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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 16, 2015:
School directors,
superintendents and administrators are encouraged to register and attend this
event.
Bucks / Lehigh / Northampton
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 from 7:00 PM to
9:00 PM Quakertown Community School District , 100
Commerce Drive
Quakertown , PA
18951
MULTIPLE CHOICES:THE INS AND OUTS OF SCHOOL FUNDING IN
PENNSYLVANIA
Keystone Crossroads
Series
'Fully fund my education
because ...'
Winning entries from a student essay contest on the
school funding crisis.
By NewsWorks Staff on May 15, 2015 01:19 PM
The Philadelphians
most affected by the city's school funding crisis are without a doubt the
nearly 200,000 District and charter school students. We talk about the students
all the time, but how often do we talk to the students? In order to give them a voice in the public
discussion, Mayor Nutter, Superintendent William Hite and Philadelphia
Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan announced an essay competition in
April called "Students Speak."
The campaign encouraged students across the city to submit written and
video essays that completed the sentence: "Fully fund my education because
..." The winning entries, announced Thursday -- a written essay and a
video from elementary, middle, and high school levels -- appear here.
By Mary Niederberger
/ Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette May 15, 2015 2:47 PM
The Pennsylvania
School Boards Association today said it has filed Right-to-Know requests with
charter and cyber charter school operators asking for financial information
about their schools. The requested items
include advertising costs, contracts with private management companies,
advanced academic courses offered, salary and compensation information for all
180 brick and mortar and cyber charter schools in the state. The Right-to-Know requests also ask for
documents related to leases and real estate and donation information from
foundations or educational improvement organizations. Nathan Mains, PSBA executive director, said
the information being sought will help his association and the school districts
it represents to better understand how charter schools operate and to provide
transparency to taxpayers on charter school spending.
PSBA NEWS RELEASE: RTK request to charters seeks
transparency in spending
PSBA website POSTED ON MAY
15, 2015
In an effort to
better understand the operations, financial needs and expenses of Pennsylvania charter
schools, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) today sent a
Right-to-Know request to charter and cyber charter schools asking for a short
list of public information. The requested items include advertising costs;
contracts with private management companies; advanced academic courses offered;
donation information to the charter from any foundation or educational
improvement organization; salary and compensation information; and documents
related to leases and real estate. “For
years charter proponents have criticized public schools claiming they don’t
understand how charter operators work or the costs and benefits of charters,”
said Nathan Mains, executive director of PSBA. “The data we are requesting will
help the association and our member school entities better understand the work
of charters around the state.” As public
school entities, charters are funded by public dollars and taxpayers have every
right to know how their money is being spent. The ultimate goal of the request
is to ensure transparency in charter school spending. Last year, nearly $1.3
billion passed through traditional public schools to charters and cyber charter
schools.
Big Votes on Big Ideas
Penn Live slide
show by Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com May 15, 2015
Server issue disrupts
Keystone Exams in Pennsylvania
About 500 middle and
high school students taking the state's Keystone Exams in Lancaster County
Friday were disrupted by a server issue, according to district officials.
An email sent to
superintendents by state education secretary Pedro Rivera said that the server
operated by testing company Data Recognition Corporation was disrupted around
9:30 a.m. At School District of Lancaster
No tax hike in Pottstown School District
By Evan Brandt,
The Mercury POSTED: 05/15/15,
7:14 PM EDT | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
"Truebright, which
opened in 2007, is one of more than 120 charters nationwide founded and
operated by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam who lives in
self-imposed exile in the Poconos."
Appeals court orders Truebright charter to close
Appeals court orders Truebright charter to close
MARTHA
WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Saturday, May 16, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Friday, May 15,
2015, 7:34 PM
The troubled Truebright Science Academy
Charter School
Aspira Charter staffers to
vote on whether to unionize
MARTHA
WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Saturday, May 16, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Friday, May 15,
2015, 3:06 PM
Teachers and other
staffers at John B. Stetson Charter School 3200
B St . If
the teachers vote to join AFT, Stetson would be the second city charter
operated by the nonprofit Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania
recently to vote for union representation. Teachers at Olney Charter
High School
A who's who in the race
for Philly City Council
WHYYNewsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY MAY 15, 2015
As disagreements in
recent years between Philadelphia 's
mayor and City Council have shown, Council's 17 members can collectively wield
a lot of power. (Exhibit #1 from this year: The foiled sale of
Philadelphia Gas Works, a situation in which Council refused to even hold a
hearing on Mayor Michael Nutter's plan to sell the utility to a private
company.) In Tuesday's primary, all 17 council
seats are up for re-election, but only a few races are expected to be
competitive. Of the 10 district
seats, six council members are running unopposed; so, consider those champagne
corks already popped.
The Challengers: Helen Gym’s Aim — To Be a Schools
Watchdog With Teeth and Vigilant Eyes
A series of Citified Q&As with the top
Democratic challengers in the at-large City Council race.
