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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup July 5, 2017:
PASA Update on Status of HB97 Charter
School Bill
PA Association of School Administrators Website July 3, 2017
Last week, the Senate Education Committee unexpectedly brought up
for a vote HB 97, a charter school bill that makes comprehensive changes to the
charter school law.
With a 7-5 vote, the bill was amended and approved in committee to strip out the immediate savings for school districts (all $27 million for 2017-18 and the savings for 2018-19, which would have been generated by modifications to the cyber charter tuition calculation). The amendment did several other things, including modifying the makeup of the Charter Funding Commission to mirror that of the Basic and Special Education Funding Commissions, requiring charter schools to provide school districts with proof of residency for students prior to payment, and requiring charter schools to provide PDE with proof that an invoice was sent to a school district (and that the school district had an opportunity to pay) before asking for a subsidy deduction. (This also requires PDE to notify the school district prior to making the subsidy deduction.) The Senate has yet to take a final vote on the amended bill.
These changes to the bill resulted in questions from the House about their ability to find the votes to pass the bill on concurrence. Negotiations are underway on this issue and will continue over the weekend. It is not clear if an agreement can be reached, if the House can lift any or all of the Senate’s changes – and whether the governor would veto the bill.
With a 7-5 vote, the bill was amended and approved in committee to strip out the immediate savings for school districts (all $27 million for 2017-18 and the savings for 2018-19, which would have been generated by modifications to the cyber charter tuition calculation). The amendment did several other things, including modifying the makeup of the Charter Funding Commission to mirror that of the Basic and Special Education Funding Commissions, requiring charter schools to provide school districts with proof of residency for students prior to payment, and requiring charter schools to provide PDE with proof that an invoice was sent to a school district (and that the school district had an opportunity to pay) before asking for a subsidy deduction. (This also requires PDE to notify the school district prior to making the subsidy deduction.) The Senate has yet to take a final vote on the amended bill.
These changes to the bill resulted in questions from the House about their ability to find the votes to pass the bill on concurrence. Negotiations are underway on this issue and will continue over the weekend. It is not clear if an agreement can be reached, if the House can lift any or all of the Senate’s changes – and whether the governor would veto the bill.
PASA recommends the following changes in
charter school law:
*The funding formula for charter
school entities must be changed to reflect the actual cost needed to educate
students in these alternative environments.
*The cost of special education
students attending charter school entities must reflect the actual cost to
instruct the students through the IEP process.
*Over-identification of special
education students by charter school entities must be addressed.
*Professional educators in
charter school entities must meet the same certification requirements as
educators in traditional public schools.
*Charter schools must be
evaluated by the same measures as traditional public schools to ensure the
public can compare the effectiveness of all educational entities supported by
public tax dollars.
*Public school districts must
have the authority to properly oversee and evaluate charter schools.
*The Charter School Appeal Board
must consist of neutral, bi-partisan members that will be objective in the
hearing process.
*Billing discrepancies between
school districts and charter school entities should be reconciled between the
two agencies. The process of automatic
withholding of subsidies from school districts based on a charter school entity
claim must cease.
*Charter school entities must
display the same level of transparency with their finances that are required of
traditional public school districts.
*The enrollment and selection
process of charter school entity students must be transparent and free of any
form of discrimination.
*More scrutiny and review must be
applied to cyber charter school entities as their academic performance is
significantly lower than brick-and-mortar charter schools and traditional public
schools.
