Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3900 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition
team members, Superintendents, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher
leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory
agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via
emails, website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup April 6, 2016:
Gov. Wolf
Announces Basic Ed Funding Distribution; BTW, in 2011 Philly had just 12% of
the state’s students but took 35% of the cuts.
Campaign for Fair Education Funding - Rally for Public Education
Save the date: May 2nd at the Capitol
Susan Spicka of Education
Voters PA and PA Budget Secretary Randy Albright are guests on EPLC’s “Focus on
Education” one-hour program that will be broadcast initially on PCN
on Sunday, April 10, at 3:00 p.m.
Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Susan Spicka is the guest for the
first half of the program and discusses the work of Education Voters PA and the Campaign for Fair Education Funding and
related education funding issues.
Secretary Randy Albright is the
guest for the second half of the program and discusses a broad range of
education funding issues, including the 2015-2016 and the 2016-2017 budgets.
25% - The increase in the likelihood that
at-risk children who do not participate in high-quality early education
programs will drop out of school.
Equity Starts Early: How Chiefs
Will Build High-Quality Early Education
COUNCIL
OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS March 2016
“For the remainder of the 2015-16 year, looking only at an
additional $50 million for basic education funding, money was allocated to
districts as follows:
- $25
million is being allocated for the restoration of the charter school
reimbursement program.
- $20
million is being allocated to continue to restore cuts made by Governor
Corbett and the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011-12.
- $5 million is being allocated through the new basic education fair
funding formula.”
Governor Wolf
Announces Basic Education Funding Distribution
Governor Wolf Press Release April 05, 2016
Harrisburg,
PA –
Governor Tom Wolf today announced the distribution formula his administration
will use to allocate basic education funding for the remainder of 2015-2016.
The governor released the following statement:
“Since day one, I have been fighting for historic investments in
education at all levels, including K through 12 basic education, to restore the
devastating cuts that forced educator layoffs, increased class sizes, program
cuts, and soaring property taxes. I have also been pushing for a fair funding
formula to end Pennsylvania’s inequitable distribution of education dollars,
one of the most inequitable in the country.
“We still have a long way to go to restore the damaging cuts and to
implement a fair funding formula that takes into account each district’s unique
needs. The new fair funding formula, which I support, cannot truly be fair
unless the cuts are fully restored. Currently, only 4 percent of districts have
seen their funding restored to 2010-11 levels and we are currently over $370
million short from fully restoring the cuts.
“That is
why in January my administration began distributing money to schools through a
restoration formula and why we will be using a similar restoration formula now.
I remain hopeful Republican leaders will put politics aside and work with me to
pass the 2016-17 budget in order to ensure we are adequately investing in
education and finally implementing a fair funding formula.” ust
like in January, the Wolf Administration will continue the restoration of the
most essential and significant components of the severe education funding cuts
enacted under the previous governor and Republican-controlled legislature.
Majority
Leader Reed Responds to Governor’s Inequitable School Funding Distribution
PA House
GOP Caucus website 4/5/2016
HARRISBURG
– Reacting to Gov. Tom Wolf’s pronouncement of his own Basic Education Funding
formula to distribute funding to Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, House
Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana County) issued the following statement:
“Once again, the governor has proven to have a total disregard for the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission formula that would have finally brought fairness and equity to our public schools. Sadly, it’s yet another campaign promise that has fallen to the wayside.”
“Once again, the governor has proven to have a total disregard for the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission formula that would have finally brought fairness and equity to our public schools. Sadly, it’s yet another campaign promise that has fallen to the wayside.”
Wolf outlines
plans to distribute Pa. school funds
Herald Mail Media by Associated Press Posted: Tuesday, April 5,
2016 8:00 pm
HARRISBURG,
Pa. — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf disclosed Tuesday how he will split up state
funding for education after deciding to let the budget take effect without his
signature and vetoing a separate bill that included an education-aid
distribution formula. Wolf announced
what school districts will receive, prompting complaints from legislative
Republicans that his approach ignores a formula that was the product of lengthy
negotiations. Wolf said the funding
formula isn't fair unless lawmakers restore the state's subsidies to the levels
they were at before being cut under his Republican predecessor. He is splitting up $50 million in new money,
with most going to fund charter-school reimbursements and restore those cuts. House Republican Leader Dave Reed said the
governor is disregarding the negotiated formula, which he said was fair and equitable.
