During the last Pleasant Valley School Board meeting, Superintendent James Konrad noted that the enrollments for PV students in outside cyber charter schools are decreasing.

I have charted the enrollment numbers from the board agenda to discover this is not the case. In fact, the numbers have increased during this academic year alone.

9/17/23 - 359; 10/5/23 - 358; 10/19/23 - 353; No report in November, 202; 12/7/23 - 386; 1/25/23 - 399.

With 399 students currently enrolled in more than 16 different cyber charter schools, it is no wonder that the PV taxpayers will incur millions of dollars in fees during this budget year.

State Rep. Tarah Probst has sponsored HB 1422 to establish regulations for cyber charter charges to districts because the unregulated funding of cyber charter schools drains resources from school districts and negatively affects all taxpayers.

In her attempt to gather data from local school districts about the exorbitant costs incurred by districts, Rep. Probst asked local superintendents to provide her with specific data on cyber charter costs. From all of the superintendents invited to share information and to attend a local town hall meeting to discuss and find solutions, PV Superintendent Konrad was the only superintendent who chose not to attend or share information.

Significant amounts of tax dollars are wasted annually in payments to cyber charter schools for services not rendered. This is a major problem statewide and not unique only to Pleasant Valley School District.

Those superintendents assisting Rep. Probst need to be applauded for their efforts in helping taxpayers save money.

I cannot believe that the Pleasant Valley Board of Education would agree with not sharing this information, so Rep. Probst has a full picture of our financial costs from outside cyber charter schools to support HB 1422.

Donna M. Yozwiak

Saylorsburg