Clock
ticking on $2B search to balance Pennsylvania budget
Delco Times By Marc Levy, The
Associated Press POSTED: 07/03/17, 11:16 AM
EDT
HARRISBURG >> The clock is ticking on Pennsylvania lawmakers
grappling with the state government’s biggest shortfall since the recession to
come up with the $2 billion-plus they say they need to balance a shortfall from
the just-ended fiscal year and a projected deficit in the just-started fiscal
year. No agreements were reported
Monday, three days after the Republican-controlled Legislature sent the main
appropriations bill in a $32 billion budget package to the desk of Democratic
Gov. Tom Wolf. Wolf has 10 days to sign the bill through midnight July 10, or
let it become law without his signature. He has not said what he will do if
lawmakers don’t agree before then on how to raise the money. It is the second straight year the
Legislature sent an on-time, bipartisan spending bill to Wolf, but with no plan
to pay for parts of it. Last year, Wolf let the plan become law without his
signature when the 10-day signing period expired — despite questions about
whether the move was constitutional — and lawmakers delivered a $1.3 billion
funding package three days later.
Baer:
Pa.'s predictable budget process
Philly Daily News by John Baer, Political Columnist baerj@phillynews.com Updated: JULY 5, 2017 — 5:00 AM EDT
Pennsylvania lawmakers are headed back to Harrisburg to pretend to
care about your tax dollars and the state’s fiscal future. They should be off on their usual, and sooo
well-deserved, extended summer break. Hey,
when you’re in session 60 to 70 days each year, you need a couple of months
just to recharge. How do you think they maintain such high-performance levels? Ah, but now, having delivered to Democratic Gov. Wolf a $32
billion spending package for the fiscal year starting last week, the
GOP-controlled crowd needs to figure how to pay for its plan. So, its vacay’s
delayed. Oh, the suspense. Where to find $2 billion-plus to fill budget holes and
fix deficits? Whatever shall we do? New
taxes? Republicans don’t want that. Deep cuts in services? Wolf won’t have
that. Borrow ourselves into oblivion? Republicans oppose big borrowing, don’t
they? And Wolf demands “long-term financial stability.” I, for one, can’t imagine higher drama than
all 253 members of the largest full-time legislature in America dragged away
from summer fun just to do their jobs. I
also can’t shake that picture of neighboring Gov. Christie sitting on a
shutdown beach, symbolizing what too much of public service has become: me
first.
An example of which appears in the Pennsylvania spending plan. As lawmakers face wrenching fiscal decisions,
they somehow found it in their hearts to increase spending for their own care
and feeding by $13 million, a 5 percent bump to $325 million.
Across
region, mixed results for schools in state budget deals
WHYY Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT JULY 4, 2017
There's been plenty of drama in state capitols this year as
lawmakers face tight budgets and the specter of elections looming next year. As
always, one of the main topics of conversation was public education. Now that the financial dust has mostly
settled, we take a look at how school budgets fared around the region.
State
budget's $100 million more for education will bring $3.6 million to Lancaster
County schools
Lancaster Online by SAM JANESCH | Staff
Writer July 4, 2017
Lancaster County school districts will get nearly $3.6 million
more combined in basic education funds under the state budget Gov. Tom Wolf and the
Legislature agreed to last week. Schools
here would see an average 1.9 percent increase over the previous year,
according to an analysis of how the $100 million in additional statewide basic
education funding would be applied using the recently implemented distribution
formula. The Democratic governor and
Republican lawmakers have not yet finalized how to pay for the 2017-18
budget. However, the two sides agreed before Friday’s deadline on how to
spend for the next year. Under the
spending plan, Conestoga Valley School District will see the most significant
jump in the county — 5.4 percent more than last year’s $4,047,132. The School
District of Lancaster will see the largest increase in number, a $1.6 million
increase bringing its total to $61.5 million.
Cocalico School District will get the smallest bump in both total
dollars and percentage — $21,037, or 0.3 percent more than last year. The amount each school district will receive
under the plan is based on calculations by the Democratic House Appropriations
Committee. It does not include other state education subsidies such as special
education funding. Here are the figures
for each district:
At
one some point, and we hope it's soon, Pennsylvania needs to solve its school
funding woes for good
Lancaster Online Editorial by The LNP Editorial Board Jul 2, 2017
THE ISSUE: The Great Recession that played havoc with school district
budgets is in the rearview mirror, though the recovery remains slow. And while
both the state Legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf agree that public schools need
more state money, the long-term fiscal outlook for school districts isn’t good.
