MEADVILLE — The implementation of new legislation designed to create scholarships is creating confusion within the boundaries of Crawford Central School District.

Wednesday, Pennsylvania Department of Education is scheduled to send out notifications to 74 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school district that 414 of their school buildings have been included on a list of the state’s lowest-achieving 15 percent of elementary and secondary schools.

Crawford Central School District’s Cochranton, East End, First District and Neason Hill elementary schools and Meadville Area Senior High School were included on the list of under-performing schools, which was recently released. Crawford Central was the only Crawford County school district to be included.

Questions, however, have been raised about the accuracy of the Crawford County portion of the list.

According to Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesperson Tim Eller, reading and math scores from Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests administered during the 2010-11 school year were combined to come up with a number for each school in the state and that number was then used to determine which schools would be included on the “lowest-15” lists.

Monday, in response to a request from The Meadville Tribune for details on how specific schools were selected, Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesperson Tim Eller said the department, acting on information obtained from the school district, had marked Second District Elementary School as “closed,” removed the school from consideration for the list and distributed scores earned by students living in the Second District attendance area to the schools its students actually attended during the 2011-12 school year, when students in kindergarten through fifth grade from the West End Elementary School attendance area were housed in the Second District facility while their school underwent renovations. Beginning with the 2012-13 school year, which begins in August, Second District will also house students from East End Elementary School, which was closed permanently at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

PDE officials are expected be in touch with Crawford Central administrators today to discuss corrections.



The program

Students living in the attendance area of each school on the “lowest-15” list who meet specific income requirements will be offered an opportunity to participate in an “Opportunity Scholarship” program that would offer a maximum of $8,500 in funding for regular education students and $15,000 for special education students to be used at participating public and private schools. In addition to tuition, funds can be used for fees charged by a school for uniforms, books, instructional materials, technology equipment and activities.

Opportunity Scholarships will be offered through a $50 million tax credit program that would award tax credits to businesses contributing to the program an amount equal to 75 percent of their contribution; the credit can be increased to 90 percent by the business committing to the program for two years.

To be eligible, a student’s family income cannot exceed $60,000 plus $12,000 for each dependent member of the household through June 30, 2013, and $72,000 plus $12,000 for each dependent member of the household after June 30, 2013.

Students do not need to have attended the under-performing public school in order to participate in the scholarship. Students must only reside in the attendance area of the under-performing school and may qualify for a scholarship even if they are currently attending a private school.

Additional details about the program, including information about how eligible students may apply, are expected to be released Wednesday by PDE.



Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.