May 10, 2016

Just when students and parents knew how Unionville High School would report a student’s standing to colleges, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board is reopening the matter.

Directors voted in March to do away with reporting decile rankings, and instead show how many students fall within a given grade-point range. Now the board is considering another change for a vote next Monday. Board President Vic Dupuis said there could be a vote to add the top GPA ranges to the reporting.

The topic resurfaced during the May 9 work session when Ken Batchelor, assistant to the superintendent, mentioned the possibility of changing the group name of top students from “principal scholars” to “Unionville scholars.” He explained that reopens the entire policy change that occurred two months ago.

In March, the vote was 7-2 in favor of the change, but the two who voted no then are now on opposite sides.

Bob Sage said he wanted to include the top GPA range, but Mike Rock — attending by telephone — said that if that becomes part if the policy, all GPAs should be reported.

“The whole point of eliminating the decile was not to disadvantage students who are not in the first decile. Everything we add back takes away everything that we did,” Rock said.

He added that if the board makes that choice, it should either go back to reporting the decile rankings or rank every student from first to last.

Carolyn Daniels — who voted for the change in March — said looking at the policy so soon after it was changed “makes a mockery of all the open meetings and discussions that led us to this place.”

Gregg Lindner — who also voted for the change — opposes another change this early. He said in a letter read by Superintendent John Sanville, that he assumed there would be no further change until the district had more experience with what was done in March and that he would not support the proposed change.

“These additions do nothing positive…They can only do harm to some segment of our student body,” he said in the letter.

Other business

• Director of Buildings and Grounds Rick Hostetler told the board that changing the carpeting at Hillendale Elementary School is going to be costly. The board will vote next week on whether to approve a $40,000 labor cost for removing the current carpeting in one-third of the building.

Hostetler said they learned last year when the first third of the project was done, that “carpeting at Hillendale is a bear to remove.” He said later the difficulty is due to the adhesive that was used when the carpets were installed in 1988.

Adding to the cost is the fact that the job, because it’s more than $25,000, has be done with the state-mandated prevailing wage. The state requires union scale wages for all projects costing more than $25,000, even if the contractor is not a union shop. The $25,000 figure dates back to the 1960s.

Carpeting is also being replaced at Pocopson and Unionville Elementary schools. The cost for removing carpets at Pocopson is $7,000; at Unionville, it’s $5,700.

• The board will also vote next week on whether to spend $25,000 for engineering related to changing the fuel pump system at the bus garage. Marie Wickersham, director of transportation, said the system is weakening and there could be a problem refueling district vehicles in the fall if the system isn’t upgraded. The total cost is estimated to be about $125,000.

Making a difference: That is what the Chester County Fund for Women and Girls has encouraged more than 100 high school girls to do during the past 11 years.

Now the fund is accepting applications for its award-winning Girls Advisory Board (GAB) program. Applications are available online at http://ccfwg.org/girls-advisory-board/ and will be accepted until Monday, June 6.

The fund is looking for high school girls entering their sophomore or junior year in the fall of 2016. Girls must live in Chester County to be admitted into the GAB program and can participate for up to two years.

One of only a few in the nation, the Girls Advisory Board is a unique girls grant-making program in which 20 local girls gain the opportunity to award $20,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations that help other young women in Chester County. During the past eleven years, faced by issues such as poverty, illiteracy, violence, homelessness, mental illness, teen pregnancy and substance abuse.

From September to December 2016, GAB members will learn about and discuss community needs, create their own grant application, review proposals, conduct site visits, and work together as a group to award grants to the organizations they feel best address their identified priorities.

Since the fund’s inception, nearly every public, private and parochial high school in Chester County has been represented on GAB. Girls have helped the Fund for Women and Girls raise awareness of the issues girls and young women face daily in communities across the county.

The Girls Advisory Board has awarded 70 grants to organizations working on behalf of girls. These grants have helped organizations across Chester County start new projects, provide training and leadership opportunities, and reach out to diverse populations.

In 2007, the GAB was awarded the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Greater Philadelphia Chapter. This award has previously recognized youth philanthropy projects such as Alex’s Lemonade Stand and Youthadelphia.

For any questions about the application process, contact Michelle Legaspi Sanchez  at michelle@ccfwg.org.