Copyright Mechanicsburg Patriot News
Editor’s note: This is the seventh story in a series titled “Virtual Dominance: How a cyber charter school has upended K-12 education in Pa.” The series investigates the causes and consequences of the unprecedented growth of Commonwealth Charter Academy–Pa.’s fastest growing school. Cyber school boards are frequently not as transparent as local school boards, Kevin Busher, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association testified during a hearing of the Pa. House Education Committee in May. “Their board meetings are often not widely advertised, agendas not publicly available, and information can be difficult to find,” he said. PennLive analyzed some of the basic transparency practices of Pa.’s cyber charter schools and found this was true for the two largest cyber schools. Unlike traditional public school district boards, Pa.’s public cyber charter school boards appoint their own board members and don’t have the ability to raise taxes in order to raise revenue. But they are required to follow many other transparency practices required of traditional schools, including Pa.’s Sunshine Act. But beyond the legal requirements, cyber schools have some leeway about how easy they want to make it for the public to participate in their meetings and understand what they are deciding. PennLive looked at eight aspects of how boards operate, including how easy it is to attend a meeting or understand what will be decided. Then PennLive compared each cyber charter school’s record with a traditional school district that had the most similar enrollment in 2023-2024. The two largest cyber schools, Commonwealth Charter Academy and Pennsylvania Cyber Charter, are substantially less transparent than similarly sized traditional school districts, according to PennLive’s analysis. PA Cyber didn’t respond to a request for comment. But Tim Eller, a spokesperson for CCA said the school follows all laws and regulations of the school’s transparency practices. “CCA’s Board of Trustees operates with full transparency and accountability to the students, families, and the public we serve,” Eller said. PennLive’s analysis found Pa.’s 11 small and medium-sized cyber charter schools had policies and practices similar to traditional school districts of a similar size—and in a few cases were even more transparent. “My board is very much aware of their responsibility to the local taxpayers and why they want everything that we’re doing being done in the sunshine and easily accessible for legislators, reporters, or any taxpayer who would want to go in and see what we’re doing and how we’re spending those funds,” said Eileen Cannistraci, who served as the CEO of PA Insight Cyber Charter School until earlier this month. Busher told PennLive that he thinks it’s a problem if the largest cyber schools are among the least transparent. “The larger the cyber charter, the more transparency, openness and accountability there should be,” Busher said. Commonwealth Charter Academy is the second largest public K-12 educational organization in Pennsylvania but its board is less transparent than smaller cyber charter schools and traditional school districts. CCA’s leaders say the school follows all applicable transparency laws and that its governance requirements differ from those of traditional districts. CCA publishes fewer years of meeting minutes than smaller cyber schools and large traditional school districts. It doesn’t post detailed information about what its board is voting on, such as the contracts and policies under discussion. And there are no video recordings of its meetings that would give additional information about what was discussed. CCA holds its meetings at 9 a.m., when many parents and staff cannot attend because they are working. The school posts the schedule of its board meetings and the email addresses of its trustees. But CCA is one of only three cyber schools that requires the public to send an email in advance to receive a link to watch the board meeting on Zoom. The board doesn’t hold committee meetings that would give the public a clearer sense of how the district is making decisions. Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School’s board is much less transparent than the equivalently sized public school board. The cyber school and its board didn’t respond to a request for comment. PA Cyber publishes the email addresses of its members and provides a link so the public can attend meetings virtually. It also provides 10 years worth of meeting minutes that give a limited sense of what the board has voted on. But the board doesn’t post detailed information about the policies and contracts that are being voted on. And it doesn’t post video recordings of past meetings that would provide greater transparency over what was discussed. The board doesn’t publish its full schedule in advance–instead only giving information about the next meeting on its website. The 4:30 p.m. start to its meetings are more accessible than some cyber schools but many parents are still working during that time. PA Cyber has been slow to respond to PennLive records requests. PennLive requested six years worth of school board documents from PA Cyber in April, even though many cyber