning these parent nights/events. More parents will come when they will have a chance to speak directly to their child’s teachers and if we combine it with an event that will have the parents able to see their child perform or give a presentation.
What plans do you have to make parents aware at least one of them is required to be on our Board as a sitting Member? / Announcement was made at the PTO meeting and we asked for volunteers. We will post on web site as well as doing a robo call asking any parent who is interested to reach out.