Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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School officials seek more education funding
Sun Gazette by DEREK DANNEKER Reporter NOV 18, 2018
School and community leaders gained new tools in their advocacy for more funding in public schools Saturday at a regional summit, telecasted at the BLaST Intermediate Unit on Reach Road. About 20 people traveled to Williamsport to hear speakers from Luzerne, Lehigh, Cumberland, Montgomery, Crawford and Clinton counties and learned how they could implore congressmen to invest in Pennsylvanian students. “It’s time to put public education first,” said Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and leader of the Williamsport summit site. “We’re looking for a large network of advocates who can go out and champion public education and really identify the needs for more funding across several areas, just basic education funding and special education funding where the costs are exploding,” DiRocco said there’s many times he talks to legislators who say they’ve never heard from anyone in their district advocating for more public school funding. “I think a lot of times people think someone else is contacting them, but you, yourself, have to contact them and make that effort. Whether it’s a visit to their office or pick up your phone and call them, that makes a huge difference,” he said.
http://www.sungazette.com/news/top-news/2018/11/school-officials-seek-more-education-funding/
“DVCEE members are committed to working together to enhance the achievement and well-being of all of their students, and most specifically, to increasing the academic performance, engagement, and future success of their students of color, first-generation college attendees, students of economic disadvantage, and other traditionally marginalized student groups.”
Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence & Equity (DVCEE)
Penn Graduate School of Education Center for Educational Leadership
What would happen if networks of school districts came together to rethink equity and education? Check out this short video, by LionChaser Films, on the Penn GSE Consortia for Excellence and Equity to find out. Get in touch with us to find out how your school district can join the movement! The Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence & Equity (formerly the Delaware Valley Minority Student Achievement Consortium or DVMSAC) is a collaborative association of 36 school districts located throughout Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware, as well as several intermediate units, and the PA State Education Association.
https://pcel.gse.upenn.edu/programs/peec/projects#DVMSAC
“Toomey has been working since February with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to pass a bill expanding background checks to all firearms sales at gun shows and online since the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. That effort went down to defeat in 2013 and again in 2015.”
Toomey: New Democratic majority in the U.S. House could be ‘silver lining’ for stalled gun background checks bill
Penn Live By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com jmicek@pennlive.com Updated 1:49 PM; Posted 1:14 PM
The looming Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives may have been unwelcome news for President Donald Trump and national Republicans, but one Pennsylvania lawmaker says he now sees an upside coming from the next two years of divided government on Capitol Hill. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who’s spent the past few years working to pass expanded background checks for gun purchases, says one of the “silver linings” in the flip in Republican from Democratic control is that there’s now at least the hope that a bill could make it through both chambers and maybe -- possibly -- land on Trump’s desk. “I’m not happy about losing the House, but this is an opportunity that maybe didn’t exist in the previous majority,” Toomey said in a wide-ranging interview with PennLive on Tuesday.
https://www.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2018/11/toomey-new-democratic-majority-in-the-us-house-could-be-silver-lining-for-stalled-gun-background-checks-bill.html#incart_river_index
Pondiscio: It’s Time to End the Testing Culture in America’s Schools — and Start Playing the Long Game to Produce Better Life Outcomes for At-Risk Kids
The74 opinion by ROBERT PONDISCIO November 20, 2018
Paymon Rouhanifard, former superintendent of the Camden, New Jersey, school district, delivered a speech last week at the MIT School Access and Quality Summit in Boston, calling into question the testing and accountability orthodoxy that has guided education policy and defined much of ed reform’s agenda over the past two decades. “I believe the drawbacks currently outweigh the benefits,” he stated bluntly. “We haven’t been honest about the trade-offs.” The talk was politely received and briefly rattled around social media over the weekend. But it deserves to be more widely read and discussed. The heart of Rouhanifard’s critique concerns the effects of the testing culture we have imposed on schools — particularly those attended by low-income children of color. “We are spending an inordinate amount of time on formative and interim assessments and test prep, because those are the behaviors we have incentivized,” he observed. “We are deprioritizing the sciences, the arts, and civic education, because we’ve placed most of our eggs in two baskets. We are implicitly encouraging schools to serve fewer English language learners and students with an [individualized education program]. We are spending less time on actual instruction, because that’s the system we’ve created.”
