SHENANDOAH — The Shenandoah Valley School District is hoping to attract some of its students who attend Gillingham Charter School, Pottsville, and numerous cyber charter schools back with a new option.
Called the Shenandoah Valley Virtual Academy, it’s an online learning program for full-time virtual students, home-schooled students, traditional students seeking advancement and home-bound students, according to a pamphlet Superintendent Brian Waite provided Wednesday.
The district is running the program with help from VLN Partners, Pittsburgh, Waite said during the school board’s August meeting at the high school’s Virtual Academy, which is the former school library at the high school.
“I’d like to announce a new program we’re offering here. It’s an online provider, VLN. We’re working collaboratively with them to offer options for our students who are enrolled in cyber schools and schools like Gillingham, and to encourage those students to come back to Shenandoah Valley,” Waite said.
“We will pay a membership fee of $18,750 per year to use their network in comparison to the $8,141 we paid last year to Blended Schools/GPA for using their network. VLN is giving us a return on investment guarantee, that if our total new cyber school expenses do not decrease by at least $18,750 in the first year of network membership, VLN will waive this annual fee for the second year of network membership. Blended Schools/GPA did not provide this,” Shenandoah Valley Business Manager Anthony P. Demalis Jr. said Thursday.
“VLN will be more actively recruiting these students to return to the SV Virtual Academy instead of attending cyber charter schools. We will also have to pay VLN $4,500 per student for full-year tuition. This compares to the $9,076 we pay per student who attend cyber charter schools. The contract is annual,” Demalis said.
“Last year we had 37 students who attended cyber charter schools and 36 students at Gillingham for a total of 73 at both. I have budgeted $987,600 for these expenses for 2017-18,” Demalis said.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Waite also mentioned a recent effort made by Robert L. Amos, the business manager at North Schuylkill School District, to find out how much Gillingham and regional cyber charter schools spend in marketing and advertising.
“I’m going to get on soap box just a little bit here. Charter schools and cyber charter schools purport that they are offering free education for our students in Shenandoah Valley, which is a misnomer. You, as taxpayers, pay the bill for those students attending charter and cyber charter schools,” Waite said.
“Some of the cyber charter schools use money to help with advertisement. One of them we have information on used over $4 million just last year of their funding that comes from public schools for advertisement,” Waite said.
He was referring to Commonwealth Charter Academy, Harrisburg.
In an Aug. 7 letter to Amos, Jennifer Clarke, senior director of administrative services and the RTK representative for CCA, provided information on how much CCA spent on advertising and marketing in the following school years: 2014-15, $3.3 million; 2015-16, $3.2 million; and 2016-17, $4.4 million.
In 2016-17, the revenue for CCA was $124,681,462. Of that, 3.56 percent was used for marketing and advertising, Amos said Aug. 16.
In other matters, the Shenandoah Valley school board is OK with the plan to put new roofs on the Schuylkill Technology Centers in Mar Lin and Frackville.
On July 10, the board of directors of Schuylkill County Area Vocational-Technical School approved a formula to determine how much each of the 12 school districts in Schuylkill County will put into the project that’s expected to cost more than $3.1 million.
The plan is based on 66.667 percent of a district’s market value and 33.333 percent of student enrollment budget at STC, Brian A. Manning, business manager at Schuylkill IU 29, said previously.
With the formula, Shenandoah Valley would contribute $120,135.28.
On Wednesday, in a unanimous roll call vote, the school board voted to provide that money from its general fund.
Board member Helene Creasy made the motion. It was seconded by board member John Petritsch. All members of the board were present at Wednesday’s meeting and, in a roll call vote, all voted to approve the resolution. The others were Daniel P. Salvadore, president; Thomas F. Twardzik, board vice president; and board members Joseph Buchanan, Karen Kayes, Margaret Shustack, Joseph Alshefski and Anita Monahan.
Other items the Shenandoah Valley school board approved at its meeting Wednesday included the following:
• Appointed the elementary school principal, Brook Wowak, as the federal program coordinator, and gave her a total salary for both positions at $72,500 for the 2017-18 school year.
• Appointed the elementary vice principal, Lesley Matus, as the school psychologist, and gave her a total salary for both positions at $67,500 for the 2017-18 school year.
• Hired Kassandra Blew as elementary emotional support at a salary of $37,311 for the 2017-18 school year.
• Hired Megan Mehalick as a secondary English teacher at a salary of $37,311 for the 2017-18 school year.
• Hired Robin Recek as a secondary English teacher at a salary of $48,701. She filled the position held previously by John Brennan, who the board promoted to secondary vice principal in July.
• Hired Nina Delluso, daughter of the board president, Daniel P. Salvadore, as the spelling bee coordinator at a salary of $23 an hour. Salvadore abstained from the roll call vote.
“Our spelling bee coordinator has worked on average over the past three years 23 hours in the school year,” Demalis said.
• Hired Angela Salvadore, the wife of the board president, as an elementary paraprofessional two days a week at a salary of $9 per hour. The board president abstained from the roll call vote.
• Rejected a bid of $1,097 from Lloyd R. Hampton to acquire a property on Township Road in West Mahanoy Township that is in the Schuylkill County Tax Claim Bureau repository.
“The opening bid was $1,500,” Demalis said.
During public comments, Cindy Huss, Shenandoah, encouraged the board to put up a banner in the school gymnasium to recognize her daughter, Ahna Huss, a 2013 Shenandoah Valley graduate, for her achievements while on the high school track team.
The board said it would take the matter under consideration.
Then, Renee Buchanan, Shenandoah Heights, encouraged the school board to review some aspects of the fundraising done by the district’s clubs and organizations. In particular, she said some require student members who don’t make enough sales to pay the difference.
“How is this mandated that these kids have to do this and what’s the punishment if they don’t?” she asked the board.
“There’s a fine line of it turning into a pay-for-play. And we’re not pay-for-play,” Twardzik said.
“We will have many discussions. Thank you for bringing it up,” Salvadore said.
After the meeting, Buchanan refused to be more specific about which clubs were insisting on what she called “buy-outs.”
On top of that, she said her two daughters, Alyssa, a sophomore, and Jacqueline, an eighth-grade student, are involved in numerous activities, including sports. With some, the student participants are required to buy equipment. Since they’re involved in a few activities, they find themselves buying duplicate items, like a few pairs of shoes, duffel bags and coats.
“It’s stuff that has to be addressed,” Salvadore said.
“We need more conversation,” Twardzik said.
Demalis said the school board may discuss the matter at its monthly public workshop, which is held the third Monday of the month at 6 p.m.
Contact the writer: spytak@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6011