{"id":6209,"date":"2013-06-26T08:21:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6209"},"modified":"2013-06-26T08:21:11","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T12:21:11","slug":"coatesvilles-rotc-must-find-its-own-funding-for-another-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=6209","title":{"rendered":"Coatesville’s ROTC must find its own funding for another year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Program will look to combat Air Force’s closure decision with CASD support<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

\"With<\/a>

With his ROTC compatriots behind him, Chasan Hall asks the school board for a letter of support. “This program offered me insane opportunities that I would never have dreamed about in middle school,” he said.<\/p><\/div>\n

CALN \u2013 The status of the Coatesville Area High School\u2019s Air Force Junior ROTC program sparked debates \u2014 but no funding from the Coatesville Area School District Board of Education, at Tuesday night\u2019s board meeting.<\/p>\n

The district passed its 2013-14 budget, leaving out funding for the program in the coming school year. For the second year in a row, the ROTC will have to independently generate money to keep the program running.<\/p>\n

The matter had been previously discussed and agreed upon between the school board\u00a0 and ROTC parents and students, with the district passing an August 13 deadline for fundraising. However, the retirement of the teacher Leon Johnson and aide Andrew Kraft complicated the matter.<\/p>\n

The district must now find replacement personnel for a program still in search of funding. After the Air Force notified the district that they would be closing Coatesville\u2019s ROTC branch PA-771, the district responded with a letter voicing support and asking them to reconsider.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cuts in no way reflect the regard the Coatesville Area School District has for any of our reductions in force inclusive of the Air Force JROTC,\u201d the district wrote.<\/p>\n

The Air Force responded with a letter requesting more specific language from the school board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re looking for is a commitment; it\u2019s not a contractual commitment but an emotional commitment,\u201d said Safiya Edwards, who has led many of the ROTC\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

The district agreed to send another letter, but disputes arose over what language would be used. Board members wanted the letter to reflect their support while ensuring that it did not suggest any monetary commitments. A few thought that the second letter would simply be redressing the points from the first and that the Air Force was complicating the process, rather than the ROTC or the school board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a fight between upper and lower-level brass [at the Air Force], and we\u2019re getting caught up in it,\u201d said Superintendent Richard W. Como.<\/p>\n

The board held an executive session immediately following the school board meeting to hammer out the final language of the letter, which is due at the end of the month. While they did develop a framework, not everything was agreed upon exactly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard thing was there were three parties trying to negotiate the language, and they weren\u2019t all in the same room at the same time,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n

The night ended with Solicitor James E. Ellison slightly modifying the words from the executive session, which he said he would consult his colleagues about as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

The ROTC ordeal comes as part of the 2013-14 final budget, which was adopted on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The $144,229,127 budget will see a property tax increase of 3.6%.<\/p>\n

While discussing the final budget, district Financial Adviser Gary A. Pulcini warned that CASD cannot afford to operate at a deficit, like it has for the past six years. Last year\u2019s finances resulted in the district\u2019s credit being downgraded, which will make it more difficult for the district to borrow money and sell bonds.<\/p>\n

Como emphasized operating \u201cthe right way\u201d saying that preventing deficits could result in more money for the district, which could then allow them to hire more staff and fund more programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program will look to combat Air Force’s closure decision with CASD support By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times CALN \u2013 The status of the Coatesville Area High School\u2019s Air Force Junior ROTC program sparked debates \u2014 but no funding from the Coatesville Area School District Board of Education, at Tuesday night\u2019s board meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101],"tags":[2215,166,24,29,296,52],"class_list":["post-6209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-schools","tag-2013-14-budget","tag-board-of-education","tag-coatesville","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-rotc","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209","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=6209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}