https://www.the74million.org/article/pondiscio-its-time-to-end-the-testing-culture-in-americas-schools-and-start-playing-the-long-game-to-produce-better-life-outcomes-for-at-risk-kids/
Pa. lawmakers getting pay raise, base salary will rise to $88,610
Lawmakers, top executive branch officials, and judges in Pennsylvania will be receiving a 1.64 percent pay raise, starting next month for legislators and Jan. 1 for the other officials.
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com jmurphy@pennlive.com Updated 1:01 PM; Posted 11:02 AM
Starting on Dec. 1, Pennsylvania lawmakers – the second-highest paid in the nation – will see their paychecks grow with a raise of 1.6 percent, boosting the base salary that most legislators get paid to $88,610. It means rank-and-file lawmakers will get an annual raise of $1,430. Currently, the base pay for lawmakers is $87,180. The presiding officers of the House and Senate and caucus leaders will earn higher salaries, which increase by the same percentage as rank-and-file members. The highest salaries are paid to the House Speaker and President Pro Tempore, who will be elected in January, and their pay rate is set at $138,327. Caucus officers will earn salaries between $101,040 and $128,385. A state law provides automatic cost-of-living adjustments for the members of the Legislature, top executive branch officials and state judges based on the year-over-year percentage change in the U.S. Department of Labor-determined Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers for Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
https://www.pennlive.com/politics/2018/11/legislators-base-salary-getting-bump-dec-1-to-88610.html#incart_river_index
Women are more likely to work in Pa. public schools, but less likely to lead them
WITF Written by Ed Mahon/PA Post | Nov 20, 2018 5:31 AM
'You are, as a female, really having to stand up, and maybe sometimes stand up a little taller and be noticed,' said one superintendent.
(Undated) -- The handshake might seem like a small thing. But Janet Serino notices it.
Serino has worked in education for more than 40 years. She's now a superintendent at a school district in Luzerne County, an area without any other women in similar positions. Serino think she is sometimes treated differently than her male colleagues. The handshake is one small way. "Men sometimes hesitate to shake the hand of a woman," Serino said. "But they'll go right up and shake the hand of that gentleman." Statewide, about 73 percent of classroom teachers in public schools last year were women. But only about 28 percent of school district superintendent were, according to a PA Post analysis of state data. The disparity is common nationwide and it can limit options for women, said Ed Fuller, an associate professor of education at Penn State. And for school districts, it can prevent them from hiring the best candidates. "You're pool is not as capable as it otherwise would be," Fuller said.
http://www.witf.org/news/2018/11/women-are-more-likely-to-work-in-pa-public-schools-but-a-lot-less-likely-to-lead-school-districts.php
Pennsylvania superintendents: By the numbers
WITF Written by Ed Mahon/PA Post | Nov 20, 2018 5:18 AM
(Undated) -- Women are lot less likely than men to lead school districts in Pennsylvania.
But those women who do hold the superintendent job tend to earn a little more than their male counterparts. That's according to a PA Post analysis of salary records for the leaders of 490 Pennsylvania school districts. The figures include acting and substitute superintendents in 2017-18. But even if you take those positions out of the mix, the results are similar or identical.
