Sunday, June 26, 2016

PA Ed Policy Weekend Roundup June 26: Cyber charters want to start a conversation with Pa. education officials

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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Weekend Roundup June 26, 2016:
Cyber charters want to start a conversation with Pa. education officials


“Wolf is going to get a large infusion of new funding for k-12 public schools - on the order of $200 million and probably more after special education and pre-kindergarten increases are factored in.  As has been written in this space before, public education is something that legislative Republicans aren't going to get into a political war with the Democratic governor over on the cusp of a general election season.  And the GOP - with the full support of a good number of Democrats - has successfully achieved its number one priority: stopping the proposed increase in the state's 3.07 percent personal income tax.”
Pa. legislative leaders to meet Sunday, aiming toward state budget agreement
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com  Email the author | Follow on Twitter  on June 25, 2016 at 4:11 PM, updated June 25, 2016 at 10:25 PM
This story was updated at 8:40 p.m. Saturday, to reflect the cancellation of a scheduled Sunday night House Appropriations Committee meeting.
Heading into the last week of the fiscal year, state House negotiators were still striving toward a bipartisan budget deal landing between $31 billion and $32 billion that satisfies everybody's major goals.  It's not soup yet.  But entering the weekend, there were a number of signs Republicans, Democrats and the Wolf Administration are edging towards each other, and may be as little as $100 million apart in their total general fund spend number.  (That's after accounting tricks, like possibly booking hundreds of millions of dollars in state pension fund payments to a new, special reserve fund.)  "We're still talking," one top legislative aide said during a break in the action Friday, in a quick acknowledgement that the road to a bipartisan deal was still open.

State budget situation 'fluid,' legislators say
Post-GazetteBy Angela Couloumbis & Karen Langley Harrisburg Bureau June 26, 2016 12:17 AM
HARRISBURG — With five days until the deadline for a state budget — and the memory of last year's impasse still raw — Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-dominated Legislature have no deal, no face-to-face talks scheduled and have shown little evidence of the political will for election-year tax hikes.  Legislators left the Capitol Thursday without even resolving a basic question — how much money they plan to spend in the fiscal year that begins July 1, let alone how much new revenue they need to raise and where it will come from.  Members of the House of Representatives were scheduled to meet tonight to begin positioning a budget bill for a vote - but abruptly canceled the meeting Saturday afternoon, saying they had more work to do. Members of the House of Representatives are scheduled to reconvene Monday to begin positioning a budget bill for a vote.  No one seems to know, or want to say, what it might contain.  “The situation is still pretty fluid,” Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks, said in an interview late last week. “I do feel there is a greater sense of bipartisanship this time around. But I think everything comes down to: What is the tax vote? And who is willing to take it?”

Gov. Wolf upbeat about passing 2016-17 budget
York Daily Record by Rick Lee, rlee@ydr.com3:16 p.m. EDT June 24, 2016
Gov. Tom Wolf said that the City of York needs to focus on its "inside" and "outside" games while looking for a level playing field.  That, and stop spitting gum on the sidewalk.  Wolf touched on those topics and others in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday with the York Daily Record editorial board.  The Mount Wolf native also said he was confident that a budget will be passed without the partisan bickering and gamesmanship that resulted in last year's nine-month impasse.  Wolf said he really could not explain the difference in this year's budget process as compared to last year's except that "people were sure they didn't like the impasse.

