Response to Action Item Letter

Staffing
Item
Question
Are there any exigent vacancies regarding
staffing? If so, what is your timeline for the
resolution of the same? Specifically, what plan
exists to replace the job functions previously
assigned to the Operations Manager, LTI
Coordinator, and Safety Officer? What safeguards
are in place to ensure that staffing decisions are
made objectively and that all staff is held
accountable for their performance?

Which staff members have authority to spend the

schools funds? What safeguards are in place to
ensure that funds are spent on items or labor that
are reasonable, necessary, and geared toward the
mission of the school?

Answer
Vacancies: Math Teacher, Biology Teacher, Spanish
Teacher, LTI coordinator, 2 paraprofessionals
Timeline:
Collecting
resumes
and
conducting
interviews, ASAP
Operations Manager: Teresa Gerchman
LTI: Keina Hodge
Safety Officer: unchanged, Andre Wilson
Staffing: School based decision, we are working with
Big Picture Learning and
school to find good
candidates, interview candidates, have them teach
model lessons
Accountability: All staff receives multiple evaluations
throughout the year, staff will be written up if not in
compliance, everyone is on a 1 year offer, and the
school leader at the end of the year will recommend
who should be asked back based on their performance.
Teachers and administrators can be put on
Improvement Plans during the year, and let go prior to
the end of the school year.
No one on staff can spend the schools funds without
prior approval. All items are coded back to the budget
to make sure there is money in the budget line for that
item. Teachers who want something must get approval
from administration, at this point Teresa Gerchman,
before a purchase can be made.

The Board requests Innovative to assign an

administrative person tasked with: (a) organizing
meetings of the sub-committees especially
Finance, School Culture, and Marketing, and (b)
organize and update the schools website to
ensure compliance with the posting of Board
Minutes, the Financial Checkbook, and CBOC
Meeting Notes.
Who monitors the completion of staff tasks and
resolves deficiencies, if any?

The Board had previously recommended the

creation of a Leadership Team; what decisionmaking process was engaged in to resolve the
Boards interest on that matter?

What is Patricia Hunter-Craftons projected

timeline to return and who is tasked with ensuring
she is made aware of relevant changes to the
school in her absence?
What procedures are in place to ensure a smooth
transition from Sean Gallagher to Patricia as our
School Leader?

The purchase is then entered into the state system for

payment. Each month Karen Thorpe and Dorcell
Spence (DOE) come to the school to review the budget
and address any areas of concern.
The school has no credit cards.
(a) This will be Karen Thorpe for Finance, Teresa
Gerchman for School Culture and Janis
Oppenheimer for Marketing
(b) This will be Cheryl Simmons once we have
access, recommendation of IS is that a new web
site manager is adopted such as Carbon Square

This would be Jackie Adam-Taylor with the support of

Sean Gallagher. Teresa Gerchman became the interim
school leader while Ms. Hunter was on leave. Now that
Tricia Hunter has returned from maternity leave, she
completes this task.
A leadership team does exist, it had meetings prior to
Patricia Hunter going on leave. Meetings have been
reestablished and occur weekly on Tuesdays.
On the team will be the Special Education Coordinator,
Assistant School Leader, Climate Officer, Teacher
Leader, Teresa Gerchman in lieu of Operations
Manager, Keina Hodge in lieu of LTI coordinator
Nov 23rd is projected return date. Board along with
Teresa Gerchman will need to make her aware. It is not
appropriate to be sharing information with her on a
regular basis while she is on leave.
Sean Gallagher is not serving as the school leader. We
are doing a team approach to ensure the school is

moving forward. Teresa Gerchman is covering discipline

and school operations. Jackie is covering academics
and overseeing teaching staff in their classrooms and
for PD.
Special Education Services:
Item
Question
What is our current count of Special Education
(S.E) students? Do any IEPs remain expired/not
received? How many S.E. staff members do we
have and is there any need to hire additional staff
in this respect?

What procedures are in place to ensure that IEP

services are delivered in compliance with the law?

School Culture:
Item
Question
What procedures are in place to ensure that minor
disciplinary infractions are dealt with in a manner
that prevents their disruption of the school?