“Wolf said he is carrying through on his promise to restore
funding that was cut during the Corbett years and to push for a fairer funding
formula. He said the bipartisan-backed formula that lawmakers wanted to see
used – and he supports – "cannot truly be fair unless the cuts are fully
restored. Currently, only 4 percent of districts have seen their funding
restored to 2010-11 levels and we are currently over $370 million short from
fully restoring the cuts." So
instead of using the so-called fair funding formula that lawmakers wanted, he
said he was using what he calls a restoration formula.”
The 2015-16
state budget battle isn't over yet; Wolf's school funding distribution has GOP
threatening a lawsuit
Penn
Live By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on April 05, 2016 at 7:18 PM, updated April 06, 2016 at 12:17 AM
If you
think the battle over the 2015-16 state budget is over, think again.
Gov. Tom
Wolf opened up a new front in that nearly yearlong budget battle by announcing
his administration plans to distribute the $200 million in new education
funding included in the budget plan that he allowed to become law without his
signature on March 28. As you
might have guessed, that distribution plan isn't what the GOP lawmakers had in
mind and even has the Senate GOP considering filing a lawsuit as a possible
remedy. Republicans say Wolf doesn't have
the power to choose how the dollars are distributed.
"The new fair funding formula, which I support, cannot
truly be fair unless the cuts are fully restored," said Wolf in a
statement. "Currently, only 4 percent of districts have seen their funding
restored to 2010-11 levels and we are currently over $370 million short from
fully restoring the cuts."
…Pennsylvania has garnered national attention for having the widest
spending gaps between its richest and poorest districts. That phenomenon
is explained in large part by the fact the lion's share of total school funding
in the state comes from the local property tax-base.”
Gov. Wolf's
blueprint for school spending nets Philadelphia 7.55 percent boost
WHYY
Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
APRIL 6, 2016
The
School District of Philadelphia stands to see a $76.8 million boost this school
year based on Gov. Tom Wolf proceeding unilaterally on how to divide state
education cash. On Tuesday, Wolf
released details of his "restoration" funding formula to the protest
of leading Republican state lawmakers. Although
Wolf allowed the state budget as passed by the Republican-controlled
legislature to become law without his signature in late March, he vetoed the
fiscal code bill which, in part, acted as a roadmap for how new education
funding would be apportioned. As passed
by lawmakers, the fiscal code directed all new education money through a
student-weighted funding formula as recommended by a bipartisan commission. Wolf and other Democratic leaders argue that
districts should first be made whole from cuts that occurred when the
legislature agreed to Gov. Tom Corbett's 2011 austerity plan that coincided
with the expiration of federal stimulus dollars. Corbett's plan was his
solution to the double-whammy of a budget deficit and a gap left by dollars no
longer being supplied from Washington D.C.
Blogger note: In 2011, Philadelphia had just 12% percent of
the state’s students but took 35% of the cuts.
A Strong State Commitment to Public
Education, A Must Have for Pennsylvania’s Children
PA
Budget and Policy Center by Sharon Ward April 2014
The
state’s cuts affected all school districts, but all districts were not affected
equally. Instead, the reductions disproportionately affected the districts with
the poorest students, the highest local tax effort, or both. In terms of
per-student cuts, Philadelphia ranked first, with cuts of $1,351 per child,
followed by three other districts with per-student cuts of more than $1,000:
Chester-Upland ($1,194), York City ($1,096), and Southeastern Greene ($1,022).
As noted earlier, Philadelphia has just 12% percent of the state’s students but
took 35% of the cuts.
