Moon Area Board Member Questions Student Performance Study

With just two weeks remaining until the Nov. 8 election, member Jerry Testa last night condemned a report on student performance that candidates vying against incumbent board members have circulated.

Testa, whose seat on the board is not up for re-election, called a report published on the site MoonCitizensforEducation.com “bogus."

The report, which the Pennsylvania Department of Education published in 2009, says that 26 percent of 168 surveyed Moon Area grads required academic remediation in college during the year the data was compiled.

“There is information out there that is troubling to me,” Testa said. “[The] political season will bring a lot of things out there.”

The study is re-published on the campaign website for Republican nominees Gia Tatone, Laura Schisler, Dennis Harbaugh, Ron Steele, Samuel Tranter and Mike Olszewski. The candidates are seeking to oust current board members Mark Scappe, Rosemarie Varsanik, Lisa Wolowicz and James Donohue, who have each received the Democratic nomination for the board.

The report was intended to compair the costs incurred for college remediation.

Testa questioned the report’s methodology, saying that a limited number of universities and colleges were surveyed.

“For people to be out there saying 26 percent [of Moon Area graduates require remediation in college] is patently false,” said Testa. “I call upon this group to immediately remove this information from their website."

Candidates Tatone, Olszewski, Tranter and Schisler, who attended the meeting, said they stand behind the report’s findings and hope to bolster district academic performance.

 “[Testa] basically just said that the state department of education is bogus,” said Tatone, adding that district officials should not be content with current academic performance. "I feel like he just critiqued the state department of education.

"I don’t find anything wrong with anyone in the community holding leadership accountable for academic performance," she said.

The report does not specify the definition of academic remediation or provide a comparison of data gathered in previous years. The state average for students requiring remediation in college was 33 percent at the time the data was compiled, according to the 2009 report.

Moon’s data in the report was comparable with other suburban Pittsburgh school districts. The percentage of Moon Area grads surveyed requiring remediation in college was slightly lower than nearby districts , West Allegheny and Montour, according to the report.

Tranter said he and fellow candidates declined to address the board on the study but support its findings.

 “We sat quietly,” Tranter said. “We weren’t interested in speaking. This [meeting] isn’t the forum for the political election."

The board adjourned the meeting for an executive session after Testa’s remarks.

Click the media in the this article to view the report.

Other items of interest from the meeting:

• Superintendent Donna Milanovich reported that board members Lisa Wolowicz and Mark Scappe received official for their service recognition earlier this month from the Pennsylvania School Board Association.

• The board authorized district administration to advertise and solicit bids for softball and baseball field alterations. The cost of the project will be charged to the 2010 bond fund.

• The board authorized the purchase of two Clark Focus 26-inch, midsize autoscrubbers for district flooring at a cost of $8,995.95 from Rossi Floor Technology.