As Sunday LNP — and The Caucus, an LNP Media Group watchdog publication
focusing on state government — reported last week, ballooning pension costs are among the school budget
stressors that aren’t likely to abate any time soon. We imagine
some of our readers — especially those who pay school taxes — pulled out the
tiniest of violins after reading this headline in last week’s Sunday LNP:
“Money at the root of school problems.” But
as LNP staff writer Sam Janesch detailed, the money woes besetting school
districts across Pennsylvania are real. And serious. And their dilemma isn’t likely to be solved
by the budget that was expected to pass in the state Legislature on Friday, the
last day of the commonwealth’s fiscal year.
As The Associated Press reported, the $32 billion spending
package contained $100 million more in basic education funding, and hundreds of
millions more for pension obligations. It
also authorizes $30 million more for early childhood education funding, an
increase we laud. Overall, it was a good
start — and bipartisan, too — but as columnist John Baer predicted last week, it’s basically “a
no-big-taxes/no-big-solutions, maintain-the-fiscal-pain plan.” It also didn’t
include the revenue piece, which is no small matter.
“For
decades, school districts have relied on Medicaid to help cover costs for
special education services like those and more.
“Vision screenings, hearing screenings, managing their asthma and
diabetes,” adds Sasha Pudelski with the School Superintendents Association. She
said Medicaid gives school districts up to $4 billion a year.”
How budget cuts to Medicaid affect schools
Marketplace By Reema Khrais July 03, 2017 | 4:40 PM
Before her third birthday, Addie Ellis was diagnosed with a rare
disorder known as Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome. Despite being nonverbal, Addie,
who’s now 13, has always been with her peers, learning alongside them in a
regular classroom. “She has shown us things
that really, as a nonverbal child, it would be easy not to ever have pulled
those things out,” said her mom, Terri Hart-Ellis. At her school in Milwaukee, Addie has a
one-on-one aide, and, over the years, has also received services like physical,
occupational and speech therapy. For decades, school districts have relied on
Medicaid to help cover costs for special education services like those and
more. “Vision screenings, hearing
screenings, managing their asthma and diabetes,” adds Sasha Pudelski with the
School Superintendents Association. She said Medicaid gives school districts up
to $4 billion a year. Cuts to Medicaid
have been at the center of the fight over health care, and one little-noticed
target would be schools. When lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., next week,
they’ll pick the issue back up. Both the House and Senate’s current plans would
cut Medicaid spending to the poor and disabled by hundreds of billions of
dollars. “It’s going to be impossible to
imagine a scenario with less money from the federal government, school
districts being able to maintain reimbursement,” Pudelski said. And districts are required to provide special
ed services. So to make up for losses, some superintendents said they might
have to cut back on nurses or after-school programs like art and sports.
Editorial:
Toomey's on wrong side
by The
Inquirer Editorial Board Updated: JULY 2, 2017 — 3:01 AM EDT
You can't blame Pennsylvanians wondering who Sen. Pat Toomey represents.
He's a ring leader of the effort to replace the Affordable Care Act with a
Republican proposal that would jeopardize the lives and livelihoods of
thousands in this state. That suggests Toomey's allegiance lies elsewhere. Perhaps it's with the Club for Growth, the
pro-business group Toomey once headed, which pumped more than $5 million into
his reelection campaign. "We are proud of our efforts and delighted with
Pat's victory," a Club spokesman said. "He's the embodiment of a
pro-growth fighter who has held firm to the principles of economic liberty
while representing a blue state." Well, the health care of many in that blue state will be in
trouble if Toomey and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.,
Ky.) rescue their bill after the holiday recess. McConnell wants to use a
legislative tactic requiring only a simple majority for passage, but the
Republicans have just a two-vote majority and at least six were still opposed
to the bill late last week. There's a
lot to dislike, especially the bill's impact on Medicaid. Gov. Wolf says the
bill would cost Pennsylvania $2 billion in Medicaid funding it gained when
enrollment was increased under Obamacare. A state facing a $3 billion deficit
can't easily replace that money.
