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York City School Board approves recovery plan

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The York City School Board approved its revised recovery plan, which sets out goals and priorities for the district for the next several years.

(York) — The York City School Board approved its revised recovery plan, which sets out goals and priorities for the district for the next several years.

The board has seen the draft of the plan multiple times, and on Wednesday, chief recovery officer Carol Saylor presented it with some slight updates from the state department of education. The plan, required because the district was declared in financial recovery a few years ago, lays out a framework for improving district infrastructure and sets academic goals related to test scores and graduation rates.

The plan still projects future deficits, if there are no major funding changes, and it includes some savings to be pursued by improving the district’s cyber academy and reviewing the special education and English language learner populations to ensure there was no improper overlap.

The updated version presented Wednesday added that if projected financial shortfalls are not eliminated through those means, or other cost savings Saylor identifies, she will have the discretion to have the board increase revenue through tax increases or other changes to the recovery plan.

Board member Juanita Kirkland asked if there were projections for how cost saving efforts might play out, to see how much of a possibility tax increases might be in the future. Saylor said there were no projections yet.

Another update states that by the end of 2018-19, school buildings should be showing “significant progress” toward the goals in the plan or they could be subject to more “intensive interventions.” Saylor said later that was intentionally left open to be tailored to an individual school if it’s not making progress.

Later in the meeting, community member Sandra Thompson noted that it sounded like there was some grey area, so she hoped board members were getting a good understanding of what’s required to avoid landing in hot water later.

The plan will now be sent to the state education secretary for his approval.

Video debut

The district also debuted a video to help promote its “theory of action,” a part of the recovery plan. The video script was written by students in the William Penn Performing Arts Institute, and it features students, staff members and alumni, district Supt. Eric Holmes said. The community members in the video, from the classroom to the cafeteria, repeat the mantra, “It starts with me.”

The video is posted on the district’s website and social media accounts and will be shown to students and staff.

The York City School District’s new recovery plan identifies a number of priorities for the district to address, and work has already been under way on some, including rewriting curriculum, addressing communications in the district and stabilizing school leadership.

Future priorities include leadership coaching for principals, working on the district’s relationship with its union, completing a technology audit in the district, and working to ensure all funding is aligned with strategies laid out in the plan.

Goals in the plan include cutting in half the gap between the district’s reading and math PSSA scores and the state average and doing the same for Keystone test scores. The plan also sets a goal of closing the gap between the district’s third grade reading scores and the state average, and eliminating a small gap between the district’s graduation rate and the state average.

This article is part of a content-sharing partnership between York Daily Record and WITF. 

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