School Board Votes to End Tap Program in June

Members of the Board of Trustees for the School District of Pickens County on Monday voted to end the federally funded TAP program on June 30, 2012.

The measure would pass 4-2, with board members Jim Shelton and Dr. Herbert Cooper as the dissenting votes.

TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement Program or TAP was developed by the Milken Family Foundation as a "strategy to attract, retain, develop and motivate talented people to the teaching profession," according to the TAP System website.

The program allows teachers to advance their careers without leaving the classroom.

The school district received close to $2 million to support the program during its first year. Each year after, the district would be asked to supplement the program and then to eventually sustain the program.

Board chairman Alex Saitta argued that the district could not afford the $2.2 million long-term program. He said the board had been misinformed about the funding of the program from the beginning.

“When TAP was started the administration came to the school board and said some schools wanted to try the TAP program,” Saitta said. “There was a five-year TAP grant available and the school board did not need to spend any non-TAP money on the program. We said if schools want to try it, they can, as long as they vote for it. Nine schools voted to adopt the program.”

Saitta said the way the grant is structured, it fully funds the program the first year but then phases out over the next five years. He said on the sixth year, the district would be required to totally fund it. He said that was information that was never provided to the board.

“This year these TAP schools requested $275,000 of district money because the grant is starting to phase out,” Saitta said. “Looking at the schedule, the district will have to put up $800,000, then $1.3 million and finally rising to $2.2 million when the grant totally sunsets.”

Saitta said he would not commit to any new spending when the district has a growing list of commitments it can’t meet.

“We have about 400,000 in additional square footage of new space and have yet to add a custodian,” Saitta said. “We’ll add another 250,000 square feet next year. The district bought 6,500 laptops that require $1 million refreshes each year. We don’t have that money either. When the district adds the extra middle school in Easley, it will cost $700,000.”

“This is management 101,” Saitta said. “First find the money for the commitments you already have then look for new things to spend money on.”

Shelton asked the board how they were evaluating the effectiveness of TAP.  He said that he took the opportunity to visit several schools in the district — some that were happy with tap, others that were unhappy with the program and others who were concerned by the TAP program.

In addition to the visits, Shelton said he also had signed letters in support of the program. He said he would vote to keep TAP in the schools, rather than to give up $2 million in federal funds.

Dr. Cooper echoed the sentiment.

Board member Rita Edwards, a retired educator, said that she, too, had talked with teachers who had been involved with TAP and that she did not feel that teachers supported the program and that the board shouldn’t, either.

Other business:

• The school board voted, 4-2, to amend the annual budgeting process to require that the superintendent, in addition to preparing an annual budget and presenting it to the board, would prepare an annual budget for food services costs and present it to the board for approval no later than the June meeting.

The policy committee also will review an amendment proposed by Saitta to have a prepared budget for special revenues received by the district, such as Title 1 funding, lottery money and grants, by the June meeting.

Dr. Kelly Pew, who will take over her role as superintendent of the district on July 1, told Saitta and the board that providing a budget for the board to review in June could be difficult, as funding comes in at different times throughout the course of the year. Saitta said they would continue to discuss the item at a later date.

• Dr. Danny Merck, assistant superintendent of administrative services, proposed start times and end times for schools for the first two weeks of the 2012-2013 school year, in order to more efficiently schedule the buses required to transport students due to the location of the new Easley High School. Merck proposed that elementary schools start at 8 a.m. and dismiss at 2:30 p.m.; middle schools would start at 8:30 a.m. with a 3:30 p.m. dismissal; and high schools would start at 8:15 a.m. and dismiss at 3:10 p.m.

The board passed the request unanimously.

• A first reading of two policies dealing with social media and employee conduct were presented during the meeting.

• The board reviewed plans for the renovated Easley High School, which would house students from Gettys Middle School during the next school year.

• Saitta told the board and members of the public that a bidder in the sale had been given an unfair advantage in the bidding. Two different groups had hoped to purchase the property earlier this year.

• The district reported that ," which was organized by Roy Costner, raised $11,501. After cleanup costs, prizes and trophies, the profit was $8,799. High schools within the district received 60 percent of the money because the events were hosted on their campuses and the additional 40 percent was divided among elementary and middle schools.

• The district reported that it would not launch an investigation into alleged insensitive comments made by board member Ben Trotter while attending a meeting in Liberty regarding special needs children.

• The board also recognized members of the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics team, which will move on to a national robotics competition. Jacob Zambrano, Dylan Hall, Will Purkerson, Jakob Ables, Johnny Dong and Stone Ke from Clemson Elementary will represent the Anderson, Oconee, Pickens (AOP) region in the International JetToy Challenge in Detroit, Mich., on April 25.