schools post this information publicly. CCA, the other large cyber school, provided the requested board documents in a little over a month. It took PA Cyber more than six months to make all of this information available. REACH Cyber School’s board posts 10 years worth of detailed information about its decisions, including both its board packets and minutes. That makes it the only one of the three largest Pa. cyber charter school that provides this transparency into how it operates and makes decisions. REACH has made additional efforts to make its work more transparent recently. In 2023 it began holding separate finance committee meetings where the board discusses its financial decisions. The board holds its meetings at 9 a.m. when many parents and staff will be working. While this is an unusual time for traditional school districts, a spokesperson for REACH said morning meetings have a larger turnout. The school didn’t clarify if it used to hold its meetings at a different time. Agora Cyber Charter School posts a more extensive record of minutes and more detailed information about policies and contracts that its board is voting on than the equivalent local school district. However, it doesn’t post the email addresses of its board members, so parents can reach out with questions and concerns. The board holds its meetings at 4 p.m. during a time when some parents may still be working. Insight PA Cyber Charter has the most extensive use of board committee meetings of any cyber school, which its leaders say allows board members to dive deeper into the issues facing the school. Insight PA’s transparency practices exceeded every other cyber school’s and most traditional public school districts analyzed by PennLive. PA Virtual Charter makes it easy to know when meetings are, holds them at a time when most parents can attend and provides an easy-to-find link to join virtually. It also provides a decade’s worth of minutes for its board meetings. But it doesn’t post detailed information about the contracts and policies the board is voting on. The district provides a general email address to reach its board members but not individual emails for each one. Pennsylvania Leadership Cyber Charter School is nearly as transparent as the equivalent school district. But the cyber district has not posted the majority of its archived meeting minutes and it doesn’t post detailed information about what its board votes on. Pennsylvania Distance Learning Cyber Charter School has posted a number of years worth of minutes for its meetings but the equivalent traditional district publishes a much more detailed record of what they discuss than what is available from PA Distance. PA Distance started posting Zoom links on its agendas earlier this year and it publishes the email addresses of its board members, which the local district doesn’t do. The school’s board meetings are at 4 p.m. when some parents are still working. 21st Century Cyber Charter makes it easy to find out when board meetings will be and how to log on. Their website also includes more than a dozen years of detailed information about what its board has discussed and is voted on. The time of the meetings is inconvenient for some parents and they don’t publish the email addresses of their board members. Esperanza Cyber School posts a more extensive record of its board meeting minutes than the equivalent local school district and also has a detailed record of what its board members are voting on. The meetings occur in the afternoon when some parents are still working and there is no virtual option listed. Achievement House Cyber Charter has meetings at 7 p.m when parents can attend but it may be difficult to do so because it doesn’t post the meeting schedule. If you email the district, they will provide a link to attend the meeting remotely but you also have to ask for the time and date of the meeting. It provides two years of meeting minutes, the lowest amount of any cyber charter school. And it doesn’t provide any detailed information about what was voted on at those meetings. It does, however, publish the email addresses of its board members. ASPIRA Bilingual Cyber Charter’s holds board meetings at a time when parents can attend and posts information about how to reach its board members and what time the meetings are and includes a link to attend the meeting virtually. Both ASPIRA and the traditional school district of the same size make a decade worth of meeting minutes available but both could be more transparent by posting more information about what policies and contracts the board is voting on. Central PA Digital Learning Foundation is, by far, the smallest cyber school in Pennsylvania but it is more transparent than some of its much bigger peers. The school provides five years worth of detailed information about what happens at its board meetings, including detailed information about contracts and policies being voted on. Central PA holds its meetings in the middle of the day, which makes it difficult for many to attend, and only meets every other month. The school requires an email to attend its virtual meeting—but that is better than the traditional school district of a similar size, which doesn’t advertise an option for virtual attendance.
