{"id":38410,"date":"2018-02-14T09:59:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T14:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=38410"},"modified":"2018-02-14T09:59:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T14:59:15","slug":"ura-to-donate-funds-to-pay-for-new-unionville-scoreboards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=38410","title":{"rendered":"URA to donate funds to pay for new Unionville scoreboards"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A rendering of a proposed new scoreboard for Unionville High School’s baseball field. The Unionville Recreation Association has agreed to donate funds to pay for new scoreboards for the schools baseball and softball fields.<\/p><\/div>\n

The three-plus hour\u00a0Unionville Chadds-Ford School Board work session Monday night was jammed packed with both good news and difficult issues.<\/p>\n

The Unionville Recreation Association (URA), a long-time friend of the Unionville Chadds-Ford School District and user of its many fields and gyms, is donating $46,570 to the school district so it can replace aging softball and baseball scoreboards.\u00a0\u00a0 The donation will be formally accepted during the Feb. 26\u00a0school board meeting.<\/p>\n

Updates to the administration-recommended suspension policy draft<\/a> concerning a second-chance for \u00a0first-time offenders\u00a0 was debated, getting it ready for a formal \u201cfirst read\u201d at the Feb. 26\u00a0board meeting.\u00a0 With the exception of eliminating level A offenses from the list, it remained virtually unchanged from what was presented at the January 16th<\/sup> work session. <\/a>Should the new draft be satisfactory, the board will vote on the new policy during the March school board meeting.<\/p>\n

To be clear, this proposal does not address the level A through F incident description or remove the penalties (levels E and F result in suspensions).\u00a0 According to the policy, it only offers a way for one suspension to be removed from a student\u2019s record, provided no other level B or higher incidents occurs.<\/p>\n

The Common Application, used by almost 700 colleges, requires that a student declare whether or not he\/she has been suspended. \u00a0Many contend that admitting to a suspension would affect a student\u2019s chance of being accepted into the college of his\/her choice.<\/p>\n

The proposed process states, \u201cThe student\u2019s request shall state why the discipline should be rescinded and may include, but is not limited to: the circumstances that resulted in the discipline; regret for the occurrence; what, if anything, the student learned from such discipline; the commitment to remain free of any discipline throughout High School if rescission were granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Superintendent will not hold a hearing, but will consider the request on the basis of the documentary record, the seriousness of the offense, and such further investigation as he deems appropriate. At his discretion, he may request a meeting with the student and his or her parents or guardian. The Superintendent shall issue a written decision to the student, granting or denying the request. Such decision shall be final.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other board members appear to be in agreement with the draft, Vic Dupuis and Steve Simonson voiced concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about is granting a value to students, and there isn\u2019t a commensurate of value that has been granted to the 99% of the students who haven\u2019t had these issues,\u201d Dupuis said.<\/p>\n

In order to be fair to the 99%, he suggested a community service or other behavioral component be added to the student\u2019s list of items to consider when presenting a case for rescission.\u00a0 This would make it clear that it is not just good behavior, but exemplary behavior that is expected from students that apply.<\/p>\n

Dupuis also stated, \u201cIn my mind, the issue is not rescission. The issue is college applications. This all revolves around whether or not a student or the district has to declare a suspension on their college application.\u201d\u00a0 He questioned, \u201cDoes a student have to declare a suspension that has been rescinded? Are we putting them in a position to make a declaration on an application that is not, in fact, a truthful declaration?\u201d<\/p>\n

He further stated from a philosophical standpoint, \u201cThe issue is that college applications probably shouldn\u2019t even be asking this question to begin with.\u00a0 From a libertarian standpoint, this is not a question that students should be required to answer, that we should not have to answer on behalf of our students. I\u2019m just questioning whether this is a fix or just transferring the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superintendent John Sanville replied, \u201cFrom a Common App perspective, I agree with you 100%. I think the Common Application is overreaching.\u00a0 The goal of that from my understanding\u2026 is to make college campuses safer.\u00a0 But really, the research is showing that it hasn\u2019t made any difference in making college campuses safer. And in fact, that process of requiring students to report suspensions may actually be discriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding demanding change from the Common Application, \u201cIt\u2019s a growing movement nationwide in school districts, but it\u2019s not going to happen any time soon.\u201d That\u2019s why the administration is recommending this policy addition.<\/p>\n