“Some will argue that schools don't need such an increase due to their fund balances. However, due to the budget impasse, many districts have significantly spent down these balances or have restricted these funds to certain types of expenses, such as paying pension costs.  Mandated pension costs are the single largest cost driver in school budgets. In 2014-15, school districts paid $2.33 billion in pension obligations. With a scheduled employer contribution rate set at more than 30 percent this year, that number is estimated to be $4.1 billion in 2016-17.”
Here's why the General Assembly needs to boost school funding by June 30: Nathan Mains
PennLive Op-Ed  By Nathan Mains on June 24, 2016 at 1:05 PM
Nathan Mains is the executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
With only a few days away from the June 30 state budget deadline, all eyes are toward Harrisburg. Some of those watching most intently are school officials nervous of what may happen to their students in the event of another protracted budget stalemate.  While signs are positive that all sides are talking, it is worth reminding policymakers that there are fewer options available to schools this year and pulling a financial rabbit out of their hats won't be possible again.  Since the nine-month budget impasse ended, at least one positive development has occurred. Act 35 of 2016 was signed putting into place a basic education funding formula for the state, which ended Pennsylvania's dubious distinction of being one of only three states without such a formula.  While this is historic, it won't solve the funding of schools alone. The mechanics of fair, equitable distribution are in place, but now a substantial investment is needed each and every year to support schools.  The Pennsylvania School Boards Association, which represents 4,500 school directors, is asking the General Assembly and Gov. Tom Wolf to provide an additional $200 in the basic education subsidy and an additional $100 million to go toward school districts' pension costs.

“The fair funding formula will provide a much needed – and permanent – level playing field in terms of distributing education funding skewed much more to a district’s needs.  Of course, the fair funding formula will be toothless without the funding the state long has been cheating from local school districts.  We hope our legislators keep that in mind this week as they huddle behind closed doors putting together a spending plan.  And we hope they keep the residents of Upper Darby and Interboro in mind.”
Editorial: A tale of 2 school districts & fiscal woes
Delco Times Editorial POSTED: 06/25/16, 10:47 PM EDT | UPDATED: 3 HRS AGO
The Upper Darby School Board was good to its word.  So, unfortunately, were their counterparts in Interboro.  You can call it a tale of two school districts. And it played out right here in Delaware County this week.  Both districts face massive financial issues, but they took decidedly different approaches in signing off on a new spending plan.  In Upper Darby, where the board was facing mounting public pressure not to slash classroom positions – or hike taxes, they did something very few school boards in the Commonwealth are willing to do.  They bit the bullet.  Despite the fact that they are facing a deficit in the neighborhood of $6.5 million, board members bowed to the public desire and offered a one-year fiscal olive branch. They are dipping into their fund balance to balance the $189 million spending plan, a move that will allow them to not only not raise taxes or cut jobs, but actually add a few positions.

“And so here's an unfunded mandate for lawmakers: Review the PSBA's 56-page report for perspective as you work to complete the state's education budget, bearing in mind the cost of the rules you write.”
Too many mandates, too little funding
Bucks County Courier  Times Editorial Posted: Sunday, June 26, 2016 12:15 am
It's easy to write the rules. Playing by them is another story.
For school districts trying to comply with the many rules issued by state lawmakers over many years, the task is both difficult and expensive. Very expensive. And that expense has to be borne by somebody. Surely it comes as no surprise that the somebody is you ... and every other taxpaying citizen of Pennsylvania.  The rules we refer to are known mockingly in public school circles as "unfunded mandates." In other words, most anything the state tells school districts they must do but provides no funding to help districts get done. This could be anything from collecting data on students' race and ethnicity, to conducting audits, to transporting charter school kids.   They are but a few on a huge list of rules and regulations that public school officials must abide by and school boards must pay for. In fact, school boards now are in the process of trying to figure out how to pay for all those mandates while also dedicating money to their primary responsibility: educating students. The school district budget process is in full swing and must be completed by the end of the month. So it's a good time to speak to the issue of burdensome expenses.  To that end, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) last week released a report on the issue. "School District Mandates: Their Impact on Public Education" calls on the Legislature to lift unnecessary, cumbersome mandates and in some cases allow districts to apply for waivers.  
http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/opinion/editorial/too-many-mandates-too-little-funding/article_6edcf1cf-d6f7-56ce-8f43-85cadcd654f1.html

