Superintendent highlights Odyssey of the Mind world finals invite and raises concerns about cyber charter spending

Superintendent Dr. Sage used her update to congratulate district teams advancing to national competition and to raise concerns about the funding and spending practices of cyber charter schools highlighted in public reporting.

Dr. Sage announced the district’s fifth-grade Odyssey of the Mind team finished second at the state level and has been invited to the world finals at Michigan State University, May 20–24 (dates given as approximate in the transcript). She said the district will cover registration and that the team is fundraising for travel and related expenses.

Dr. Sage also directed the board’s attention to a weekly report from a website called Ed Votes PA that is analyzing “right-to-know” documents and spending by cyber charter schools. She said the report showed that a cyber school called Reach (Reach Insight/Reach Cyber School in the transcript) spent “over $350,000 just on Google cam Google ads and Facebook ads,” and cited a figure of about $359 per student for that advertising. Dr. Sage said that while school choice is “an intensely personal parent choice,” the way cyber charter schooling is funded “has a significant impact on the local tax base” and that those local dollars are distributed to national, for-profit organizations.

Dr. Sage characterized the advertising expenditures as an example of how public tax dollars are being used by some cyber providers and urged awareness of the fiscal consequences for local districts. No district action was taken during the meeting on cyber charter funding; Dr. Sage’s remarks were informational and framed as context for board awareness.