Joseph
J. Roy, a superintendent in Bethlehem, Pa., who was Pennsylvania’s 2017
superintendent of the year, joined Democratic Sen. Bob Casey at a
recent news conference to highlight what a reduction in the annual $600,000 his
district receives in Medicaid funding would mean. “It’s a major impact on us, and it’s kids who
are most vulnerable,” Roy told POLITICO. “They have mental health issues or
physical issues that require assistance, and they are the ones that receive
services.” “It just seems completely
wrong,” Roy said.
Red-state school leaders vent frustrations
with GOP health bill
They say Medicaid funding cuts would hamper their ability
to serve low-income and special education students.Politico By KIMBERLY HEFLING 07/03/2017 05:24 AM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health care bill is
getting failing grades from red-state school leaders — even in his home state
of Kentucky. Fleming County Schools
Superintendent Brian Creasman was taken aback when he discovered the bill would
make cuts that could devastate his ability to provide health services to needy
and disabled kids. Here in rural
Kentucky, the heart of Trump country where three out of four voters cast
ballots for Donald Trump and many regard McConnell as their political
protector, Creasman initially thought the bill’s potential cuts to school
districts must be a misunderstanding. Only
they weren’t. About $4 billion in annual
Medicaid spending goes to U.S. schools to pay for school nurses, physical,
occupational and speech therapists, and school-based screenings and treatment
for children from low-income families, as well as wheelchairs and even buses to
transport kids with special needs.
At
parades and protests, GOP lawmakers get earful about health care
Post Gazette by DAVID WEIGEL,
MURRAY CARPENTER AND JULIA O'MALLEY The
Washington Post 9:03 PM JUL 4, 2017
EASTPORT, Maine - For the 15th year, Sen. Susan Collins,
R-Maine, spent July 4 marching through this town of 1,331, a short boat rimde
away from Canada. She walked and waved, next to marching bands and
Shriner-driven lobster boats. Her constituents cheered - and then asked whether
she would vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act. “There was only one issue. That’s unusual.
It’s usually a wide range of issues,” Collins said in an interview after the
parade. “I heard, over and over again, encouragement for my stand against the
current version of the Senate and House health-care bills. People were thanking
me, over and over again. ‘Thank you, Susan!‘ ‘Stay strong, Susan!‘ “ Collins, whose opposition to the Better Care
Reconciliation Act helped derail last week’s plans for a quick vote, is being
lobbied to smother it and make Congress start over. Republicans, who skipped
the usual committee process in the hopes of passing a bill quickly, are
spending the Fourth of July recess fending off protesters, low poll numbers and
newspaper front pages that warn of shuttered hospitals and 22 million people
being shunted off their insurance. It was a bill, Collins said, that she just
couldn’t vote for.
Local educators, school officials discuss
bill that could allow employees to carry firearms on school premises
Centre Daily Times BY BRITNEY MILAZZO bmilazzo@centredaily.com June 30, 2017
Local school districts have policies in place to keep guns off
school grounds, but a proposal passed by the Senate on Wednesday, with a vote
of 28-22, would allow guns to be permitted on school property. Senate Bill 383 would enable school employees who
are licensed to carry firearms to possess weapons on school premises to provide
“for protection and defense of pupils.” However,
the decision to establish such a policy would be in the hands of the school
boards that oversee the school districts.
But many local educators aren’t in favor of a school code that would
support the legislation. “We haven’t really talked about it, but
basically our administration had a look at each other and just rolled their
eyes,” Philipsburg-Osceola Area Superintendent Gregg Paladina said. “I don’t
think teachers should carry guns — I think it’s a bad idea. … I think the more
guns you put in peoples’ hands in school could potentially cause a problem. If
we’re going with weapons, we’ll put it in the hands of trained police officers,
but not school educators or administrators.”