House, Senate
load proposals to respond to Fiscal Code veto
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, April 5,
2016/Categories: News and Views
The
House and Senate Tuesday took separate steps to load proposals that would
respond to Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of the Fiscal Code sent to his desk in March. Starting in the House, the House
Appropriations Committee took the step of loading a bare-bones Fiscal Code to a
bill that would provide relief to Pennsylvania’s horseracing industry. According to House Appropriations Committee
Chairman Bill Adolph (R-Delaware), the proposal that will now likely be
considered by the full House on Wednesday removes the five objections noted by
the governor in his veto message: the basic education funding formula, the bond
to provide for PlanCon reimbursements, the Ready to Learn block grants,
provisions relating to the Clean Power Plan, and Chapter 78 and Chapter 78a oil
and gas regulations. Rep. Adolph
told The PLS Reporter that the main reason to go with the
bare-bones approach is to get the budget money out to those who need it when
such ability is prohibited due to a lack of authorizing language usually found
in the Fiscal Code.
“The need for compromise on school funding methods, at
least, should be plainly visible from both sides of the aisle. The bipartisan
Basic Education Funding Commission a year ago recommended that education
funding better account for the differing demographics of school districts.”
Our view: Pa. must fix school funding
formula
GoErie
Editorial April 6, 2016 12:08 AM
Erie
School District teachers Lindsey Dahl and Erin Masolette are to be commended
for their creativity, resourcefulness and commitment. As Erica Erwin reported, the two are among
teachers nationwide who have taken to crowdfunding websites such as DonorsChoose.org to ask others to help
pay for activities their schools might not be able to afford. Dahl, who heads the science, technology,
engineering and math lab at Wilson Middle School, is seeking $688 to revitalize
a garden at the school and give students from the cash-strapped urban district
a hands-on science lesson in the life cycle of plants and, possibly, their
first exposure ever to the simple joy of gardening.
State Rep. Roae defends comments, position
on state budget
By Kevin
Flowers 814-870-1693 Erie
Times-News April 6, 2016 06:06 AM
ERIE,
Pa. -- State Rep. Brad Roae claims that the tone of an e-mail he sent to other
Republican legislators was misrepresented in an article that appeared in
Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the GOP's ongoing battle with Gov. Tom
Wolf over the state budget. The story
focused on a series of e-mails Republican legislators sent to their colleagues
this past week. Legislators mentioned in the story included Roae, of Crawford
County, R-6th Dist., and House Majority Leader Dave Reed, of Indiana County,
R-62nd Dist.
How much time do Lancaster County schools
devote to art and music classes?
Lancaster
Online by KARA NEWHOUSE
| Staff Writer Apr 4, 2016
For
almost four years, some parents in Manheim Township have decried the scant time
elementary students in the school district get in art, music, physical
education and library classes. They've
raised their frustrations through a protest, an online petition, meetings with the former superintendent
and frequent comments at school board meetings.
Now there may be some hope on the horizon. In March, Acting Superintendent Martin
Hudacs announced a 2016-17 staffing proposal that would add
two art teachers and two music teachers at the elementary level.
After tax hikes and school cuts, Manheim
Twp. School District has $25M surplus
Lancaster
Online by SUSAN BALDRIGE | KARA NEWHOUSE Staff Writers Apr 4, 2016
Things
looked bleak for the Manheim Township School District in 2011. The school board warned of a looming $4 million-plus
budget deficit, then voted to cut spending on programs, freeze teacher pay, and
raise property taxes. The moves were
drastic but necessary because of the weak economy and federal and state funding
cuts, school board members said at the time. “It’s
going to affect programs, it’s going to affect staffing, it’s going to affect
everything, pretty much,” one board member said before the decision. “We’re
trimming down to the basics, but we’re also reducing some of the things we
offer that make kids want to come to school, and that’s going to affect
achievement.” After all the talk of doom
and gloom, the district ended the year with money to spare — $3 million to
spare, to be exact. The pattern has
repeated itself in Manheim Township every year since: Officials project
substantial deficits, raise taxes on property owners, and hold off on restoring
program and staffing cuts. The result:
The district has been building up its reserves.
It had $7 million in total reserves in 2011. By the end of 2015, the
district had more than tripled its reserves and was holding on to $25 million —
one of the largest balances among the 16 school districts in the county,
records show.