Cyber charters want to start a conversation with Pa. education officials
Inquirer by Martha Woodall, Staff Writer Updated: JUNE 25, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
IN AN UNPRECEDENTED move, the CEOs of nine of Pennsylvania's 13 cyber charter schools have invited state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera to join them in a conversation on improving virtual education.  Their letter, which was sent Thursday, came a week after three national pro-charter organizations released a report calling for improved oversight of cyber charters and cracking down on poorly performing ones nationwide.  "Although none of the data in that report is new, and many of the recommendations are inappropriate or illegal in Pennsylvania, the basic premise that we could do more to assure the quality and accountability of cyber education is valid," said Reese Flurie, CEO of Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Charter Academy.  "But reports without action are useless and generalized national data is too superficial to be used as an unquestioned prescription for state public policy," he said.  The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, which sent the letter, on Friday said the nine schools enroll 35,000 of the 36,000 students in the state who are in cyber charter schools.

“Business Manager Robert Geletko announced the district saved $1 million on cyber/charter school costs at the end of the 2015-16 school year largely due to its CHIEFS — Cyber High-quality Interactive Education Fostering Student Success — Cyber Academy bringing 100 charter school students back to the district. The academy is open to grades three through 12.”
Penn Hills School District considers adding elementary cyber school program
Trib Live BY MICHAEL DIVITTORIO | Friday, June 24, 2016, 8:57 p.m.
Penn Hills School District could create an elementary cyber school program.  The plan was discussed last Monday at a curriculum committee meeting.   Renel Williams, the district's director of teaching, learning and assessment, said at the meeting that a new teacher position would have to be created and technology would need to be purchased to make the elementary cyber school work.  Purchasing the technology is estimated to cost $35,000 but could save the district as much as $154,000 over the next three years by not renting it. The new teacher's salary was not discussed.  Robert Hudak, committee chairman and school board member, said he would support the cyber school proposal.  It was unclear how many students could enroll in the proposed elementary cyber school.

Curmuducation Blog: PA: Cybers Are Delusional
Curmuducation Blog by Peter Greene Saturday, June 25, 2016
It's been little more than a week since the bricks and mortar portion of the charter school industry took a big, hard swipe at their cyber-siblings. As you may recall, three major charter school groups released a "report" that was basically a blueprint for how to slap the cyber-schools with enough regulation to make them finally behave. The report was rough, noting all of the worst findings about cybers-- how they achieve no learning and actually destabilize many students.  The cyber-school industry was not amused. K12, one of the biggest chains in the largely for-profit sector, fired back with its own press release that managed to be feisty without really addressing any of the criticisms.  But in Pennsylvania, one of the Big Three of free range cyber-school activity (Ohio and California are the other two), cybers are trying a different approach.  In what the Philly Inquirer calls an "unprecedented" move, nine of the thirteen PA cyber chains sent a letter to PA Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera saying, "Hey, can we talk?"  The letter does not exactly acknowledge the cyber school record of abject failure in PA.

PlanCon: Local school districts still waiting for some state funding
Some local school districts still waiting for PlanCon reimbursements
State to take out multibillion dollar loan to help fund initiative
Some local districts hoping to put state-promised funding toward potential building projects
Centre Daily Times BY BRITNEY MILAZZO bmilazzo@centredaily.com June 26, 2016
It’s a waiting game for local school districts eligible for PlanCon reimbursement.
They have to wait until the state is granted a loan that would help pay back districts for construction and renovation projects.  Penns Valley Area business manager Jef Wall said he predicts money won’t start rolling in for PlanCon reimbursements until December.  At least that’s the earliest date he heard through the grapevine, he said.   “It’s not surprising after the way this year has gone,” Wall said. “We should have gotten it sometime in April. … That’s why we don’t plan our budgets around things like PlanCon. The state is too unpredictable.”  When the state’s budget impasse ended in March, monies were dispersed to school districts but didn’t provide funding for PlanCon.  According to a report from Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokesman Jeff Sheridan, the state Department of Education is looking to loan $2.5 billion in new bond debt to fund PlanCon, which would provide state-funded school districts with funds they were guaranteed, but haven’t yet received.