A provision of the bill would require school staff who plan to be armed
to go through a similar type of psychological evaluation to that of law
enforcement officials. The bill still
needs to be approved by the House of Representatives.
Despite
controversy and criticisms, charter schools remain a popular option
ELIZABETH BEHRMAN AND LIZ
NAVRATIL Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12:00 AM JUL
2, 2017
Third in an occasional series.
Deirdre Keller’s third-grade class started the day putting the
final touches on the field day games they were creating for a school-wide
competition to see whose game would be played at the big event at the end of
the school year. They spent an hour outside testing their games and
getting feedback from their classmates before heading back inside for a break
and a cheese stick. Then, it was time for a class favorite: the edible school
yard. The class split into three
groups for their lesson in the school gardens planted next to the main
entrance. One group planted flowers, one group pulled weeds and one group used
fresh-squeezed lemons and mint from the herb garden to make lemonade, which the
entire class shared at the end of the lesson. The groups rotated between the
garden beds so each student got a chance to perform each activity, which helped
them put into real-life practice some of the things they learned about
grids, annual and perennial plants and sustainable agriculture.
Pass
the charter school bill
Inquirer Commentary by Tashia Fauntroy & Kelly Jones Updated: JUNE 30, 2017 —
9:58 PM EDTTashia Fauntroy and Kelli Jones are parents of children at Mastery Charter Schools’ Clymer, Cleveland and Picket campuses.
As parents of children who benefit greatly from attending highly
successful charter schools, we are disappointed that any of Philadelphia’s
state representatives would vote against the charter school bill (HB 97) being
debated in Harrisburg. No matter how well charter schools perform, some people
allow their fear of change to prevent them from accepting a new model for
education — even if it works better for children. Tens of thousands of families in Philadelphia
would love to send their children to high-performing charter schools, but those
schools simply aren’t available to them. This legislation would create a system
that encourages the growth of quality schools. It ensures that the school
district can close low-performing charters, but also makes it easier for top
performers — like the Mastery schools our children attend –to have longer
contract periods, 10 years instead of the current five. That stability would
make it easier to raise funds to improve school buildings. We often hear the argument that charter
schools take away money from traditional schools. That is simply not true.
Charters serve 35 percent of the city’s students, but receive only 29 percent
of the funding. If everyone listened to the core facts, forgetting which side
they are on, we could find common ground.
Schools
mixing art and science to create STEAM
Inquirer by Kathy
Boccella, Staff Writer @Kathy_Boccella | kboccella@phillynews.com Updated: JULY 2, 2017 — 7:05 AM EDT
Playing with blocks in kindergarten isn’t what it used to be. That
becomes quickly clear in a new lab at Drexel Hill’s Holy Child Academy, where 5-year-old Sophie
Munch is using her iPad to steer a Sphero, a tiny round robot, through the
tunnels and under the bridges of a long, child-built maze of wooden blocks. At a nearby computer, two sixth graders are
honing their multimedia publishing skills through Photoshop, turning an image
of their science teacher blue and grafting hair onto his balding head. The scene pleases Margaret Fox-Tully, head of
school at the private K-8 Catholic academy. She sees the room’s mix of creative
projects, blending science, art, and design, as one giant leap in the
development of skills her students will likely need for the futuristic
workforce that awaits them in the 2030s.
Schools rethink meal-debt policies that
humiliate kids
Morning Call by Morgan Lee Associated Press July 4, 2017
Teaching assistant Kelvin Holt watched as a preschool student fell
to the back of a cafeteria line during breakfast in Killeen, Texas, as if
trying to hide. "The cash register
woman says to this 4-year-old girl, verbatim, 'You have no money,'" said
Holt, describing the incident last year. A milk carton was taken away, and the
girl's food was dumped in the trash. "She did not protest, other than to
walk away in tears." Holt has
joined a chorus of outrage against lunchroom practices that can humiliate
children as public school districts across the United States rethink how they
cope with unpaid student lunch debts. The
U.S. Agriculture Department is requiring districts to adopt policies this month
for addressing meal debts and to inform parents at the start of the academic
year.
