Board Appoints New Member and Discusses Virtual Learning, Budget

Mary Jo Witkowski-Smith is the new school board member from Region 2. Photo: Zave Smith

Mary Jo Witkowski-Smith, a 40-years-plus education veteran and former administrator in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, is the new school board member from Region 2. At its May 10 meeting, the school board unanimously selected her to replace Michele Downie, who resigned last month.

Witkowski-Smith is currently director of student data and assessment at the Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School in North Philadelphia, where she leads the school’s comprehensive planning efforts. “I understand how schools work,” she said. “I understand the importance of nurturing and challenging students at the same time.”

With her retirement from her day job set for June, Witkowski-Smith said she hopes to use some of what she has learned throughout her career to benefit her local community. She has lived in Region 2 for over 30 years, and her children attended Nether Providence Elementary School, Strath Haven Middle School, and Strath Haven High School. Between 1998 and 2003, she was the assistant principal — first of the middle school, and then of the high school.

Witkowski-Smith is one of four people who had put their names forward to be considered as candidates for the position. She will serve until December 6. A new school board member from Region 2 will be elected in the November 2 general election.

The Future of Virtual Learning 

The board voted 5-1 to select Edmentum, a company that offers virtual learning for K-12 students, as the provider of education for any Wallingford-Swarthmore School District students who prefer not to return to school buildings next year. The selection is contingent on district solicitor Kyle Berman’s approval of the final language of a contract between the district and the company. Kelly Wachtman voted against the agreement, and board members Lawrence Kutys and Jerry Ballas were absent.

Wachtman expressed concern that the current draft of the contract doesn’t provide for financial penalties if the company fails to achieve certain performance standards, particularly in regard to the consistent availability of the platform, maximum turn-around times for teachers to respond to students, and minimum hours of live instruction. As board president David Grande put it, “There’s a desire for some teeth.”

Berman agreed to try to negotiate such provisions.

The district’s director of instructional technology, Nora Wheeler, said that its virtual-school-investigation team had recommended partnering with Edmentum because of the company’s varied enrollment options, wide range of courses, and commitment to giving students regular access to live instruction and live instructional support. The district’s director of education, Denise Citarelli Jones, said that she expects most families to choose in-person instruction next year, but she acknowledged that some families will prefer that their students learn virtually.

Should the contract be signed, the district will pay Edmentum an initial deposit of $95,000, from which per-student fees ($3,000 per year for elementary students and $2,500 for secondary students) will be deducted. Students can also sign up for just one semester, according to Wheeler. Any part of the initial deposit that remains unspent this year will carry over to next year and continue to fund virtual education for district students.

The cost of the 2020-21 school year’s district-run virtual education program, the Online Academy, is approximately $1.4 million, according to the district’s business administrator, Martha Kew. (Citarelli Jones later clarified by email that $1.4 million is only the cost of salaries and benefits for the academy; there are additional costs.)

School board member Matthew Sullivan predicted that, if the district does not offer a virtual option such as Edmentum, some families will opt to send their children to an online charter academy instead of to a district school. 

Students who choose Edmentum will still be eligible to participate in afterschool activities, like sports and theater, within the district. And Citarelli Jones has confirmed that students learning through the company will graduate with a Wallingford-Swarthmore School District diploma.

An information session for interested families will be held on June 16, Citarelli Jones said. Registration will start in mid-July.

Budgets for This Year and Next

Martha Kew, the business administrator, told the board that staffing expenses (salaries and benefits) in the 2020-21 school year were higher than expected because the district had to hire extra teachers to staff its Online Academy and to serve as substitute teachers. The cost of purchased services (such as therapists, contractors, and legal counsel) was lower than expected, but the cost of supplies was up, with PPE added to the usual purchases such as pencils, books, utilities, and software.

Revenue from real estate taxes was down, Kew said, but federal grants of approximately $1 million helped make up some of the district’s operating deficit. Revenue for the current year is estimated to be approximately $1 million over original projections, she reported.

For the current school year, the proposed final budget is $88,982,547, Kew said. This assumes that $921,302 of the district’s unassigned fund balance (the fund used to cover large, unexpected costs) will be used to balance the budget. This will push that balance down from a projected $6.3 million on June 30, 2021, to a projected $5.4 million on June 30, 2022. The unassigned fund balance had stood at $8.5 million at the end of 2019-20 school year. 

“At this moment, the district is using the fund balance to pay normal operating costs, instead of saving those funds for large, unexpected items,” Kew said.

Kew added that there are still many unknowns, including the amount of federal Covid-19 relief and state subsidies the district will receive, and the amount of tax revenue that will be generated by Delaware County’s just-revised property value assessments.

Based on what she knows now, Kew said, she anticipates that a 4.34% school tax increase will be necessary next year. She offered as an example that the real estate tax on a house with an assessed value of $334,000 (the median in Delaware County) will increase by about $300. 

Kew pointed out that 94% of property in the district is residential and only 6% commercial, which means that any tax increase will fall primarily on residents. “We’re number one in the state for our reliance on residential properties” for revenue, she added. “Unfortunately, that is the hand Wallingford-Swarthmore is dealt.”

The board will vote on the proposed final budget on May 24, but the district will continue to refine its calculations until Kew presents the final budget on June 14. The board will vote on the final budget on June 28.

Student Vaccine Clinic

Superintendent Lisa Palmer announced that a second vaccine clinic for students is scheduled for Saturday, May 22, at the Springfield Pharmacy. 65% of district parents who have students aged 12 to 15 expressed interest in having their children vaccinated, she said. 

With Covid-19 rates falling both in the county and in the school district, Palmer reported, the district will also soon consider revisions to its health and safety plan.