On Friday, December 26 the state of Pennsylvania was cleared to take over the York School District. The district was recently put into a receivership and placed under the control of David Meckley, a township businessman, to determine the proper course of action. Since the state has discussed the idea of turning over this district to Charter Schools USA (an educational management company with headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, FL), this would be the first non-public school district in the country.
One and a half years ago the state announced that the school district was in a state of "financial recovery" due to new policies signed into law by the Corbett administration. Act 141 went into effect in July 2013 and amongst the criteria it gave for a district to be in this state was a request for an advance on its basic education subsidy from the state. The state argues that the district made this advance and therefore it had the right to create a new Chief Recovery Officer (David Meckley again) to run the district. The local board of education contests that the request was made in April 2013 and therefore the law does not apply.
Fast forward to the end of 2014 and governor-elect Tom Wolf has asked the state to delay any decisions it is going to make until he is in office. While he has not said anything about his plans for York, it is possible he will try to maintain it as a non-charter district based on his track record.
Local community groups (as well as the local newspaper's editorial board) are contesting this decision and attempting to appeal everything they can. Meanwhile, some teachers are looking for new jobs because they don't want to work for a for-profit charter company and students are concerned as well.
One and a half years ago the state announced that the school district was in a state of "financial recovery" due to new policies signed into law by the Corbett administration. Act 141 went into effect in July 2013 and amongst the criteria it gave for a district to be in this state was a request for an advance on its basic education subsidy from the state. The state argues that the district made this advance and therefore it had the right to create a new Chief Recovery Officer (David Meckley again) to run the district. The local board of education contests that the request was made in April 2013 and therefore the law does not apply.
Fast forward to the end of 2014 and governor-elect Tom Wolf has asked the state to delay any decisions it is going to make until he is in office. While he has not said anything about his plans for York, it is possible he will try to maintain it as a non-charter district based on his track record.
Local community groups (as well as the local newspaper's editorial board) are contesting this decision and attempting to appeal everything they can. Meanwhile, some teachers are looking for new jobs because they don't want to work for a for-profit charter company and students are concerned as well.
RSS Feed
