{"id":25040,"date":"2018-04-10T15:08:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T19:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=25040"},"modified":"2018-04-10T15:08:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T19:08:53","slug":"ucf-initiatives-school-tax-increases-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=25040","title":{"rendered":"UCF Initiatives, school tax increases explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

Janet Schuster, retiring Patton Middle School teacher.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The April 9th<\/sup> Unionville Chadds-Ford School Board work session included a presentation by the Chester County Intermediate Unit, several district proposals, and talk of the upcoming 2018-19 budget.\u00a0 But first, the Administration took time to honor a long-time employee.<\/p>\n

Patton Middle School teacher Janet Schuster is retiring after twenty-three years.\u00a0 Besides supporting the school\u2019s gifted student population and coaching the school\u2019s cheerleading group, she has been instrumental in giving students many academic opportunities they may not otherwise have had.\u00a0 Principal Steve Dissinger noted that Shuster coordinated and coached students for many competitions\u2014Science Fairs, Forensics (Speech and Debate), Academic Quiz team, Reading Olympics, Geography Bee, Spelling Bee, and Knowledge Bowl.\u00a0 She received a standing ovation from the Board and community attendees.<\/p>\n

CCIU Executive Director Dr. Joe O\u2019Brien and his team presented an overview of the myriad of services they provide to the twelve Chester County school districts.\u00a0 Due to the extent of the information provided, this will be covered in a separate Times<\/em> article later this week.<\/p>\n

After a successful Chromebook rollout to all students in grades six through nine, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Tim Hoffman presented<\/a> the Administration\u2019s recommendation to extend the program through twelfth grade.\u00a0 Hoffman said that utilizing these small laptops is a cost-effective way to incorporate valuable communication and educational resources both at home and in the classroom.\u00a0 Since it is a Google product, it allows for easy student collaboration via Google Drive.\u00a0 It also integrates nicely with PowerSchool (where students and parents can check on grades throughout each semester) and CANVAS (the school\u2019s main way for teachers to communicate coursework and class updates).\u00a0 And since many textbooks are becoming available on-line, students won\u2019t always have to carry heavy textbooks in their backpacks.<\/p>\n

Director of Business and Operations Bob Cochran explained how the additional Chromebooks would affect the budget with two options.\u00a0 If the $20 per-student technology fee is continued, the net cost to the district is $262,900 (the calculation currently in the budget).\u00a0 However, if the board adopts a $50 per-student fee with a $100 per-family maximum, net cost would drop to $196,220.<\/p>\n

Cochran also gave all board members printed copies of the proposed general fund budget<\/a>, which will be debated in earnest during the May 7th<\/sup> budget hearing.\u00a0\u00a0 The $87,182,311 budget, slightly down from what was presented in January, represents a 2.66% increase.\u00a0 Because of the way state law dictates how the budget must be split between the two counties in the district, Chester county residents will see a .6% increase, while Delaware County will have a 6.69% increase (if the budget is adopted as-is).<\/p>\n

The calculation is determined as follows:\u00a0 The state separately calculates the total market value of the district\u2019s Chester and Delaware county properties.\u00a0 The district then takes that ratio and applies it to the budget balance needed to satisfy expenses after other revenue is considered.<\/p>\n

The fact that total the district\u2019s Delaware County property market values grew from 19.058% to 19.944% of the UCF totals caused their larger tax increase.\u00a0 The market data used by the state is two years old.<\/p>\n

Cochran explained that the taxing disparities between the two counties even out over time.\u00a0 He showed a chart that tracked Delaware\u2019s share of market value over the past twenty years, fluctuating from a low of 16% of the total to 20%. \u00a0\u00a0He then showed a 10-year history of the millage increases by county.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe change for Chester county in 10 years is a 2.1% average\u2026versus a 1.81% in Delaware county over that same 10-year period,\u201d Cochran explained.\u00a0 \u201cSo although this year is high for Delaware county, when we look at it over a longer period of time, they are both within a reasonable pattern of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director of Special Education and member of the Wellness Committee Dr. Leah Reider and Assistant Superintendent John Nolen presented the Say Something<\/a> program.\u00a0 This free program, developed by the Sandy Hook Promise<\/a>, includes formal student, teacher and parent training on the warning signs that someone is in crisis and needs help.\u00a0 Though the district already conducts training, this program also includes an anonymous tip line, where anyone can call day or night to report a situation that needs immediate attention.\u00a0 Those tips will be forwarded by the third-party call center to the district and possibly law enforcement for immediate action.\u00a0 Law enforcement would only be notified by the call center if it is determined that the threat is severe and imminent.<\/p>\n

Lastly, board member Elise Anderson and the Wellness Committee would like to invite everyone to the book \u201cIGen\u201d community discussion with the author on Thursday evening at 7 PM.\u00a0 The book discusses the effects of electronic devices in our student\u2019s lives. \u00a0You can read more details including summaries of the book chapters here. <\/a><\/p>\n

Next up:<\/em><\/strong> Board Meeting April 16th at 7:30 in the district office.\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

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The April 9th Unionville Chadds-Ford School Board work session included a presentation by the Chester County Intermediate Unit, several district proposals, and talk of the upcoming 2018-19 budget.\u00a0 But first, the Administration took time to honor a long-time employee. Patton Middle School teacher Janet Schuster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[100,3063,6269,4078,10370],"class_list":["post-25040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-board-of-education","tag-budget","tag-featured","tag-tax-rate","tag-unionville-chadds-forfd-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25041,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25040\/revisions\/25041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}