“Wythe Keever, a PSEA spokesman, said of the union’s
180,000 members, about 7,000 teachers pay a fair share fee in lieu of union
dues, and of those, 300 have stated a religious objection. Four of those 300
have not been able to reach an agreement with the union on a charity, though he
said the PSEA has provided them a list of others. “This is a nuisance suit being brought by the
same right-wing legal counsel whose intent appears to be to attack and weaken
unions,” he said. “We’ve made a good faith effort to reach an agreement with these
fee-payers and will continue to do so.”
Apollo-Ridge teacher, PSEA face off over
use of nonmember fees
By Molly
Born / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 6, 2016 12:00 AM
A U.S.
district court judge has stayed an Armstrong County teacher's challenge to the
way Pennsylvania State Education Association uses fees collected in lieu of
union dues, pending the outcome of a similar case across the state. The court ruling last week was the latest
development in the debate over how the state’s largest teachers union handles
fees deducted from a handful of teachers, who object to union membership on
religious grounds, including teachers in Lancaster and Chester counties. Linda Misja, a French teacher at Apollo-Ridge
High School, sued the PSEA in federal court in June, saying the union is
withholding her funds indefinitely without access to "an independent
decision-making process" to resolve the conflict. The PSEA sought to
dismiss the case. By statute, religious
objectors like Ms. Misja can send those “fair share” fees — what
nonmembers pay to cover day-to-day union activities — to a nonreligious charity
agreed on by both parties. She wanted her money to be donated to People
Concerned for the Unborn Child, a Dormont anti-abortion organization, with
her second choice being the NRA Foundation, a charity affiliated with the
National Rifle Association that raises money for educational purposes.
After SRC
loses again in court, Neff says charter funding reform a must
WHYY
Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
APRIL 5, 2016
The
Pennsylvania Supreme court has delivered another blow to the Philadelphia
School Reform Commission. The SRC had
hoped the court would reconsider a February ruling that blunted the
commission's power. On Monday, the court denied that appeal. The prior
ruling found that the state legislature acted unconstitutionally by
delegating power to the SRC too broadly when it created the body to oversee
Philadelphia public schools nearly 15 years ago. The decision has wide-reaching implications
for two sectors that are typically at odds.
Charter schools with unsigned agreements are now within the law to
expand enrollment without district permission. If increased
significantly, that could have catastrophic fiscal consequences for the
district. And
teachers union members who've seen seniority protections ignored by the SRC in
recent years have recourse to challenge those decisions.
“Hackney, whose title is chief education officer, is the
point man for the Kenney administration’s priority to turn Philadelphia’s
neighborhood schools into “community schools” that network with neighborhood
groups and institutional partners to offer social, health, recreational and
other services to students and their families.”
Community
Schools: Otis Hackney: The man at the heart of city’s strategy
As the mayor’s
chief education officer, the former principal will help build “community
schools” around Philadelphia.
The
notebook by Bill
Hangley Jr. April 5, 2016 — 5:46pm
Otis
Hackney knows that it’s one thing to find success as a leader and quite another
to create a system that helps other leaders succeed. But that’s one of his tasks as Mayor Kenney’s
top education aide: to assist neighborhood school leaders in getting the same
results he got at South Philadelphia High School, where graduation rates rose
by double digits in his five years as principal. For others to replicate that success is no
small task, Hackney said. It will require creativity, discipline, and the
sensitivity needed to create not just a set of rules, but a true school
culture. “I was walking through the
courtyard in City Hall and I saw about 20 of my former students, coming from
the Flower Show,” Hackney said. “And they said, ‘We miss you! We miss you for
Town Halls.’ I said, ‘Y’all miss me yelling at you and telling you to come to
school on time?’ They said, ‘It’s not the same. They still kind of do it, but
we miss when you do it.’”
