A feeling of relief was in the room at the York City School Board meeting. They met tonight for the first time since Chief Recovery Officer, David Meckley, resigned.
Meckley resigned because of the Wolf administration’s lack of support for the district’s recovery plan, which included turning all of the city’s schools into charter schools.
People who are against the district going full charter tell FOX43 for the past couple years there has been some tension in the room during school board meetings.
“Joy, thankfulness, relief, um, because that is something that we were calling for,” said Sandra Thompson, President of the York NAACP chapter.
Meckley’s recovery plan for the district included turning all of the city’s schools into charter schools. It’s something the majority of the school board, teachers, parents, and students were against. The state sought to put the district into receivership to try to make the plan happen, but a legal fight over that never got resolved.
The all-charter plan hasn’t been taken off the table entirely. But, the York High basketball coach says his players will no longer have to wonder what will happen next year.
“I want to thank you guys as a board,” said Coach Troy Sowers.
School Board President, Margie Orr, says this battle isn’t over. She’s calling on teachers to turn things around.
“Keep hanging in with us because it’s really not over. We have some more things to do to get this district back to where it’s supposed to be,” said Orr.
FOX43 asked the district’s superintendent, Eric Holmes about the district’s plans moving forward. But, he declined to comment.
Governor Tom Wolf hasn’t said how soon he’ll appoint someone to replace Meckley. The head of the York NAACP hopes whoever that is will work with the school board to make major improvements, without all the district’s schools becoming charter schools.
“We need to decrease class sizes, we need to just do more to improve education and to facilitate the learning environment,” said Thompson.
Acting Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera sent a letter to district superintendents earlier this week. He’s asking districts to submit plans for how they would use the increased funds in governor Wolf’s proposed budget. Wolf’s proposing an additional $5.6 million dollars next year.