“But the formula is only a baby step toward what is needed,” Churchill wrote. “It does not address the inadequate amount of funding available to districts struggling to meet state-set proficiency standards. It does not address the vast inequities that exist from district to district. Indeed the formula locks in those inequities because it only addresses how new funding is distributed. It never asks what schools need in order to meet state standards.”
William Penn’s lawsuit for education funding gets hearing date
Delco Daily Times By Kevin Tustin, ktustin@21st-centurymedia.com@KevinTustin on Twitter
POSTED: 06/16/16, 10:57 PM EDT | UPDATED: 1 WEEK AGO
Philadelphia >> The lawsuit filed against the state Department of Education asking for fair education funding across the commonwealth will be heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Sept. 13.  The state’s high court will hear oral arguments in William Penn School District v. Pennsylvania Department of Education in its Philadelphia courtroom in a case filed on behalf of six school districts and individuals across the state that says the state is not providing the constitutionally mandated provision for a “through and efficient” public education system.  William Penn School Board Vice President Rafi Cave, who follows educational legislative actions for the district, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.  The Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center will be representing the plaintiffs during the hearings.  Even with Gov. Tom Wolf signing into law June 2 a fair funding formula created by the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission, the PLIC says this does not end the litigation.  When asked if the enacted fair funding formula placed into law would affect their case, PLIC Director of Development & Communications Barbara Grimaldi referred to an op-ed published in Philadelphia Magazine on June 2 by PILC staff attorney Michael Churchill calling the formula “unconstitutional.”

Erie Next forum tackles Erie School District's challenges
Go Erie By Gerry Weiss  814-870-1884 Erie Times-News June 24, 2016 03:02 PM
ERIE, Pa. -- Erie school Superintendent Jay Badams knows he has one week for the Erie School Board to figure out how to erase a $5.5 million budget deficit.  But Badams on Thursday night, speaking at an Erie Next community forum focusing on how to pull the city's public schools back from financial brink, shared a long-term view that presents an even bleaker picture for the Erie School District.  "Our mountain of deficit is so big," Badams said to a crowd of nearly 70 people inside East High School, 1001 Atkins St. "We'll go into the 2017-18 school year with a $13 million or $14 million (budget) deficit. In the next three to five years, that deficit will be around $20 million. That's the magnitude of the problem. Without some significant change, I can't even imagine what we'll do."  Thursday night marked the second Erie Next community forum. The first was held March 14 at Blasco Library and discussed the Erie region's problems, focusing on possible solutions and opportunities.Erie Next, which launched in January, is an Erie Times-News and GoErie.com initiative designed to engage the community on what Erie needs to do for a better future.

OPED: Eliminating school property taxes is difficult
York Dispatch Opinion by SEN. MIKE FOLMER and SEN. DAVE ARGALL, Guest-Column5:06 p.m. EDT June 24, 2016
Several advocates for the elimination of school property taxes have asked us where efforts to rid taxpayers of this hated tax currently stand. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers succeeded in bringing the provisions of Senate Bill 76 to eliminate these onerous taxes to a vote in November after working to ensure the plan, also known as the Property Tax Independence Act, did not suffer the same fate as its counterpart, House Bill 76, last session.  While supporters were understandably disappointed by the 24 – 24 vote to insert the provisions of SB 76 into another bill, the Senate debate shows the progress we’ve made as a cohesive coalition over the last several years.  Making SB 76 work came after months of painstaking efforts. Changes were drafted through an arduous process of meeting with opponents, carefully going through their concerns, studying two analyses from the Independent Fiscal Office issued in 2012 and 2013, respectively, and dissecting 13 pages of comments from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

State test opt-outs continue to rise in Pennsylvania
Inquirer by The Associated Press Updated: JUNE 24, 2016 — 3:37 PM EDT
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - The number of Pennsylvania parents opting out of state-mandated tests is continuing to increase.  LNP reported Friday (http://bit.ly/28TdxDi ) the number of students who opted out of the Pennsylvania System of Standardized Assessment exams doubled across Pennsylvania this year, reaching more than 7,500 for math and language arts.  Opt-outs accounted for less than 1 percent of test-takers in math and language arts statewide and science opt-outs were just above 1 percent.  State law provides a religious exception that permits parents to keep their children out of state testing.  School leaders say that if the trend continues, it could call into question the significance of the test results. The scores make up the bulk of the state's rating system for schools and play a role in teachers' evaluations.

