BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL, STAFF WRITER
SCRANTON — The Scranton School District will not close any schools this fall.
Five months into the implementation of its financial recovery plan, the district has more to analyze before officials can make any decisions on reconfiguring buildings, Chief Recovery Officer Candis Finan, Ed.D., said.
“We’ll do it through data, and people will understand,” Finan said last week. “Decisions will be based on programs. We have to do that for the children.”
Meanwhile, Finan remains unsure of a timeline for changes to the district’s preschool program, including its possible elimination.
The district has either met or made progress on the 38 recovery plan tasks that had a Dec. 31 deadline, but the new school board must fully understand the plan before some goals can be met, officials said. Only three school directors from the board that voted on the plan in August remain seated.
“I am eager to get everybody up to speed on the recovery plan,” board President Katie Gilmartin said.
Recovery progress includes:
n Irregularities with data for about 2,000 of the district’s 10,000 students, including mapping their residences, have delayed the building reconfiguration plan. Consulting firm PFM, retained through the Pennsylvania Department of Education, is interpreting and fixing the data. A committee continues to study the needs of students and building repairs districtwide.
Some schools need more capital improvements than others, and some schools could be deemed more valuable for prospective buyers — including Northeast Intermediate, Finan said. A plan could include going from three intermediate schools to two.
Generally, the district is overstaffed with teachers, and the buildings are underutilized, Finan said. The plan passed in August calls for the district to close McNichols Plaza and Whittier Elementary’s annex in 2020-21 and Adams and Sumner elementary schools the following year. Those schools could change based on the committee’s findings.
A special education audit began last week, and the findings of the audit — due in March — will also have a role in building reconfiguration.
n Officials continue to speak with preschool providers around the city, seeking assurance that spots would be available to children if the district discontinues its program.
The recovery plan calls for the district to find outside funding for its preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds — a program not required by the state but one that advocates say provides great benefits to some of the city’s most vulnerable children. If outside funding from grants or through Head Start is secured, $2.2 million in federal Title I funds could be used for math and reading intervention programs.
Unlike kindergarten through 12th-grade education, the state provides no subsidies for preschool.
n Administrators work on implementing “21st century learning opportunities” and catching up on creating programs the district could have offered 20 years ago, Finan said. Students can expect to see an increase in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — programs.
Meanwhile, school principals lead discussions on test data and are looking at interventions and the skills students need. The in-depth analysis has never been done to this extent, Finan said.
“There is no reason why students in Scranton don’t have the opportunities of students someplace else,” Finan said. “We want this to be a place parents are proud to send their children. I think they are now, but I want them to rave about it.”
n The district has had several “promising meetings” with nonprofits about PILOT agreements — voluntary payments made in lieu of taxes. In 2018, the district received a total of $65,613 in PILOTs. About 35% of the total assessed value in Scranton is tax-exempt. Those agreements could include in-kind services from nonprofits, such as creating or funding programs, instead of a check for general purposes, Finan said.
n One of the greatest accomplishments came in December, when the district submitted a balanced 2020 budget to the state on time — and without borrowing money. The $166 million budget includes a 3.4% tax increase, less than originally anticipated. A team from the state is looking at whether the district can receive more funding through the Medicaid school-based ACCESS Program for health-related services.
“The board and administration remain focused on implementing the principles outlined in the recovery plan,” Superintendent Melissa McTiernan said. “Recovery plan status updates from administration indicates satisfactory progress.”
Finan plans a full update on the plan during the recovery advisory committee meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Administration Building.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter
District loses $2.4 million arts grant
The Scranton School District lost a $2.4 million grant to expand the arts in four elementary schools.
The Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership and district announced the grant in December 2018. With the grant, the organization planned to work with the district, the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit and West Chester University to refine and expand an arts integration model to improve outcomes for high-need students at Prescott, Adams, Bancroft and Sumner elementary schools, with the goal of expanding those lessons throughout the district.
“After detailed discussions … it was determined that potential building closures and realignment of schools would negatively impact the implementation of this research grant,” Superintendent Melissa McTiernan said Friday.
Teachers from the grant planned to work with Scranton teachers to build projects around integrating art and drama across subject areas. Some district teachers had already received preliminary training. Attempts to reach a representative from the arts partnership were unsuccessful.
— SARAH HOFIUS HALL