To narrow
'homework gap,' FCC approves subsidy to help needy students access internet
WHYY
Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
APRIL 4, 2016
The
Federal Communications Commission passed a landmark resolution last
week making low-income families eligible for a new federal subsidy for
high-speed internet access. One of the
commissioners visited a Philadelphia public school Monday to emphasize the need
for such a measure in an era of digital learning. According to the Pew Research Center, about
seven in 10 teachers across the country assign homework that
requires access to the internet, but more than 17 percent of families with
school-aged children lack
access to broadband in their homes. "That
problem, where those numbers overlap, is what I call the 'homework gap,'"
said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel before an audience of students and
educators at String Theory Charter's dazzling Center
City campus. Rosenworcel has been a
leading advocate in pushing the federal government to help ease this digital
divide — which especially affects low-income, black and Hispanic families. "If you want a fair shot at a 21st
century success, you're going to need to know how to use digital resources,
you're going to need to be able to use them at home and at school," she
said.
FRIENDS TO THE
RESCUE?
A coalition of schools “Friends
Groups” want to change the city
The
Philadelphia Citizen BY ROXANNE PATEL SHEPELAVY APR.
05, 2016
Jennifer
Motsney, of South Philly, is a second grade teacher in a public school in the
Northeast. But it wasn’t until she had children that she started thinking hard
about her own local school, Vare-Washington Elementary at 5th and Washington.
More than most young parents in Philly, Motsney understood the dire straits of
neighborhood public schools. She’d also heard of the galvanizing effects of
local “Friends Of” school groups, particularly in the neighborhoods surrounding
Vare-Washington, like East Passyunk and Pennsport. Unfortunately, as Motsney
discovered, Vare-Washington wasn’t one of those lucky schools. So Motsney did what dozens of
residents—parents to be, new neighbors, local business owners—have done in so
many neighborhoods around Center City: She
stepped up. She posted a note on a local community listserv and recruited a
handful of interested neighbors. And then Motsney started making calls. “I reached out to the leaders of a bunch of
Friends of groups,” Motsney said on Saturday, at a gathering of Philadelphians
looking to help their local schools. “All of them met with me, and gave me
advice, and were really helpful. You don’t have to figure this out on your
own.”
Philly’s W. B. Saul High School presents
Ewe Tube
W. B.
Saul students launch online stream to share lambing season with the public...
Please click here to read the full story.
Why Finnish
school students lead the world
ABC.net Monday
4 April 2016 9:05AM
Finland,
a country of 5.4 million people, has a remarkable edge on the world when it
comes to education. Finnish 15-year olds
routinely make it to the highest achieving academic groups in the world in
surveys testing maths, reading and science.
Yet with little standardised testing, and an emphasis on individualised
teaching, their system runs counter to many other OECD countries.
So what
are the Finns doing that's so right?
Groups to U.S.
Ed. Department: Don't Go Too Far in Regulating Spending Requirements
Education
Week Politics K-12 By Alyson Klein on April 4,
2016 2:45 PM
Attention
U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. and company: Don't go overboard in
attaching a bunch of new federal definitions and requirements to regulations
for the Every Student Succeeds Act, including when it comes to
supplement-not-supplant. That's the
message from a group of associations representing teachers, state chiefs,
principals, school boards members, superintendents and more in a letter sent to the King
Monday. Some background: ESSA makes a change to
supplement-not-supplant aimed at giving districts more flexibility to show that
federal funds are an extra, not a replacement. Under the new law, local
officials can come up with their own methodology for showing how they
allocate state and local funding and therefore that federal money is
indeed, a supplement. The department can fill in the blanks on that rule. Right now, a panel of educators, experts, and
advocates are currently hashing out regulations on supplement-not-supplant and
assessment, through a process known as "negotiated rulemaking" or neg
reg for short. If that process, which is supposed to conclude by the end of the
month, fails, the department can write its own rules on those issues. The
department put out draft regulations for
supplement-not-supplant late week, for a team of negotiators to
consider. (More on that below.) The letter, which seems designed to
influence the negotiators as much as the secretary, warns the department not to
create any new definitions for supplement-not-supplant as it regulates on ESSA.
“Alaska’s decision comes amid a national debate
about standardized testing fueled by parents and teachers who say that
tests and test prep have warped public schools and siphoned too much time
away from instruction.”