New home school-classroom hybrid hits
Bethlehem area
Michelle
Merlin Contact
Reporter Of The Morning Call June 27, 2017
A new kind of school is coming to the Lehigh Valley. Providence Hybrid Academy is slated to open
on the border of Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township this fall. The academy —
technically a nonprofit, not a school — is supposed to provide a communal
education setting for home-schooled children twice a week. Directors Rebecca Foley, who has a master’s
in education leadership, and Angie Wakeman, a former English teacher at Liberty
High school, came up with the idea after talking to members of their church and
other parents. Foley said they realized
some parents were unhappy about their school choices, while others didn’t want
their children in school all day while more districts switch to all-day
kindergarten. “A lot of us were looking at local Christian
schools, but we couldn’t afford it....a lot of us knew home-schoolers, but
weren’t thrilled with the idea of the huge commitment that goes into home schooling,”
Foley said. “I thought it’d be great if there was a part-time school option
that combines the best of home schooling and private school, but was affordable
for families like us [that] don’t have $5,000 to $6,000 a year to send our kids
to private school.” She did some
research and discovered hybrid schools, which allow children to attend school
part-time. While Foley said there are co-op schools in the area, those
generally require parents to stick around or volunteer.
Op-ed:
Saving public education depends on transcending intractable politics
WHYY Newsworks COMMENTARY BY JASON KAYE JULY 3, 2017 SPEAK
EASYJason Kaye is a writer and student advocate residing in Philadelphia.
In Washington, seldom are there unifying partnerships between Republicans and Democrats reaching across the aisle for the long-run benefit of America. A flourishing public education system, fostering adolescent development, is one of the civic pillars necessary to sustain a thriving democracy. Paradoxically, both student and "independent" parental voices are being silenced as partisan special interests have eclipsed control, circumventing broad-based community outreach. Unfortunately, millions of innocent children in the public school network end up trapped inside the vacuum of winner-take-all politics. The voting public is a crucial component to educational system checks and balances, but not enough objective data is dispersed to community members to make informed decisions on public education policies. On the U.S. Department of Education website, most statistics from each state's overall high school graduation rates are based on data from the 2012-13 academic year. On individual websites for some of the largest urban school districts — e.g., Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta — the overall high school graduation rates for the preceding academic year are not available. Where is the breakdown of every individual high school's graduation rates?
Chicago
won’t allow high school students to graduate without a plan for the future
Washington Post By Emma
Brown July 3
CHICAGO — To graduate from a public high school in
Chicago, students will soon have to meet a new and unusual requirement: They
must show that they’ve secured a job or received a letter of acceptance to
college, a trade apprenticeship, a gap year program or the military. Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) said he wants to make
clear that the nation’s third-largest school system is not just responsible for
shepherding teenagers to the end of their senior year, but also for setting
them on a path to a productive future. “We
are going to help kids have a plan, because they’re going to need it to
succeed,” he said. “You cannot have kids think that 12th grade is done.” Few would dispute that kids often need more
than a high school diploma to thrive in today’s economy, but there is a
simmering debate about the extent to which schools should be — and
realistically can be — expected to ensure their graduates receive further
training. Emanuel’s plan, approved by
the Board of Education in late May, has planted Chicago at the center of that
debate.
School Districts Argue Kansas Needs to
Boost Aid up to $1.5B
School districts suing Kansas
over education funding argue that an increase approved by legislators this year
is as much as $1.5 billion short of what's needed for the next school year.
