Spring Cove District Seeks Relief from Cyber School Costs

Superintendent Dr. Betsy Baker announced to the Spring Cove School Board at the April 8 Committee of the Whole meeting that she will be adding a resolution supporting Pennsylvania Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526 to next week’s school board meeting agenda.

Last year, she said, “Spring Cove was required to pay a total of $454,884 for 58 students to attend cyber charter schools – an average of $7,842 per student. In comparison, the actual cost per-student for Spring Cove School District's cyber education program was only $2,210 per student. Thus, the same 58 cyber charter students could have been educated at Spring Cove School District for approximately $128,180, or $326,704 less than we were required to pay.”

Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526 provide financial relief for school districts by removing the requirement for the district – and in turn the local taxpayer, Dr. Baker said. She said that most students who chose to attend cyber school were utilizing Spring Cove's program where they could attend Spring Cove School District functions like prom and graduation.

She did go on to say, however, that an increasing number of these students were choosing to actually attend the brick-and-mortar schools at Spring Cove.

It was mentioned that the Finance and Legal Committee recommended using the fund balance to pay for the total cost of the school district’s Capital Projects and Capital Reserve Projects.

The board would like to move forward with approving these projects at the next school board meeting so the contractors can begin to get them scheduled and get their materials ordered.

Finance Festival

Planning for the district’s second annual Personal Finance Festival is underway.

This year’s festival is scheduled for May 8. Students will be identifying a potential future career and the associated entry-level salary. They will then estimate their monthly income after taxes and other withholdings and determine their monthly expenditures by visiting stations within the gymnasium.

At those stations, students will make “life choices” in categories such as finance, housing, utilities, food, transportation and miscellaneous expenses. Monthly expenses will then be calculated and compared to their “net pay” in order to determine if a student’s standard of living is within reach of their chosen proposed career.

This event was a huge success last year and received well by the students.

New science textbooks on tap to be used by Spring Cove Middle School and mythology tradebooks and calculus books proposed for Central High School were shown and described to the board at the meeting.

New Teachers

Three new teachers have been hired at Martinsburg Elementary School, two for the 2019-20 school year and one upon release from current employment. Central High School will be bringing on a new mathematics teacher for the 2019-20 school year.

The school board is also voting at its next meeting on the recommendation to leave all athletic ticket prices where they are now. School boardmembers will also be looking to add additional game workers for the remainder of this school year.

A list of Spring Cove School District items will be sold at the April 27 public sale. More information on this may be gathered in advertisements in the Morrison Cove Herald and the Altoona Mirror.

Congratulations was offered by the boardmembers to Katie Ponder for advancing to state band for clarinet. Band Director Harold DeLozier said that Katie is the first clarinet player to achieve this honor during his tenure.

The next regular board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 15, in the administration office board room.