Members of the UASD Board,
We are parents of two Canners and care deeply for the future of our amazing public school as we are also products of it. We value education and recognize it is a shared responsibility of society, so we must work together for the greater good. We are saddened to hear in Dr. Doll’s superintendent report about the seven figure endowment that has been withdrawn as a result of the 6 Board members’ vote to contract with the Independence Law Center. This will impact students for years to come. What if other donors move in a similar direction?
Prior to ILC’s involvement, donors did not revoke endowments by the millions. This is a devastating loss for our rural district where many teachers depend on generous Canner Fund Grants year-to-year and many pay for various supplies out of their own pockets. We no longer have a budget for educational trips so those are generously funded by our PTOs. The percentage of students who are considered low income or economically disadvantaged was 51.7% as of the 2022-2023 school year. Our students (and their families) can’t afford to have donations taken from them, nor do they deserve to.
We hope that the board would pause. Reflect. Take time to listen to other stakeholders and consider the unintended consequences of working directly with ILC. While it may not have been anyone’s intent to cause donors to withdraw support for our students, this is the impact of the decision to “let it cost.” It has cost our students. There must be a way it can be remedied. We teach our kids that everyone makes mistakes. We learn and grow from them. The same can happen here.
Is it possible to work together to prevent more unintended harm to our students? Can you earn back the trust of this community and generous donor(s)? We’d like to optimistically think this can still happen. The ILC engagement letter stated that either party can terminate the contract at any time. We urge you to thoughtfully contemplate what the ILC has already cost our students and how this wrong can be righted.
Please do not let it cost our students more than it already has.
Sincerely,
Andy and Kelly Pelc
Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.