Answer
We have 63 students as of Friday, we have 2 expired
that we are working on setting up meetings on, they
arrived that way, all others have been addressed. We
have also contracted with Boost Learning to complete
the support team. 1 Director of Special Education, 2
Special Education Teachers, 2 Special Education Paras.
Currently we need to hire a permanent math spec ed
teacher and 2 paras. One potential para is spending 2
hours with Sue Ogden on Monday to see if he would be
a good fit on the team.
Sue Ogden is her Special Education Coordinator, it is
her role to ensure all IEP are in compliance and
students are receiving necessary services. She has
contracted with providers for services not offered
within the building such as PT, OT or Speech. She has
also hired a psychologist as need for student
evaluations.
Sue attends DOE trainings and is regular
communication around compliance and new
requirements.
Answer
If a teacher is in need of assistance they dial 104, the
main office, and a support person goes to the room to

What procedures are in place for major

disciplinary infractions - especially those involving
weapons, drugs, or violence - that could result in a
recommendation of expulsion?

What procedures are in place to ensure that

disciplinary actions are performed in compliance
with the law?
What measures are in place to ensure that
students on disciplinary incidents are recorded on
a weekly or monthly basis?

remove disruptive student. Andre Wilson goes to the

room as the first responder but others who are
available including para, mentors or administrators.
Students are then escorted to ISS. Students who are
not in the classroom and do not have a pass are
escorted back to their classroom, if the teacher did not
send the student out they are brought to ISS. ISS is
manned by a para educator; the systems within ISS
were created by Andre Wilson and include class work,
notification to parents. A permanent candidate for this
positon is doing a trial week starting on Monday 10/19,
he has run similar program in PA. In additional a hall
monitor is being brought on starting on Monday to
assist with clearing halls and removing disruptive
students from classrooms. This will be Mr. Wilsons
team.
All reportable offenses, major infractions, are required
to be reported to DOE, reported to Board, reported to
police and entered into the eSchool system within 5
days. Andre Wilson is the first point of contact for all
referrals; he would then pull in Teresa Gerchman to
ensure all materials are compiled and in compliance
including student witness statements.
Code of conduct meets state law requirements, all
student infractions are coded passed on the code of
conduct, and consequences are delivered based on the
code of conduct.
All incidents are processed by Andre Wilson, they are
then entered into the eSchool discipline system, this
occurs daily. A report can be run for any time frame.

Finance:
Item
Question
Given the new student count of 216, what
financial changes were made to the budget to
ensure viability of the school moving forward?

Answer
The budget created to look at school viability used
19.13 teacher units, the actual units assigned to the
school is 19.73 so the budget remains viable.

Which expenses have we added since the

approval of the June budget and what plan do we
have to pay for them?

Mentors for students

Para Educators for special education students
Additional dollars from special education

Do you recommend any modifications to the

current budget?

Yes, this will be shared in detail at the Finance

committee meeting on 10/19

Does the school currently have a line of credit

outstanding with any private businesses not
previously identified in our budget?

There is no line of credit but the school has a

relationship with WB Mason and staples that they can
order without a PO

Internships
Item
Question
What is our timeline for initiating the internships?
What criteria do we have for determining student
preparedness for the internships?

Which staff members are tasked with finding

internship programs?
What role do you expect the Internship Committee
to have in conjunction with the staff?

Academic Excellence:
Item
Question
What procedures are in place to ensure our

Answer
As students are ready they will be able to seek out an
internship. The goal was for 10th graders to go into
internships 2nd quarter and 9th graders to go into
internships 3rd quarter. Student preparedness is being
monitored through an internship readiness checklist.
Keina Hodge
Community outreach and support of LTI Coordinator
and advisors in execution of internship portions of the
personalized learning plans.
Answer
The only assessment our students will be taking this

students are ready to test for any 9th and 10th

grade state or federal standards?

What plans do we have for offering high-achieving

students academically-demanding coursework?

Parents/Other:
Item
Question
What do you perceive as the reason for the
minimal attendance at Parent Night held on
October 1? What will be done to address that
issue in the future?

What plans do you have to make parents aware at

least one of them is required to be on our Board
as a sitting Member?

year is the 10th grade Science assessment, this is a mix

of standards with a focus on Biology, and 10th graders
are taking Biology. A curriculum map was created and
given to the teacher that covers all standards, Jackie is
collecting lesson plans to make sure standards are
being addressed
We will be working with students on doing independent
study classes; we have two students who are starting
work on a Marnie Biology class since they have already
completed Biology. We are also working on identifying
Plato classes other students can complete to get ahead
in course work.
Answer
Attendance at the parent night, as well as the PTO
meeting was actually average for a HS. Unfortunately
attendance decreases as the age of students move up.
In the future will try to be more strategic about
planning these parent nights/events. More parents will
come when they will have a chance to speak directly to
their childs teachers and if we combine it with an
event that will have the parents able to see their child
perform or give a presentation.
Announcement was made at the PTO meeting and we
asked for volunteers. We will post on web site as well
as doing a robo call asking any parent who is interested
to reach out.