PhillyMag Citified BY PATRICK KERKSTRA | MAY
15, 2015 AT 12:38 PM
All week,
Citified is featuring Q&As with leading at-large City Council
Democratic challengers on topics of their choosing. The prompt was simple: if
elected, what’s a problem you would you prioritize, and how would you address
it? To keep the conversation substantive and on-point, we asked the candidates
to focus on a relatively narrow question (i.e., not “schools,” or “crime.”)
Longtime schools
activist Helen Gym is
running an at-large campaign powered by an enthusiastic grassroots network of
supporters, the backing of teacher unions and her own indomitable personality. Her
presence on Council would surely shakeup a a legislative body that is, plainly,
sick and tired of talking about the city’s struggling schools and how to
fund them. Gym would make
schools her central focus if she is elected to Council. In
particular, Gym wants to dramatically change Council's approach to schools
oversight, and that's the subject she chose to discuss with Citified.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/05/15/challengers-interview-helen-gym/#JxFwvlAFERURQ6wL.99
Insider: The Hot New Schools Cure-All That Isn’t a
Cure-All
Forbriger: “Community schools” are a fine
idea, but they’re also expensive and their effectiveness is unproven.
PhillyMag Citified BY KRISTEN FORBRIGER | MAY
14, 2015 AT 10:30 AM
(Editor’s note:
This is an opinion column from a Citified insider.)
City Council released a proposal last week
to create “School-Based Family Service Centers” building on the recent
popularity of the community schools concept. It’s the education idea that
everyone — including mayoral candidates — can get behind: Jim
Kenney announced a goal to create 25
community schools; Doug Oliver’s plan “Homework” calls for bringing City agencies, like
health and human services, into schools; and both Senator Anthony Williams’ and Nelson Diaz’ education
proposals call for schools to provide “wraparound services.” And what's not to
love about community schools? Defined as “both a place and
a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources,” they
“integrate academics, health and social services, youth and community development
and community engagement.” Supporters make this analogy: a traditional
school is like a rotary phone — providing just education services
— while a community school is like a smart phone — allowing a school
and its community to connect with lots of needed services.
This sounds like a
smart idea. So why aren’t we already doing it? The current public narrative
about community schools seems to be evading a few key questions:
Former District CEO
continues to champion education
Phil Goldsmith, Notebook member
the notebook By Camden Copeland on May 15,
2015 11:56 AM
Phil Goldsmith has
worn many hats in Philadelphia .
He has worked in law, journalism, banking, and government. But it was
Goldsmith’s position as interim CEO of the School District
from 2000 to 2001 that started his relationship with the Notebook. “I remember [Notebook editor]
Paul Socolar coming to interview me. They did some short pieces on me, and
that’s how I really got to see the Notebook,” Goldsmith said. His leadership of the District took place
during challenging times. He tried to counter privatization of the District,
fighting Harrisburg
on the plan to have Edison Schools Inc. take over schools. The District was in
financial crisis, and he and others negotiated with state legislators to
receive more school funding in exchange for giving the state more control and
creating the School Reform Commission.
School directors, superintendents and
administrators are encouraged to register and attend this event.
Bucks / Lehigh /
Northampton Legislative Council
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Quakertown Community School District, 100 Commerce
Drive Quakertown, PA 18951
Welcome by Paul Stepanoff , Board President , QCSD
Introduction of Paul Clymer, State of State Education
Mr. Glenn Grell , PSERS Executive Director
Introduction by Dr. Bill Harner, Superintendent QCSD
Panel of Superintendents and Elected School Directors from Bucks / Lehigh
/ Northampton Counties
Introduction by Mark B. Miller, Board Vice President, Centennial SD
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:
1) The status of 2015-16 budget in their district (including proposed tax
increase)
2) PSERS impact on their budget
3) Proposed use of any new funding from Commonwealth
Larry Feinberg and Ron Williams
Benefit and need for County Wide Legislative Council in Delaware and
Montgomery Counties respectively
Dr. Tom Seidenberger (Retired Superintendent ) - Circuit Rider Update
SAVE The DATE: Northwestern PA School Funding Forum
May 28, 2015 7:00 PM Jefferson Educational
Society 3207 State St.
Erie , PA 16508
Panelists
Conneaut School
District
Mr. Jarrin
Sperry, Superintendent, Ms. Jody Sperry, Board President
Corry School
District
Mr. William Nichols,
Superintendent
Fort LeBoeuf
School District
Mr. Richard Emerick,
Assistant Superintendent
Girard School
District
Dr. James Tracy,
Superintendent
Harbor Creek
School District
Ms. Christine
Mitchell, Board President
Millcreek School
District
Mr. William Hall,
Superintendent Mr. Aaron O'Toole, Director of Finance and Accounting
Keynote Speaker
Mr. Jay Himes,
Executive Director, Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials
PHILLY DISTRICT TO HOLD
COMMUNITY BUDGET MEETINGS
Wednesday,
May 20
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