English learners forum focuses on inclusivity, high-stakes tests
WHYY Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT JUNE 23, 2016
The conversation began with a flurry of numbers.  About a 10th of students in the School District of Philadelphia are English language learners or ELLs. Combined, those ELL students speak more than 100 languages and attend nearly every district school. At 59 Philly schools, more than 10 languages are represented in the student body.  Those statistics, all accumulated by the nonprofit group Research for Action, laid the foundation for a forum hosted Wednesday night by WHYY and the Philadelphia Education Research Consortium. The topic was English language learners, and the message was clear:  these students are legion, and they need more support.  The topic has extra resonance right now with the recent passage of a new student funding formula in Pennsylvania that attaches extra money to English language learners. (For a full breakdown of how the new formula works, click here.)  The panel discussion featured city, state, and district officials — all weighing in on the delicate topic of how to best educate these often-vulnerable students. Multiple strategies emerged, not all of them in perfect concert.

Medical Academy Charter School late paying teachers, might leave some bills unpaid by closing
Sarah M. Wojcik Contact Reporter Of The Morning Call June 24, 2016
Medical Academy Charter School late paying teachers, might leave some bills unpaid by closing
CATASAUQUA — As the Medical Academy Charter School prepares to shutter for good, the business manager at the embattled school acknowledged that it's likely the school won't have enough money to settle every bill due before the closure.  After receiving 50 percent of their salary last pay period, teachers are the highest priority as the final tuition payments to the school roll in, according to school business manager Tom Taylor.  The roughly 40 faculty members will be fully compensated, Taylor said, once Medical Academy receives money from school districts. The business manager said he has no worries that they won't pay the money they owe.  Taylor said June is typically a difficult time of year to pay bills. But this year the charter school's ability to cover its costs are hampered by the tiny amount of cash on hand — roughly $26,000 —— and the large amount of money still owed by districts —$227,000.  "It's basically just a timing problem," Taylor said.  The Medical Academy Charter School, beset by controversy throughout its nearly four-year existence, will be close this month after years of stagnant student enrollment made the venture unsustainable. Taylor said the $227,000 coming in will fill coffers enough to cover payroll for the staff.

DN editorial: School district boldly acts to protect transgender students
Philly Daily News Editorial Updated: JUNE 24, 2016 — 3:00 AM EDT
THERE HAVE BEEN transgender people throughout the centuries, but the wide use of the word is fairly recent. And that is doubly true for teenagers.  Ten years ago, it would have been unheard of for a 13- or 14-year-old to come out in public as someone who was born as a boy but identified as a girl. Or a 15-year-old who was born as a girl - or perhaps grew up as a girl - but now wants to be considered a boy.  This is not a mass movement. The Philadelphia School District reports only 30 parents have asked about transgender rights in the last seven years. But it does bring forth the question of how to handle this issue into the schools.  It raises a host of questions. If you are a teacher, how do you refer to a student who identifies as a girl - even though the year before that student might have attended school as a boy. Is it he or she? Her or him.  And what of bathrooms? Which one does a transgender student use? The same with intramural sports. Does a transgender student play on the boys' or the girls' team? And what locker room do they use?
What principles should guide us in setting down practices?  We believe the school district made a series of wise decisions regarding this issue, and the guidelines approved recently by the School Reform Commission provide a necessary template for the district to follow.

