Indiana Area School Superintendent Robert J. Heinrich Jr. continued his focus on cyber school reform this past week, with “possible solutions to financial problems caused by cyber school commitment” advanced to a committee of his district’s board of directors.
“The goal of this effort is to increase revenues and reduce expenses to improve the financial situation that threatens our district’s viability,” Heinrich wrote in an overview of a seven-page document presented to the board’s Academic and Extracurricular Committee.
“Two areas that present significant opportunities for improvement are grant writing and cyber education,” Heinrich wrote. “After exploring our options, discussing and debating the potential benefits and costs of such an effort, our administrative team has developed the following options for your consideration.”
In that overview, the superintendent wrote that “it has been proposed that we could add significant revenue by hiring a grant writer and potentially recover significant dollars by creating a position that focuses on improving our own cyber education and simultaneously recruiting students to come back from outside cybers.”
It is an internal look at the issue Heinrich also has pursued on external fronts.
On June 18, the Indiana Area superintendent joined other administrators for a Cyber Charter Reform Forum at the John P. Murtha Center for Public Service and National Competitiveness at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.
It was moderated by Pennsylvania Cable Network Senior Producer Larry Kaspar and observed, as Heinrich said, that “the cyber charter schools are not bound by the same geographic barriers that local charter schools are, and (legislators) never fixed the funding formula … so we’re paying exactly the same (as brick-and-mortar charter schools) for cyber schools who don’t have buildings or buses, food and nurses, and all these other things that are necessary for a school district to operate.”
On July 14, the Indiana Area school board authorized the law firm of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham LLP of Butler, whose counsel includes district Solicitor Ronald N. Repak, to file a civil suit and declaratory judgment action against more than a dozen cyber charter schools across Pennsylvania.
Several weeks later, the board voted unanimously to authorize Repak’s firm, at a cost of $200 per hour, to represent the district in that litigation. The district hopes to have other school boards sign on.
“We’ve had others reach out,” Repak said July 14. “It includes districts in all areas, as far as Westmoreland, Allegheny, Cambria and Indiana counties.”
Heinrich proposed a grant writer “responsible for identifying, researching, writing, and securing grants from federal, state, local, corporate and private funding sources to support the mission and strategic priorities of the Indiana Area School District.”
The description resembles, for instance, Eden Zenisek’s position as grants writer as well as communications coordinator for Indiana Borough.
For IASD, Heinrich said, “the role is central to increasing district resources, advancing educational opportunities, and promoting innovative programs that serve students, families and staff.”
In IASD, the superintendent offered, a grant writer could fill a full-time, salary position, or be freelance with commission-based compensation, or part-time earnng a stipend and commission, or someone contracted as a specialist or from a company.
He also proposed a Cyber Education Coordinator who “will oversee the development, delivery, and continuous improvement of the district’s IDEALProgram,” an in-house cyber option for students, which started the 2011-12 school year, but since has evolved to include more synchronous learning and face-to-face support.
It is a position now held by the senior high school dean of students.
“This position ensures that the program provides rigorous, engaging, and personalized learning experiences for students,” according to a position/plan summary in Heinrich’s paper. “In addition, the coordinator will lead efforts to recruit and re-engage students who are currently enrolled in outside cyber-charter schools, highlighting the value and quality of the district’s own cyber option.”
Options offered by Heinrich for such a coordinator:
• Hire an additional administrator to focus on cyber education — though a “con” of that idea includes “union issues,” as members of the Indiana Area Education Association teachers’ union “indicated that they believe this to be their work.”
• Hire a teacher to be the full-time coordinator — though a “con” there is that “upfront investment from the district is significant” and, as a collective bargaining agreement position, offers “less flexibility in duties, hours (and) expectations.”
• Hire a long-term substitute social studies teacher to free up the current IDEAL coordinator.
Heinrich also proposed a “Financial Incentive Program for Families Returning from Cyber Charter Schools,” described as “targeted financial incentives to families (that) might help recapture students — thereby improving both the educational outcomes for students and district fiscal stability.”
As the superintendent wrote previously in a June letter to the editor of the Gazette, “one of the most significant strains on Indiana Area’s finances — and on most other districts — is the mandated payment of public funds to cyber charter schools. This requirement has cost Indiana Area taxpayers nearly $15 million over the past 15 years.”
On June 23, the IASD board went through numerous motions before compromising at a 3% real estate tax increase for 2025-26, in a $69,089,589 budget — something required of every Pennsylvania school district, even though those districts did not know — nor do they know now, more than 100 days after state officials were supposed to pass a 2025-26 budget.
“We are over $6 million out of balance,” Board President Walter Schroth said on June 23. “Two million of it is from our state fund but mandated cyber-charter school tuition and the fraud, waste and abuse that failing academic system is rife with.”
Board members began mulling over Heinrich’s paper at their Oct. 13 meeting.
“The board will be reviewing these options and continue the discussion at the policy and personnel committee meeting,” the IASD administrator said in an email to the Gazette. That panel is scheduled to meet Oct. 27 at 5:30 p.m., prior to a special board meeting at 7:30 p.m.
