Fifty-seven struggling Pennsylvania schools - most of them in Philadelphia - will share $101 million in federal grants over three years to boost student achievement.
The Chester Upland School District, which applied for $6 million in grants for two schools, was not awarded any money.
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This is so sad. Did someone drop the ball in applying or applying correctly? Not saying that Philly doesn't deserve it but can Chester get their share?!?
ReplyDeleteChester-Upland did apply.
ReplyDeletehttp://ccityblogger.blogspot.com/2010/08/low-ranking-pennsylvania-schools-seek.html
I don't think CUSD's problem is getting MORE money but rather keeping the money it already gets in order to pay it's most important bills. If my facts are correct, we are one of the top funded districts in the entire county yet some how we come up short more often than other districts. Maybe it could be due to the fact that we are currently paying over 2,000,000,000 a month to Widener (I must confirm this once I get back home) and we are paying 60,000 + dollars a month on another lease. This money adds up very quickly. There are some people out there getting very rich off our our broke school district.
ReplyDeleteYour figure of 2 billion dollars a year to Widener is a joke. If you're referring to the funds paid to the Widener Partnership Charter School (which is the ONLY money the CUSD pays to Widener) I've got news for you - it's far less than what is payed to Mr. Vaughn and the Chester Community Charter School. Why is it when something goes wrong in this city, Widener is automatically the culprit? Get your facts straight
ReplyDeleteI thought $2billion a month was kinda high. $2billion a year is high too. If any one has good numbers, please share.
ReplyDeleteMy sincerest apologies. It was supposed to be over 2,000,000 a month. I was in a hurry that is why you have three extra zeros. Commonsense would tell you that it must have been a mistake on my part so no need for flat insults and silly talk.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the first time I posted the internet shut down on me so the second time around I rushed it just in case it shut down again. But yes, Widener was the highest charger based on the last school board meeting and the board agenda breaks it down to the very penny, which I have at home right now and not at Borders. There are a few others who charge the school district tons of money as well but nothing like Widener. None of them stood out like Widener University.
I have the numbers in the agenda they gave us at the meeting so I'll scan it in for you to see later today. Also you can download agendas from the CUSD Website( Although,they haven't posted the August Agendas yet.): http://cusd.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=40896&sessionid=c7c21bf42b66fa24bcd256d916a0b877
Hope that's straight enough :)
Sorry for the numerous replies but... and again for the extra three zeros I typed in haste.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I actually texted someone the exact figure during the last school board meeting. CUSD is paying 2,502,978.33 a month to Widener Partnership Charter School. This is what the board confirmed during the meeting at the request for clarification by a resident. This adds up roughly to 30,035,739.96 a year. It looks like the cost makes up for a third of all of the money CUSD has. (Must confirm the entire funding they've received this year over all.)
Hackett is another issue that I haven't gotten enough details on at the moment.But I do know he is a problem. He does make a pretty penny from what I've heard. And Chester Community Charter is another one that I need to look into. But again I will scan CUSD Agenda info in for you to see later. Hope this helps. :)
I knew you were off by a few 0s. I was hoping six instead of three. Two million a month?
ReplyDeleteI don't buy for a second that the CUSD pays 1/3 of its budget to Widener for a charter school that has only k-5 - maximum of 120 students. Not when the CCCS has thousands of students. Either you're one of the people that has a vendetta against Widener for whatever reason, or the CUSD board is a joke. which one could it be?
ReplyDeleteI finally have the info in front of me as I write and I have yet made another mistake but it can be seen why on the document.
ReplyDeleteIt is Chester Community Charter that is being paid 2,502,978.33 and the Widener partnership that is being paid $208,403.94. Here's a link to the School Board Agenda page: http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s124/artmonkeyd/schoolboard.jpg
So apologies to Widener Charter for confusing their modest earnings with Chester Community's astronomical earnings.
The the check numbers are right next to each other hence the confusion on my part.
Now according to my notes from the meeting the school board confirmed that these payments were being paid monthly. Also in my notes Leo Hackett was accused by a resident for overpricing his services and being paid about $60,000 per month. But I don't have any current info on hand to confirm what he gets paid that much monthly. If it's true that he is charging that much money than he has made himself a millionaire off of this gig as the district's lawyer/solicitor... I'm not sure which or both.
But overall my basic point about money coming to the district still stands. We are bleeding out a lot of money to charter schools, vendors and maintenance services that eat up money that could go to actual teaching. Also there seems to be some leasing issues too that are hurting us financially but it's been years sense I've reviewed that info. Dr.Grantham broke it down in a speech to the community a few years back that I have in my audio archives. I remember it being pretty depressing but once I find the speech I'll forward it to you as well. Come to think of it Dr.Thornton did the same and his concerns were just as depressing. Oh well... I haven't followed the school district woes for over a year now because it is very DEPRESSING. There is so much anger on all sides of the debate that it got pretty draining being around so much hostility.
But I hope this helps.
Thank you for clarifying the funds and who they're being paid to.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people understand the true financial situation with charter schools? It's easy to say that charter schools are bankrupting our school district, but the funds being paid are (1) the money allocated per student - NOT extra; (2) for every allocation paid to the charter school for each of those children, that's 1 less student in the public school system.
CUSD pays the charter schools the allocation of $7-$13,000 per student per year - that's the state's funding formula. Now whether or not the charter schools make money on these funds is a different story. Because they're not obligated to outdated policies and regulations, they can certainly negotiate better pricing from vendors - something CUSD seems unwilling/unable to do.
For far too long, CUSD has been a money making operation for the teachers and administrators only. The people running this district don't care about our kids, they only care about the money they make and it's a disgrace. I personally wish they would disband the CUSD and turn the entire district over to charter schools!