Alaska cancels all K-12 standardized tests
for the year, citing technical problems
Washington
Post By Emma
Brown April 5 at 2:59 PM
Students across the Last Frontier are off the hook when it comes
to testing — at least this year. Pictured is the Dalton Highway heading up
to Atigun Pass in Alaska’s Brooks Range. (Julia Duin/For The Washington Post) Alaska officials have canceled the state’s
computer-based standardized testing for the year, citing repeated technical
problems that were interrupting students’ exams, throwing schools into chaos
and threatening the validity of results. “I don’t
believe under the circumstances that the assessment we were administering
was a valid assessment,” Susan McCauley, interim commissioner of the state
education department, said in an interview Tuesday. “Validity relies on a
standardized assessment condition, and things were anything but
standardized in Alaska last week.” The
cancellation means that tens of thousands of Alaska’s public school
students in grades 3 through 10 won’t sit for math and reading exams that are
mandated under federal law, leaving a hole in annual data on student
performance statewide, and in each district and individual school. Science
tests for students in grades 4, 8 and 10 also were canceled.
How many students are refusing to take
Common Core tests this year?
Washington
Post Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss April
6 at 4:00 AM
Students across New York began taking state-mandated standardized
Common Core tests on Tuesday, and a big question in the education world was how
many students will decide not to take the test. Last year, some 20 percent of
students in New York opted out of the exams, the largest number of any state. Here’s
a look at what’s going on in New York, by Carol Burris, a former New York
high school principal who is now executive director of the nonprofit Network
for Public Education, introduces you to the new chancellor and analyzes the
legacy of the one who is soon departing. Burris was named the 2010 Educator of
the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in
2013, the same organization named her the New York State High School Principal
of the Year. She has been chronicling botched school reform efforts in her
state for years on this blog, and this is her newest piece.
Big Question on New York State Tests: How Many Will Opt Out?
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and KATE TAYLORAPRIL 5, 2016
The
state tests for New York’s third- through eighth-grade students that began on
Tuesday are shorter this year. Students will now be able to take them without
the strain of a time limit. And the results will no longer affect the job
ratings of teachers. But those changes
were not enough for Ilana Greenberg, a parent at Public School 261 in Boerum
Hill, Brooklyn. Her fourth-grade daughter is not taking the tests this year,
her second year of sitting them out. “What
was done, some of the things were very good,” Ms. Greenberg said. “But there is
so much more to go.” As the
testing got underway at schools around the state, education officials and
activists on both sides of the testing issue were waiting to see how many
parents felt the same way. Last year, 20 percent of students declined to take the
exams statewide, though the number in New York City was just 1.4 percent.
Testing Resistance & Reform News:
March 16 - 22, 2016
FairTest
Submitted by fairtest on April 5, 2016 - 1:52pm
Two big
stories as testing season gets underway in many states -- the surging opt-out
movement and the collapse of many states' computerized exam delivery systems --
both demonstrating the ongoing failure of politically driven test-and-punish
policies.
Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators
(PASA) 2016 Education Congress April
6-7, 2016
professional
development program for school administrators
Focus: "The
Myths of Creativity: The Truth about How Innovative Companies Generate Great
Ideas" Featured Presenter: Dr.
David Burkus
April 6-7, 2016 Radisson
Hotel Harrisburg in Camp Hill
The program will
focus on how school leaders can develop and utilize creativity in education
management, operations, curriculum and leadership goals. The second day will
allow participants to select from multiple discussion/work sessions focusing on
concepts presented by Dr. Burkus and facilitated by school leaders who have
demonstrated success in creative thinking and leadership in schools across the
commonwealth.
Deadline for
hotel accommodations: March 15
See the PASA website
for more information at: www.pasa-net.org/2016edcongress.
PenSPRA's Annual Symposium, Friday
April 8th in Shippensburg, PA
PenSPRA,
or the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association, has developed a
powerhouse line-up of speakers and topics for a captivating day of professional
development in Shippensburg on April 8th. Learn to master data to
defeat your critics, use stories to clarify your district's brand and take
your social media efforts to the next level with a better understanding of
metrics and the newest trends. Join us the evening before the
Symposium for a “Conversation with Colleagues” from 5 – 6
pm followed by a Networking Social Cocktail Hour from 6 – 8 pm.