Sanville understands that he could be put in difficult situations when determining rescindment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to say yes to some, going to say no to some, and there\u2019s going to be blowback, no doubt about it,” he said. “That comes with the territory of the seat that I have\u2026I\u2019m OK with that, I know in my heart that I\u2019m going to be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simonson said he feels the classification levels and punishments laid out in the policy need to be revised.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuspensions should be only for those situations where (students) would be disruptive to the class, a danger to themselves or classmates,” he said. “I don\u2019t understand how taking them out of the classroom helps educate them. \u00a0And for the kinds of behaviors that are egregious enough to take them out, I am not sure community service is enough to expunge them.”<\/p>\n

Simonson continued, \u201cWe should look seriously at the offenses that would take a student out of the classroom and we should apply other forms of discipline to those that are short of disruption or danger, and those would not<\/em> be called suspensions. \u00a0But if you do perform an egregious act, I\u2019m having a lot of trouble making it go away because of a community service project that may be of substance but may not.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a prior meeting, Sanville stated that the whole policy, including offense levels and punishments, will be reviewed, but not this year.<\/p>\n

During the residents\u2019 comments part of the meeting, one Birmingham township resident wanted confirmation that being late to school is a level B offense (in fact, three lateness occurrences in one semester is considered a level B).\u00a0 \u201cIt really is up to the teacher whether they want to report or not,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cMy son, who was a senior last year, had a homeroom teacher that did not care at all. My daughter, unfortunately, has a teacher that, as she says, is \u2018neurotic\u2019 about lateness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though not discussed, this brings up the topic of teacher discretion in reporting infractions that could jeopardize a student\u2019s ability to apply for a rescission of a major incident, due to a minor one.\u00a0 As board member Bob Sage mentioned during a previous public meeting, this new policy could put extra pressure on teachers not to report.<\/p>\n

In other news, the district\u2019s Transportation Supervisor Marie Wickersham provided a review of transportation operations. <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Though staffing is still a problem, there is some early improvement due to extra driver incentives recently approved by the board.\u00a0 An analysis shows an estimated $500,000 in savings keeping transportation in-house versus contracting out.<\/p>\n

Board member Elise Anderson presented the proposed 2018-19 school calendar, to be voted on at this month\u2019s board meeting.\u00a0 Included is a priority list of planned snow\/inclement weather days, should the district need them.\u00a0 In addition to the listed holidays, board member Carolyn Daniels confirmed with Sanville that any other culturally-significant days for residents would be excused absences.<\/p>\n

The Communications team, led by Dave Listman, is developing a new district website<\/a>.\u00a0 It will be more user-friendly with a vastly improved search function.\u00a0 Plans are for a late March roll-out, just after Spring Break.<\/p>\n

Next up:<\/em><\/strong> Board Meeting February 26th<\/sup> at 7:30 in room 14 at the District Office, adjacent to the High School.\u00a0 It will be broadcasted live on the UCFSD web site.<\/p>\n

All board meetings are open to the public.\u00a0 They are broadcasted live (and archived) on the UCFSD web site.<\/p>\n

Board documents related to the work session:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.boarddocs.com\/pa\/uncf\/Board.nsf\/public<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times The three-plus hour\u00a0Unionville Chadds-Ford School Board work session Monday night was jammed packed with both good news and difficult issues. The Unionville Recreation Association (URA), a long-time friend of the Unionville Chadds-Ford School District and user of its many fields and gyms, is donating $46,570 to the school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7426,10894,10895,7427,116],"class_list":["post-38410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","tag-scoreboards","tag-suspension-policy","tag-unionville-high-school","tag-unionville-recreation-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38411,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38410\/revisions\/38411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}