AP By JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer July 4, 2017, at 9:19 a.m.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — School districts suing Kansas over education
funding argue that an increase approved by legislators this year is as much as
$1.5 billion short of what's needed for the next school year and are asking the
state Supreme Court to order lawmakers to provide more money by Sept. 1. The four local districts' attorneys detailed
their objections to a new school finance law in written arguments filed ahead
of a Supreme Court hearing July 18. The new law phases in a $293 million
increase in aid to public schools over two years and will remain in effect
while the justices review it. It also creates a new per-pupil funding formula. Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office
contends the increase is sufficient for legislators to fulfill their duty under
the state constitution to finance a suitable education for every child. The new
law fully funds all-day kindergarten classes across the state and provides more
money for programs to help low-performing students. But the school districts' lawyers note that
the State Board of Education proposed phasing in an $893 million increase in
aid over two years and argued that past studies of educational costs suggest a
boost of as much as $1.7 billion for the next school year alone. Those figures
make the actual increase approved by lawmakers "not even close," they
said in their arguments.
Testing Resistance & Reform News: June
28 - July 3, 2017
Submitted by fairtest on July 3, 2017
Gerrymandering: Fair Districts PA
Statewide Calendar of Events
Apply Now for EPLC's 2017-2018 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program!
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Applications are available now for the 2017-2018
Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The
Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania by The
Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC). Click here for the program calendar of sessions. With more than 500 graduates in its
first eighteen years, this Program is a premier professional development
opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates, and
community leaders. State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are available
to certified public accountants. Past participants include state policymakers,
district superintendents and principals, school business officers, school board
members, education deans/chairs, statewide association leaders, parent leaders,
education advocates, and other education and community leaders. Fellows are
typically sponsored by their employer or another organization. The Fellowship Program begins with a two-day
retreat on September 14-15, 2017 and continues to graduation
in June 2018.
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. In
addition to being a highly respected lobbyist, Timothy Allwein served to help
our members be effective advocates in their own right. Many have said that Tim
inspired them to become active in our Legislative Action Program and to develop
personal working relationships with their legislators. The 2017 Allwein Award nomination process
will begin on Monday, May 15, 2017. The application due
date is July 16, 2017 in the honor of Tim’s birth date of July 16.
Pennsylvania Education Leadership Summit July 23-25, 2017 Blair
County Convention Center - Altoona
A three-day event providing an excellent opportunity for
school district administrative teams and instructional leaders to learn, share
and plan together
co-sponsored by PASA, the Pennsylvania Principals
Association, PASCD and the PA Association for Middle Level Education
**REGISTRATION IS OPEN**Early Bird Registration Ends
after April 30!
Keynote speakers, high quality breakout sessions, table
talks on hot topics, and district team planning and job-alike sessions will
provide practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and discussed at the
summit and utilized at the district level.
Keynote Speakers:
Thomas Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education
Kristen Swanson, Director of Learning at Slack and one of the founding members of the Edcamp movement
Thomas Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education
Kristen Swanson, Director of Learning at Slack and one of the founding members of the Edcamp movement
Breakout session strands:
*Strategic/Cultural Leadership
*Systems Leadership
*Leadership for Learning
*Professional and Community Leadership
*Strategic/Cultural Leadership
*Systems Leadership
*Leadership for Learning
*Professional and Community Leadership
CLICK HERE to access the Summit website for
program, hotel and registration information.
Save the Date 2017 PA Principals Association State Conference
October 14. 15, 16, 2017 Doubletree Hotel Cranberry Township, PA
Save the Date: PASA-PSBA
School Leadership Conference October 18-20, Hershey PA
Registration now open for the
67th Annual PASCD Conference Nov. 12-13
Harrisburg: Sparking Innovation: Personalized Learning, STEM, 4C's
This year's conference will begin on Sunday, November 12th
and end on Monday, November 13th. There will also be a free pre-conference on
Saturday, November 11th. You can
register for this year's conference online with a credit card payment or have
an invoice sent to you. Click here to register for the conference.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/PASCD-Conference-Registration-is-Now-Open.html?soid=1101415141682&aid=5F-ceLtbZDs
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/PASCD-Conference-Registration-is-Now-Open.html?soid=1101415141682&aid=5F-ceLtbZDs
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