The Chester Upland School District once again finds itself in a familiar position - distressed.
After the elected school board rejected the recovery plan put forth by Chief Recovery Officer Joe Watkins Monday night, it now appears the district once again will be placed into receivership by the state.
That’s where the district has spent the majority of the last two decades. And still the district festers, with lousy test scores, and more and more parents pulling their children out of district schools in favor of charters.
You can read the latest twists and turns involving Chester Upland in John Kopp's update today.
Tonight we will use our live-stream Internet show, ‘Live From the Newsroom,’ to dissect the situation in Chester Upland, including the reasons for the recovery plan in the first place, why the board rejected it, and where the district goes from here.
Joining us will be the man who put together the recovery plan, Chief Recovery Officer Joe Watkins. We’ll also have on hand Democratic school board member Anthony Johnson. It has not gone unnoticed that all four Democrats on the board voted in favor of the plan, while all five Republicans rejected it. The vote was 5-4 along party lines.
Making it even more interesting is that Watkins was put in place by the Republican Corbett Administration, yet the plan was rejected 5-4 with all the GOP members of the board voting against.
A lot of people in Chester believe the end game of the Corbett Administration is to starve the district financially, close the doors and then let the charters take over.
But if that’s the case, how do you explain the five Republicans voting against the Watkins’ recovery plan, while the four Democrats voted in favor?
Watkins could very well be appointed the receiver for the district. So it’s not like he’s going away.
We’ve asked for a representative of the Republican board members to join us. So far they have declined, instead pointing us to Acting Superintendent Tom Persing. We hope to have him join us tonight to talk about the state of affairs in Chester Upland.
I also want readers to be able to take part in the discussion.
Do you have a question for Watkins? Or for school board members, either Democratic or Republican? Email me your questions at editor@delcotimes.com and I will put them to our panel. Then come to DelcoTimes.com tonight at 7 and take part in a live chat along with the show.
It should be a very interesting half hour.
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