Cardinal BOE Questioned about ACE
A former Cardinal Schools employee raised questions about money owed to the district Sept. 10.
A former Cardinal Schools employee raised questions about money owed to the district Sept. 10.
Joyce Peters, a Parkman Township trustee, spoke during the Cardinal Schools Board of Education meeting as a district resident, asking probing questions regarding the district’s Agriculture Career Education Academy charter program.
“ACE was supposed to be a benefit to Cardinal. Have we lost money?” she asked, noting it appears ACE owes the district $61,338 according to the district cash summary report.
“I’m concerned that should not be a negative,” Peters said.
More than a dozen members of the Cardinal Education Association sat through the meeting. Peters said in a phone interview Sept. 15 she didn’t know why they were there.
ACE is a public, tuition-free high school for grades 9-12, distinct from Cardinal Schools, according to previous reporting.
Courses are primarily online, but the schedule includes two days a week in the classroom with an ACE teacher who specializes in agriculture and Cardinal teachers who can help students with other classwork as needed.
Core subjects are required and students have to earn 20 subject credits and do 40 hours of community service over four years in order to graduate with the high school ACE diploma, said ACE Executive Director Keith Marsh in March.
Students can start earning credentials as freshmen in pest control, aviation, soil and other subjects, making them employable by the time they can drive, but they still have to meet the academic requirements, he said.
“The academic program is the same as other schools. During their junior and senior year, they will intern or have part-time jobs,” Marsh said last year.
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Development is sponsoring the program, said Cardinal Schools Superintendent Jack Cunningham in a phone interview Sept. 15.
Cunningham said five teachers have assisted the 25 students in the program. The student learning advocates monitor and assist students with their regular coursework and receive stipends.
Last Wednesday, Peters said she believes some office staff are receiving stipends for the work they do for ACE.
The contract reads “…the district’s employees and service providers supplying services under this agreement will do so strictly on a voluntary basis and as such that the district cannot guarantee that a sufficient number of its employees and service providers will volunteer to provide services to ACE …”
“I feel we have administration being compensated and work people in this district are not benefiting from it. Are you looking into it? Are you at all concerned about ACE?” she asked the board.
Cunningham said Monday some of the services outlined in the agreement fall to employees as part of their regular work.
Board President Linda Smallwood responded to Peters’ questions last Wednesday.
“We are seeing benefits to our students, for sure,” she said. “Our superintendent is not getting paid for ACE – he has forgone his pay (for ACE).”
Dan Wilson, Cardinal’s chief fiscal officer, said the agreement has been reworked a couple of times.
“They have some monies due to the district,” Wilson said, adding ACE is working on a payment plan to pay the district back for the up-front funding of the program.
Smallwood promised to provide facts and figures at the next board meeting.
“We don’t intend to lose money,” she said.
Monday, Cunningham said the negative figure reflects the cost of turning the home economics room into an ACE classroom.
“The board has given ACE a timeline to pay that back,” he said, adding the lease of the facility has also been paid.
“If ACE moves, we will be able to utilize that space,” he said. “This is to benefit the community. We’re not trying to put anything in jeopardy for Cardinal. ACE is another avenue we are trying to create. It’s new to everybody. We’re working through the details.”
Student Cell Phone Use Debated
In other business, the school board addressed student use of cell phones and other devices during school hours.
Cunningham said elementary school students have never had the option of using cell phones during the school day and there is a request to allow their use during lunch hours.
Smallwood noted students in the junior senior high school are permitted lunch time use of cell phones.
Board members discussed the issue, noting elementary students through grade six don’t all have phones.
Generally, the board agreed elementary students should not be allowed free use of cell phones at lunchtime, but may use them in the office where they are stored, if needed.
Phones may be used during breakfast at the junior senior high school, Smallwood said.