Higher taxes, brighter future
Trib Live LETTER TO THE EDITOR by Carol Mintus | Friday, June 24, 2016, 8:57 p.m.
We educators are particularly concerned during the state budget process as Pennsylvania ranks dead last in funding equity. While the recent passage of a new funding formula is a start, unless more money is put into the formula, it simply means our poorest districts will get more of less money available.  Our school districts, due to last year's budget fiasco, now have to bear the burden of interest payments on borrowed funds. Teachers have been furloughed, programs have been canceled and taxes have been raised. Pennsylvania schools are funded at the rate of more than 45 percent on property taxes; the national average is 29 percent. We cannot continue to burden our seniors with increasing school taxes nor can we risk them losing their homes as those taxes continue to increase.  It is time for the Legislature to make education a priority in Pennsylvania. It is time to find other sources of income to increase the funding of our schools.  The Legislature needs to look to the excise tax on Marcellus shale extraction, closing of the Delaware loophole and the cessation of corporate welfare. It also needs to examine increasing the state sales tax and/or personal income tax so that our schools have a constant, stable funding source. Nothing is more important to a strong democracy than an educated populace. I call upon the Legislature to put our children, our future, first.

Chester County school districts considering later start times
By Eric Devlin, The Mercury POSTED: 06/25/16, 6:09 PM EDT | UPDATED: 9 HRS AGO
PHOENIXVILLE >> High school students across Chester County may get a few more minutes of sleep thanks to the hard work of their classmates.  During last week’s Phoenixville Area School Board meeting, board member Eric Daugherty gave an update on the Chester County Intermediate Unit’s student forum presentation from May 29 that focused on delayed start times for high school students. The forum is composed of student representatives from all 12 Chester County school districts. Students spent the past year researching the topic and came before the intermediate unit’s board members to lobby to start schools at a later time.  The presentation was so compelling it seems that the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District is already seriously considering changing its time and more may follow its lead, including Phoenixville.  “We’re going to tee up a discussion later this summer and talk about that as well as some strategic issues and weigh out whether that’s something we want to seriously consider,” Daugherty said.  Unionville-Chadds Ford is aiming to implement the plan in the 2017-18 school year and will take a year to plan out the logistics behind such an undertaking, Daugherty said.


Politicians say they care about education. Now public school advocates are putting them to the test.
Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss June 24 at 6:09 PM 
Gallup poll taken early this year about what issues are most important to Americans found that 90 percent of Democrats view education as important while 67 percent of Republicans do. Yet education was barely raised by candidates running for the GOP and Democratic presidential candidates — and there’s no indication that it will be a big issue in the expected match-up between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the fall.  Now public school advocates opposed to corporate school reform are trying to get the attention of Democrats and Republicans, asking that both parties include five key principles in their party platforms that will be approved by their respective conventions this summer. If either party listens, it is more likely to be the Democrats, who traditionally are strong supporters of public education — even though the Obama administration embraced many aspects of the reform movement.

Kansas Lawmakers Pass Bill in Bid to Stop Court From Closing Schools
New York Times By JULIE BOSMANJUNE 24, 2016
Kansas lawmakers passed an education funding bill on Friday night in a move they hope will stop the State Supreme Court from carrying out itsthreat to close public schools by next week.  On the second day of a special session, lawmakers rushed to come up with $38 million to meet the court’s order to fix inequities that it considered harmful to poorer school districts. In May, the court said that the Legislature’s current funding formula “creates intolerable, and simply unfair, wealth-based disparities among the districts,” and gave the Legislature until June 30 to find a solution.  Many in Kansas had feared a constitutional showdown between the Republican-controlled Legislature and the left-leaning State Supreme Court. But the House voted 116 to 6 in favor of the bill and the Senate approved it 38 to 1. Gov. Sam Brownback has indicated that he will sign the bill without delay.  If the court does not accept the Legislature’s solution, it could close schools statewide by July.

Education Bloggers Daily Highlights 6/26/2016


Apply Now! EPLC’s 2016-2017 Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program

Nominations now open for PSBA Allwein Awards (deadline July 16)
PSBA Website POSTED ON MAY 16, 2016 IN PSBA NEWS
The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. The 2016 Allwein Award nominations will be accepted starting today and all applications are due by July 16, 2016. The nomination form can be downloaded from the website.

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:

PA Supreme Court sets Sept. 13 argument date for fair education funding lawsuit in Philly
Thorough and Efficient Blog JUNE 16, 2016 BARBGRIMALDI LEAVE A COMMENT

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