{"id":10181,"date":"2014-01-29T15:36:17","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=10181"},"modified":"2014-01-29T15:38:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:38:31","slug":"divided-board-dooms-motion-to-seek-new-solicitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=10181","title":{"rendered":"Divided board dooms motion to seek new solicitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Board president says now is not prudent time to change<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Nicolina Sciarretta (from left), Johnna Morales, Gabrielle Hines, and Joshua Mensah stand before the audience as Principal Robert Fisher recognizes them as some of the top students in their class.<\/p><\/div>\n

CALN \u2013 In a tied decision, the Coatesville Area School Board failed to pass a motion on Tuesday night that would have initiated a request for proposals to seek a replacement for Board Solicitor James Ellison.<\/p>\n

Board Members Diane Brownfield, Deborah Thompson, Stu Deets, and Kim Mammel voted in favor of the RFP, while Jim Fox, Rick Ritter, Laurie Knecht, and Board President Neil Campbell voted against it. The newest board member, James Hills, abstained, saying that he would have to examine the board\u2019s issues further before he felt comfortable making a decision.<\/p>\n

Thompson, who made the motion, said that she was concerned about the district\u2019s high legal fees. She said that an RFP would allow the district to examine competitive bids and possibly hire a solicitor on a yearly salary, rather than an hourly wage. She also said that Coatesville should look at surrounding districts to see how much they are paying in legal fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just asking us to entertain it,\u201d she said. \u201cOther school districts are dealing with like issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deets agreed, saying that an RFP would be a sound business decision.\u00a0\u201cThis is not a judgment on Mr. Ellison\u2019s performance; this is a business practice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Campbell said that while he agrees that an RFP should be done in the future, the district should wait until Ellison is done handling its current legal matters.\u00a0\u201cI really feel that at this time that it is not prudent to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Campbell said that hiring a new solicitor would disrupt legal proceedings with the Graystone Academy. He also said that with some legal matters being near closure, Ellison\u2019s fees should go down in the near future.<\/p>\n

During public comment, a few residents agreed that the district should look into hiring a new solicitor, saying that the district should not pay such high legal fees while scholastic programs are being cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying, \u2018Fire Mr. Ellison.\u2019 I\u2019m just saying, \u2018Can you shop around a little bit?\u2019\u201d asked Linda Lavender Norris.<\/p>\n

Before voting on regular agenda items took place on Tuesday night, CASH Principal Robert Fisher made a special presentation to the board, recognizing a few of the senior class\u2019s top students.<\/p>\n

Kelly Boulger, Avery Thompson, Morgan Flynn, Vincent Shickora, Nicolina Sciarretta, Johnna Morales, Gabrielle Hines, Joshua Mensah, Chasan Hall, and Paul Draper were recognized for their scholastic and extracurricular achievements.<\/p>\n

\"Chasan<\/a>

Chasan Hall (left) and Paul Draper (right) hold up their certificates for being recognized by the National Merit Scholars program.<\/p><\/div>\n

These students are all near the top of their class and have excelled in numerous clubs, sports, and activities outside of school. Morgan Flynn, a Meistersingers and Student Council member who could graduate having already earned 12 college credits, is also captain of the girls soccer team. Meistersingers Honor Soloist Gabrielle Hines is also captain of the cheerleading squad, class president, and a member of the Pennsylvania Regional Chorus. Student School Board Representative Paul Draper is at the top of his class, a member of numerous clubs, a Civil Air Patrol member, a volunteer at the City Gate homeless shelter, and an Eagle Scout. With the possibility of earning 27 college credits by the time he graduates, Draper plans on attending Princeton in the fall.<\/p>\n

Hall and Draper were also recognized by the National Merit Scholars program for scoring in the top 5% nationwide on the PSATs.<\/p>\n

During the vote on the night\u2019s agenda items, Deets and Brownfield, both voted \u2018no.\u2019 Deets said that he agreed with and wanted to pass many of the items, but there were certain ones he disagreed with, though he would not specify which ones.<\/p>\n

Hills abstained from voting on agenda items. He said that being new to the school board, he is not up to date on all of the issues.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not up to speed on all these issues now. I\u2019m going to get up to speed, and once I\u2019m up to speed, then I will be voting on these issues, and then I can make comments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that not attending previous meetings did not put him at a disadvantage.\u00a0\u201cIf you\u2019re not a board member, you\u2019re not privileged to what\u2019s actually going on,\u201d said Hills.<\/p>\n

At the end of Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Board President Neil Campbell took an opportunity to \u201creintroduce himself.\u201d\u00a0He said that he is aware that the public has disagreed with many of his votes, but he feels that he is serving the school district\u2019s best interests.\u00a0\u201cI clearly recognize that many in our community feel a discomfort level with myself and other members of this board. I also recognize that many of my casted votes are not that of the popular feeling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Campbell said he feels as though he is voting responsibly, saying that he does not vote on speculation.\u00a0\u201cI continue to uphold the oath that I took six and two years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cI will not symbolically cast my vote in order to appease a portion of the community that is misinformed. I vote in the best interest of the survival of this district and the taxpayers that pay the bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell said that prior to serving on the board, he, too, sometimes felt outraged by the district\u2019s decisions, but being on the board has shown him the complexities of running a school district.\u00a0\u201cI, too, shook my head at times and voiced my opinion. Looking back, I now realize how wrong I was for feeling that way. I did not know how a school district truly operated, and I have learned a great deal over the past six years. Just like in your own personal work, family, or pleasure experiences, it\u2019s not always how it appears to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He asked the public for time to work out issues, such as budget, contract, and building matters. He also called for the board to put aside differences in order to achieve their goals.\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t let what a few have done … tear down the entire district,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Board president says now is not prudent time to change By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times CALN \u2013 In a tied decision, the Coatesville Area School Board failed to pass a motion on Tuesday night that would have initiated a request for proposals to seek a replacement for Board Solicitor James Ellison. Board Members Diane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,1],"tags":[2857,3564,1326,3273,3494,498,2601,3493,3495,3272,3496,2322,3497],"class_list":["post-10181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-board-president-neil-campbell","tag-cash-principal-robert-fisher","tag-coatesville-area-school-board","tag-deborah-thompson","tag-diane-brownfield","tag-graystone-academy","tag-james-ellison","tag-james-hills","tag-jim-fox","tag-kim-mammel","tag-laurie-knecht","tag-rick-ritter","tag-stu-deets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10181"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10191,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions\/10191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}