POTTSVILLE — More than 50 supporters of Gillingham Charter School, Pottsville, are planning to travel to Harrisburg on Tuesday in a show of support for the school’s quest to acquire its second five-year charter.
Nicolle M. Hutchinson, Gillingham’s CEO and director of education, made that estimate after the July meeting of the school’s board of trustees Thursday at the school house at 915 Howard Ave.
“The rally is still on,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said the charter school will provide special T-shirts for many to wear, but she did not have an exact figure Thursday about how many were ordered or what they cost.
In April, Gillingham was planning to charter buses to transport supporters to the hearing.
On Thursday, Hutchinson said those who need a ride can board one of the school’s vans for the trip.
“Some people are going to carpool. Some people are going to take the vans. And a few are going to meet us down there,” she said.
During the hearing, Hutchinson said, some Gillingham supporters may post updates on the school’s Twitter page, https://twitter.com/GillinghamCS.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Charter School Appeal Board meets at 333 Market St., Harrisburg.
According to the agenda for Tuesday’s hearing, Gillingham Charter School v. Pottsville Area School District (CAB Docket No. 2016-11) will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Honors Suite, First Floor.
Pedro A. Rivera, the state secretary of education, will call the meeting to order and offer remarks, according to the agenda written by Alaina C. Koltash, assistant counsel for the state Department of Education.
In other matters at Thursday’s meeting, Hutchinson said a proposal regarding the structuring of the school’s administration will be reviewed, and possibly approved, by the board of trustees in August.
“In our school improvement plan, we have to set so many goals. And one of our goals is to meet the governance suggestions presented to us by the Charlotte Mason Institute Accreditation Team, after they accredited us for seven years,” Hutchinson said during the meeting while delivering her monthly report.
In 2014, the Charlotte Mason Institute in Roanoke, Virginia, gave Gillingham a seven-year accreditation.
“We just finished our third year of accreditation. Time flies. So we have to work on two of their goals every year. So this year we state in the school improvement plan that we will focus on the suggestions made to our board on governance. One step that you have already made as a board to meet this goal was to hold a fact-finding project, during which you interviewed the admin team. You interviewed them with the goal of discovering the good, the bad and the ugly, right, with what’s going on. And, hopefully, it will be even better,” Hutchinson said.
The Gillingham Board of Trustees Governance Committee includes Marsha Chwastiak, board president, and board members Mindy Heppe and Dan Kurtz.
“It was a powerful project because it revealed areas we have mastered, areas that need tweaking and areas that need restructuring. So, the committee shared their findings with me. And members will work with me this month, if you want, to develop a governance structure that fits our current needs, empowers members of the admin team and is fiscally sound. So, as we have grown and as we have learned, it’s clear that the responsibilities of the two directors need to be dispersed to others,” Hutchinson said at the meeting.
Hutchinson could not be reached for comment after Thursday’s meeting for clarification on which “two directors” she was talking about.
“So we have a task for us to present a proposal for administration restructuring to you next month. That’s the goal,” Hutchinson told the board.
On June 15, one of the top administrators at Gillingham Charter School resigned.
The school’s board of trustees unanimously accepted the resignation of Rachel Bensinger.
Bensinger was the school’s director of organizational development since August 2014.
Bensinger was not present at the June 15 meeting, and Hutchinson would not say why she resigned.
Meanwhile, Gillingham has still not released details regarding “Confidential Agreement and Release No. 2017-01” the board approved at a special meeting on June 29.
On July 5, The Republican-Herald sent a Right-To-Know request in an effort to obtain a copy.
The school and its business office were closed from July 6 to 12. Hutchinson and other staff members were on vacation.
On July 12, Hutchinson responded and asked for additional time to review the request:
“The law allows the charter school a reasonable time period to provide a response. Section 902(a)(3) of the law states, ‘upon receipt of a written request for access, the open-records officer for an agency shall determine if ... a timely response to the request for access cannot be accomplished due to bona fide and specified staffing limitations.’ ”
“To the extent permitted by Sections 504, 706 and 902 of the law, your request for access is under legal review to determine whether the request was submitted to the charter school in accordance with the charter school’s Right-To-Know policy, whether the documentation requested is, in fact, a record as defined by the law, if the above documentation exists, if the above documentation is stored in a remote location, if the above documentation is subject to access, or if the requested documentation requires any redaction,” Hutchinson said in the letter.
“I anticipate that a response related to your request will be provided to you no later than August 11,” Hutchinson said in the letter.
On Thursday, the board of trustees also accepted the resignations of three employees, art teachers Jenna Hermany and Carrie Miller and science teacher Taia Bachman.
Again, Hutchinson would not say why they resigned.
“You know I’m not going to talk about resignations,” Hutchinson said after the meeting.
All members of the board of trustees participated at Thursday’s meeting: Sharon Klinger, vice president; Brian Hudock, secretary; Amy Webber, treasurer; Scott Herbert, Chwastiak and Heppe. Kurtz participated via telephone.
Contact the writer: spytak@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6011