Catasauqua residents and teachers, staff, families and students of Innovative Arts Academy Charter School filled the Catasauqua Area School District administrative board room May 21 and 22 for the charter renewal hearing before the board of education. Representing CASD were academic review team members Robert Spengler, CASD superintendent; Dr. Christina Lutz-Doemling, director of curriculum and assessment for CASD; and Eric Dauberman, Sheckler Elementary School principal. Marc Fisher represented the charter school. He was joined by IAACS transitional CEO Brad Schifko. Solicitor David Knerr oversaw the hearing.

IAACS was originally approved in February 2016 for a three-year charter. This charter is up at the end of the current school year. The school is now seeking a five-year charter renewal.

According to a Jan. 16 letter between the charter school and CASD, grounds for charter nonrenewal would include the school’s failure to meet Pennsylvania Department of Education standards. This was the focus of the hearing.

Lutz-Doemling outlined test scores for the state standardized PSSA and Keystone tests for 2017 and 2018 using the information reported on the Future Ready PA Index used by PDE. She pointed out to the board the school is not meeting state proficiency goals for either student growth or achievement. Lutz-Doemling presented scatterplots graphing the growth and achievement on standardized tests for 14 school districts and seven charter schools within Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21. She emphasized where IAACS, as well as the schools in Allentown School District, appeared on the graphs.

Despite an original assumption from charter school administration that 75 percent of the students would come from CASD, the large majority of the students actually come from Allentown.

Lutz-Doemling demonstrated how IAACS is performing compared to other schools in the area. IAACS scored in the lower quadrant for the majority of the graphs. She reported the school is “consistently underperforming” in testing. According to her testimony, students who left Allentown School District to attend IAACS are “losing ground” academically.

Schifko later testified those scores were incorrect. He said the people responsible for reporting the scores to PDE did not give the correct information. He added the people who incorrectly reported the scores no longer work for the school, and IAACS is working with a private consulting firm to try and fix the mistakes and prevent future reporting errors. It was noted actual numbers showed some improvement among the students, but Schifko did not know if the improvements included passing grades or simply higher numbers.

Fisher reported much of the students’ testing comes from experiences brought from previous schools. He said only having the information for two years did not allow enough room for growth. The scores for the 2018-19 school year were not available. Fisher also noted the school had a large number of economically disadvantaged and special education students.

“Shifts in demographics leads to performance change,” Fisher said.

“I’d still expect these students to show growth, and that is not being shown here,” Lutz-Doemling said.

Fisher also noted the school is grades 6-12, and the other schools separated the middle and high school data. Lutz-Doemling agreed it is difficult to compare a grades 6-12 school to a grades 5-8 or a 9-12 school. Lutz-Doemling also reported IAACS exceeded the state career standard bench mark with 100 percent.

Dauberman presented his testimony regarding attendance. He said IAACS has a 48.8-percent attendance record - lower than schools in Allentown School District, which have a higher number of economically disadvantaged students. Schifko said those attendance numbers were also incorrectly reported. He testified the number is actually between 80 and 90 percent of students who attend school on a monthly basis.

Knerr raised his concerns with all the false numbers and erroneous reporting, saying it was difficult to know where the truth was in the numbers and questioned whether the board could trust the numbers reported were correct. Schifko said they are still in the process of checking all the numbers but testified the numbers he presented were accurate.

Schifko said IAACS is different from other schools in that it offers comprehensive courses in fields such as fashion design, culinary, graphic design and journalism. He noted staff members have real industry experience they share with the students. He also talked about the technology integration they have implemented in the school.

Schifko reported the school recently added a school psychologist and clinical social worker as a resource for the students and their families. He also reported the school is contracting with Alternative Education to come up with a plan to help move the school and its students forward. Schifko noted this is among many changes they have implemented to improve the school. He added the five-year charter would be a solid amount of time for the administration to fully implement the new initiatives.

According to Schifko, the school has an approximate retention rate of 70 percent. He also noted more and more students enroll each year. He reported in April 2017, there were 243 students. The school currently has more than 500 students enrolled. He said the school has a 100-percent graduation rate, and many of the students move on to college.

Schifko added the school recognizes where its students are not excelling.

“Our scores are not where they need to be. We need to do what we need to do for our students,” he said.

He said they are taking proactive steps to address the problems. Acknowledging the school is only three years old, Schifko said they are still learning how best to help the students.

Spengler admitted Schifko had been put in a difficult position. Schifko previously served as a counselor and assistant principal at the school. He recently became transitional CEO after former CEO Douglas Taylor announced his resignation, effective in June. Schifko will then become interim CEO. Spengler noted many of the decisions and calculations factored into the various testimonies and documents had been made by Taylor, and Schifko was doing his best to contend with a difficult situation.

Donald Panto, school board member, asked if the school would be willing to work with the district to create a clear and understandable standard metric for measuring the success of the students as opposed to pulling numbers from several different areas and “quibbling over precision.” Schifko agreed that would be a good idea and emphasized the importance of collaborating and working with the district.

IAACS included testimony from parents of students who attend the school. Staci Wolfe, Darlene Simpson and Love Heneghn detailed the decisions that led to them choosing IAACS for their children. Wolfe noted her daughter went from struggling emotionally to flourishing at IAACS. Simpson reported that after moving her daughter to IAACS, she became more outgoing. Heneghn’s son was not being challenged at his previous Allentown and cyber schools.

“We felt the Allentown School District couldn’t keep up with him. I needed somewhere he wouldn’t get lost,” Heneghn said.

He added the teachers and staff at IAACS continually push his son and make sure he stays on task.

The board also heard from two students who attended IAACS. These students provided two very different pictures of the environment at IAACS.

Matthew White said he had trouble during his time at the school: “This school is a jungle.”

He testified the teachers did not respect the students and raised concerns about school security.

Mariah Simpson painted a very different picture. She testified she feels the teachers care and the school helped her find her passion.

“That’s my second home,” she said. “I’ve grown so much.”

There is a 30-day period where interested parties can send their comments to the school board for consideration before action is taken. The vote on whether or not to renew the charter will take place at the Aug. 13 school board meeting.