Mill Creek committee advances Canva contract, aviation dual-enrollment and new Ridgefield alternative program to full board

The Mill Creek Township School District Instruction and Student Services Committee voted Feb. 10 to move five instructional items to the full board for final action, including a three-year, no-cost contract for Canva, a new aviation-focused dual-enrollment agreement with Community College of Beaver County, a proposal to open district-run alternative education classrooms at Ridgefield and revisions to the student code of conduct addressing attendance and tardies.

Committee chairperson Mrs. White Scholl opened the item batch and asked the presenter to outline the proposals. A district administrator described the Canva arrangement as a three-year, districtwide license offered at no cost, saying the multi-year term is the reason for the committee review. The same presenter said the Community College of Beaver County agreement covers online coursework plus flight time handled through North Coast Air at Erie County Airport and will apply only to an aviation academy, not the college’s six-academy catalog.

On the alternative education proposal, an administrator told the committee the district would house middle- and high-school alternative classrooms at Ridgefield with approximately 10–12 seats at each level. “We will do that and actually be able to save the district money while gaining more seats than we currently have,” the administrator said, adding the plan would reuse existing Ridgefield staff (a special education teacher, counselor and building administrator) and rely on attrition to add two teacher positions rather than creating new full-time high-school hires. The administrator said additional roles under consideration include a secretary, two educational assistants, a safety/security liaison and possibly a nurse; the district committed to returning to the board with estimated one-time and recurring “soft” costs including custodial, IT access points and food-service logistics.

The committee also reviewed an updated student code of conduct. The presenter said the attendance threshold that had been raised to 18 excused days during the COVID era would be reduced to 15 in the revised code, noting state chronic absenteeism is defined as 10% of the school year (about 18 days in a 180-day year) and the district’s data showed chronic absenteeism rose when the threshold was increased. The committee heard a separate proposed change to the high-school tardy policy: raising the number of tardies that trigger an hour of detention from four to eight in order to make the disciplinary step administrable and more likely to be enforced.

Board members asked questions about displacement of current Ridgefield occupants (the administrator said no one would be displaced by the alternative program now), custodial and one-time equipment costs, and how lunches would be handled; the administrator said food would likely be prepared in another building and transported to Ridgefield while the district completes a separate RFP for food-service contractor selection. On the dual-enrollment aviation program, members heard that flight instruction would be provided by North Coast Air.

After discussion, the committee voted to move items 3.01 through 3.05 to the full board meeting at the end of the month.

The committee record shows no final board-level adoption of the instructional proposals on Feb. 10; they were forwarded for consideration at the board meeting scheduled Feb. 24.