Both the Symposium Friday and the social events on Thursday evening
will be held at the Shippensburg University Conference Center. Snacks at the
social hour, and Friday’s breakfast and lunch is included in your
registration cost. $125 for PenSPRA members and $150 for non-members. Learn
more about our speakers and topics and register today at this link:
Briefing:
Public Education Funding in Pennsylvania
TUE, APR 12 AT 8:30 AM, PHILADELPHIA,
PA
Join
attorneys Michael Churchill, Jennifer Clarke and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg for a
briefing on:
- the current budget impasse
- the basics of education funding
- the school funding lawsuit
- the 2016-2017 proposed budget
1.5
CLE credits available to PA licensed attorneys.
Light breakfast provided.
WHEN:
Tuesday, April
12, 2016 from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT)
WHERE:
United Way of
Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey - 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
1st Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103
The Network for Public Education 3rd
Annual National Conference April 16-17, 2016 Raleigh, North Carolina.
The
Network for Public Education is thrilled to announce the location for our 3rd
Annual National Conference. On April 16 and 17, 2016 public education advocates
from across the country will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina. We chose Raleigh to highlight the tremendous
activist movement that is flourishing in North Carolina. No one exemplifies
that movement better than the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who will be the
conference keynote speaker. Rev. Barber is the current president of
the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the National NAACP chair of
the Legislative Political Action Committee, and the founder of Moral Mondays.
Electing PSBA Officers – Applications Due
by April 30th
All
persons seeking nomination for elected positions of the Association shall send
applications to the attention of the chair of the Leadership Development
Committee during the month of April, an Application
for Nomination to be provided by the Association expressing interest
in the office sought. “The Application for nomination shall be marked received
at PSBA Headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked by April 30 to be
considered and timely filed. If said date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or
holiday, then the Application for Nomination shall be considered timely filed
if marked received at PSBA headquarters or mailed and postmarked on the next
business day.” (PSBA
Bylaws, Article IV, Section 5.E.).
Open
positions are:
- 2017 President
Elect (one-year term)
- 2017 Vice
President (one-year term)
- 2017-19 Central Section at
Large Representative – includes Regions 4, 5, 6, 9 and
12 (three-year term)
In
addition to the application form, PSBA Governing
Board Policy 302 asks that all candidates furnish with their application
a recent, print quality photograph and letters of application. The application
form specifies no less than two and no more than four letters of
recommendation, some or all of which preferably should be from school districts
in different PSBA regions as well as from community groups and other sources
that can provide a description of the candidate’s involvement with and
effectiveness in leadership positions. PSBA Governing
Board Policy 108 also outlines the campaign procedures of candidates.
All
terms of office commence January 1 following election.
Join the Pennsylvania Principals Association at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at The
Capitol in Harrisburg, PA, for its second annual Principals' Lobby Day.
Pennsylvania
Principals Association Monday, March 21, 2016 9:31 AM
To register, contact Dr. Joseph Clapper at clapper@paprincipals.org by
Tuesday, June 14, 2016. If you need assistance, we will provide
information about how to contact your legislators to schedule meetings.
Click here for the informational flyer, which includes
important issues to discuss with your legislators.
2016 PA Educational
Leadership Summit July 24-26 State College
Summit Sponsors:
PA Principals Association - PA Association of School Administrators
- PA Association of Middle Level Educators - PA Association of
Supervision and Curriculum Development
The 2016
Educational Leadership Summit, co-sponsored by four leading Pennsylvania education associations,
provides an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and
instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together at a quality venue in
"Happy Valley."
Featuring Grant
Lichtman, author of EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education,
Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera (invited), and Dana
Lightman, author of POWER Optimism: Enjoy the Life You Have...
Create the Success You Want, keynote speakers, high quality breakout
sessions, table talks on hot topics and district team planning and job alike
sessions provides practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and
discussed at the summit before returning back to your district. Register and pay by April 30, 2016 for the
discounted "early bird" registration rate:
Interested in letting our
elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax,
property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf,
(717) 787-2500
Speaker of the
House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.