22. Columbia Borough School District(Columbia, Pa.)
Students: 1,347
Student/teacher ratio: 14:1
24 Percent proficient in math
43 Percent proficient in reading
62 Percent graduation rate
Spending per student: $16,115
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22. Columbia Borough School District(Columbia, Pa.)
Students: 1,347
Student/teacher ratio: 14:1
24 Percent proficient in math
43 Percent proficient in reading
62 Percent graduation rate
Spending per student: $16,115
21 comments:
But go ahead and keep sending your kids there!
Guess who has been in a lead role over the last 12 years.
Guess who has been rewarded for this dismal and embarrassing situation with the highest job in the district.
This is disgusting and beyond reprehensible.
Our once proud district is the laughing stock of Lancaster county.
Dont worry about these statistics, its only a number, hell we could be 49, what this town needs are more TREE GRATES!!!!
There are 500 school districts in Pa. My guess would be that Columbia is the only district led by a person with no educational experience and an online degree.
It is clear that a thorough investigation by the auditor general regarding Strickler's approval by the school board must be done.
It is sad for Columbia's students and teachers and taxpayers that this situation currently exists. Embarrassment is not a strong enough word to describe this tragic situation.
Highest taxes and lowest rated schools in the county. Combine this with overspending in the last 10 years and an unqualified superintendent and it becomes a race to the bottom, with sinking home values and students not being served properly. If stopping corruption is a goal , one method is to follow the money. Who is from gaining the most and who is losing.
As the principal of Columbia High School, I believe we are making positive progress. We have many successful programs in place and have done a lot of work in regard to our curriculum. Unfortunately, change will take time, but we have a great team of administrators and teachers in place to provide consistency to our district and our students. We all need to work together and support each other as we work toward making our district better!
Eugene DePasquale
Auditor General
613 North ST.
Harrisburg, Pa.
717-787-2543
If you believe that Columbia school board and the superintendent situation needs outside review, this is the contact information.
Watch your property tax rise to support this awesomeness!!!
Seems right, since Columbia Borough is the laughing stock of Lancaster County. Why stop now?
Maybe if the Columbia Spy, Columbia News and Views would attend all the meetings of the school board and borough council and report on everything going on, not just the controversial stuff or negative stuff, like good reporters do, they may have found out what the issues are and what is being done to correct them which was explained at a recent meeting,which you were not there but others were. These sites need to tell both sides of the story, which unless it stirs the pot doesn't happen.
Don't you think matters of this importance should be discussed at the regular school board meetings? So that people don't have to attend every single committee meeting? Funny when you school board people and top clown croney want things reported, you go straight to LNP to get it out there and try to spin some BS positive slant on it.
You only have to walk the halls at the high school between classes to see for yourself how well disciplined the school is. Fighting, cursing, pushing, and NO faculty anywhere to monitor the situation. Been there a few weeks back, so unless a miracle occurred I'm guessing plans are on paper and have not been executed.
Dr. Smith, I respectfully encourage you to attend a sporting event and witness your athletes and the attitudes displayed toward you OWN coaching staff. Quite embarrassing!
The pot was not stirred enough because the bad soup remains that creates a bad taste in the mouths of honest taxpayers who deserve integrity from elected board members.
The stirring of the pot will continue until the truth comes out.
Why does the Columbia Spy have to be fair and balanced. It's his blog.
The "good" reporters don't attend all meetings either, they call Leo and Greg and publish the filtered version.
Negative does not equal false. Those wishing to hide the truth to bolster the town's image equal false.
Recently there was an article shared that Columbia is #22 on the list of the 50 worst school districts in PA.
Does Columbia High School have problems? Yes!
Does Columbia High School have fights? Yes!
Does Columbia High School have students who curse? Yes!
Do other schools have these same problems? Absolutely!
It is very easy to be negative. As humans, our brains are hardwired to focus on the negative. Psychologists call this “negativity bias.” Our attitudes are more influenced by negative news than positive news. An example, studies suggest that when we go to a restaurant or another business and have a bad experience, we are at least twice as likely to tell people about our negative experience than if we had a good experience. Similarly, when something bad happens in a school, it is very easy for us to focus and dwell on the negative situation (fights, poor attitudes, etc.) than it is to focus on the positives.
A recent post encouraged me to attend a sporting event. I frequently attend extracurricular events including sporting events, band competitions, and drama productions. Do we have students that have negative attitudes? Absolutely! We also have a majority of students who have positive attitudes. Recently we had a basketball player score 1000pts. More impressive to me is that she is a straight A student, has a positive attitude, and works hard in athletics and school. We also recently recognized a senior wrestler who has found a lot of success on the wrestling mat. More importantly, he gets excellent grades, mentors a high school student, works with our elementary students, and is a wonderful young man. In addition, we are in the process of recognizing approximately 50 students who are involved in extracurricular activities and maintain above a 3.25 grade point average.
Other positives…Our Attollo Program saw 24 participants complete Attollo Prep by coming into school at 5:30am to learn valuable leadership skills and how to apply them to school and life. These students continue to excel in school and are currently studying for the SATs, most of it on their own time after school or on the weekends…Columbia High School had their first early enrollment student be accepted to Thaddeus Stevens College…We have numerous students that are taking dual enrollment courses receiving both high school and college credit…Our student council is very active in the community planning events such as mini-thon, service projects, and partnerships with retirement communities…this year we started a Peer-2-Peer student mentoring program where we paired juniors/seniors with freshman/sophomores to help guide them in their high school journey…our high school band was extremely successful in competition this fall…we have added Bocce as an extracurricular activity to involve ALL students including students with special needs…these are just a few examples of the awesome things that our students and staff are involved with.
Columbia Borough School district has challenges. However, we are not unique in the challenges we face on a daily basis. All it takes is a look at the newspaper or watching the daily news to see that other schools in Lancaster County and across the country have similar challenges that they face.
We will continue to work extremely hard to what is best for all students and hope that our parents and community will work together and support us in good and bad times as we strive to improve Columbia Borough School District!
Thank you!
Dr. Michael M. Smith
High School Principal
As a reminder, this article appeared in Penn Live. It was not written by the Columbia Spy.
Thank you Dr. Smith for the work you are doing and for taking the time to comment. I'm certain that you have challenges on your plate everyday.
Sharon Lintner
I have no clue what school you visited, but the Columbia High faculty stands outside monitoring the halls while students move in between classes. As far as cursing, well duh it's high school, and it shouldn't be a surprise. As far as fighting and pushing, you definitely are over-exaggerating, because this rarely ever happens, but it is also not uncommon to see a fight in high school.
So glad for the fine achievements some are doing that is great. What you seem to not understand here is that we can no longer afford the taxation that is happening in this town. You may be improving but with that in mind we all know you will want even more money. We CAN NO LONGER AFFORD IT. The state needs to step in to save us. Soon we will no longer have a town and will loose the investment we made in our homes. Come down off your dream cloud & get real please. Do the right thing for this town before all is lost....
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