Members of the Warwick School Board are questioning expenditures related to right-to-know requests being made by residents, while parents push back against allegations from the district.
At the Jan. 3 Committee of the Whole meeting, board President Todd Rucci asked Nate Wertsch, Warwick chief financial officer, how much the district spent on solicitor services on right-to-know requests in the last few months.
Wertsch said the November billable hours were $8,000, bringing the total costs of the year to $25,076.
Rucci asked if it was possible to add a link to the district’s website to “keep tabs” of the hours and costs related to right-to-know requests, similar to how the district puts building project change orders on the site.
“Obviously that’s a large number that this district has to incur,” Rucci said. “Maybe we can have some details or the subject matter.”
Wertsch said he could talk to the solicitor to determine what information could be released to the public regarding right-to-know requests.
“We can’t provide detailed information, but I’m sure I can talk to our solicitor and get some sort of summary information similar to what we do with change orders,” Wertsch said.
The discussion was a continuation of questions asked at the Dec. 6 Committee of the Whole meeting when a parent asked how much the district spent in previous years on right-to-know requests.
Wertsch said the district spent $8,227 in 2021, while the previous year was $1,331 and the year before that was $2,780.
Parent Questions
After the meeting, Lititz resident and administrator on Warwick Parents for Change’s Facebook page Justin Kratzer sent an email to Rucci and the rest of the school board members laying out his concerns regarding the right-to-know requests. Kratzer has made several right-to-know requests of the district over the last year.
Kratzer asked why many in the public feel making right-to-know requests is the only way “accurate information” can be obtained about actions taken by the Warwick administration. Kratzer then presented 12 different instances of information he learned about the district through right-to-know requests made since the start of the 2021-2022 school year.
One such instance included a lack of justification for a police presence at the Warwick Middle School at the start of the school year despite claims of “threats on social media to storm the buildings” by parents.
“Requests for the social media posts relied upon to justify this claim did not exist and were subsequently not turned over with the RTK request,” Kratzer said in his email. “Both police departments with jurisdiction over the district’s buildings refuted the district office’s claims about a police report.”
Kratzer said another right-to-know request revealed the controversial book “Gender Queer” was not actually donated as claimed in a district communication sent on Oct. 15, 2021. He said parents were additionally told “Gender Queer” was evaluated by staff and was put back on the shelf of the library.
Lititz resident Amy Martin has made requests for several months to Warwick Superintendent Dr. April Hershey to see the evaluation criteria used to evaluate “Gender Queer” and other library material, but has been told the criteria is being rewritten. Kratzer said Dr. Steve Szobocsan, director of secondary curriculum, instruction and assessment, told Martin that the evaluation criteria “doesn’t exist” despite it being mentioned in the existing board policy manual regarding requirements against which donated materials are to be screened.
Kratzer said right-to-know requests also uncovered “news” coverage of school board meetings by a reporter from the Lititz Record Express coordinating with the district office. He also said an instance was found where Warwick students were “coerced into getting COVID vaccines to maintain eligibility for an internship program.”
“Have we consistently seen ownership of these missteps, or do we see hostility toward those who ask questions and point out discrepancies in the district/board’s narratives?” Kratzer asked in his email. “Do any of these issues, let alone all of them together, start to paint a picture on why there are trust issues?”
Kratzer also pointed out that the right-to-know process is protected by state law and is a taxpayer right.
“All of the questions the public is asking on these issues and submitting right to know requests – they should be the questions you all are asking as board members providing district oversight and asking why policy isn’t being followed and there are violations of the code of employee conduct,” Kratzer said in his email.
Staff writer Michael Yoder is an award-winning journalist who has been honored with several Keystone Press Awards for his investigative pieces.
Excellent article! Lititz Record Express never prints accurate information, so we at Warwick School District are very lucky to have Mike Yoder reporting on local issues with fair, and ethical journalism.
I find that really sad there are community members (and people in the district office) who would spread hateful and harmful lies and misinformation about parents and Warwick families just to cause problems and frighten people.
Thankfully, there are so many good and caring people in our wonderful little town who stand for truth, and are looking for others. You know who you are – thank you !