Here's a look at the numbers.
http://www.witf.org/news/2018/11/pennsylvania-superintendents-by-the-numbers.php
Boyertown students ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeal of transgender bathroom challenge
Peter Hall Of The Morning Call November 20, 2018
Students who lost their appeal in a challenge of Boyertown Area High School’s policy that allows transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case. Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative group that argued the case on behalf of the students filing the challenge, said Monday it has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking it to review a ruling in May upholding the policy. The anonymous group of Boyertown students claimed the bathroom policy violated their fundamental right to bodily privacy and deprived them access to facilities in violation of the federal law against sex discrimination in schools. A three judge panel of Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously decided not to suspend the policy, finding the students who challenged the district had not shown that they were likely to succeed in a full trial of their case, or that they would be irreparably harmed if the policy remained in place.
https://www.mcall.com/news/police/mc-nws-boyertown-transgender-bathroom-supreme-court-peitition-20181119-story.html
Fall Feast at A.S. Jenks celebrates diversity and generosity
Families in the diverse neighborhood brought in cuisine from their homelands to be shared with students, teachers, parents, and visitors.
The notebook by Dale Mezzacappa November 20 — 2:17 pm, 2018
Two days before Thanksgiving, A.S. Jenks Elementary School held its Fall Feast, where families in the diverse neighborhood brought in cuisine from their homelands to be shared with students, teachers, parents, visitors, and outsiders alike. “It’s a harvest celebration, not necessarily about Thanksgiving,” said principal Siouda Douglas, who originally started the festival for 4th graders, but then expanded it to involve the whole school. In the heart of traditionally Italian South Philadelphia, A.S. Jenks now serves about 300 students in kindergarten through 5th grade whose families are from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Albania, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, not to mention Italy and Ireland. The food filled tables in two long hallways, from spring rolls to Spanish rice to Italian pastries to corn on the cob.
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2018/11/20/fall-feast-at-a-s-jenks-celebrates-diversity-and-generosity/
Plum teachers authorize strike if contract talks fail
Trib Live by MICHAEL DIVITTORIO | Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018, 10:03 p.m.
Plum School District teachers may go on strike this school year should contract talks fail. Plum Borough Education Association members voted 176-0 Tuesday to authorize its negotiation team to call for a strike if necessary. Total membership is 232. The district would be notified at least 48 hours in advance of any strike. “We’re still negotiating,” union President David Gray aid Tuesday night. “We just feel at this time the best thing to do to move forward is to take a strike authorization vote. We aren’t striking right now.” District officials let community members know of the latest contract negotiation developments via a letter from their chief negotiator, attorney Michael Brungo.
https://triblive.com/local/plum/14319285-74/plum-teachers-authorize-strike-if-contract-talks-fail
Pennsylvania attorney general's office, state police raid Scranton School District administration building
Morning Call by Sarah Hofius Hall, Joseph Kohut Of The Scranton Times-Tribune November 20, 2018
The corruption probe of the Scranton School District intensified Tuesday, as law enforcement agents raided the offices of the school board secretary and transportation director and left with documents and computers. Following September’s arrest of the former fleet manager, the state investigation of the financially struggling school district appeared to expand, as more than a dozen agents from state police and the attorney general’s office spent six hours in the administration building. While investigators have visited the building several times this year, Tuesday’s visit was the most visible. For the past year, the district has faced intense scrutiny from the state, from entering financial watch status, to Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issuing a scathing report last fall, criticizing district leadership and operations. The auditor general also questioned the costs of the district’s no-bid contracts with DeNaples Transportation, and some school directors later questioned whether prior contracts were even legal.
https://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-scranton-school-district-investigation-20181120-story.html
Lower Merion schools no longer interested in acquiring Stoneleigh
Inquirer by Kathy Boccella, Updated: November 20, 2018- 4:51 PM
In a new twist on six months of controversy that have jolted a Main Line suburb, the Lower Merion school board moved Monday night to acquire 7.56 acres on Spring Mill Road in Villanova for playing fields for a new middle school to be built nearly two miles away. The plan means that Lower Merion is abandoning its divisive proposal to seize land for the athletic fields from the new public garden at Stoneleigh – an idea that angered local conservationists and led to legislation in Harrisburg intended to thwart it.
http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/philadelphia/lower-merion-stoneleigh-middle-school-eminent-domain-20181120.html
“Passed in 2011, Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarships were the next phase of evolution of the traditional school voucher: the education savings account, or ESA.”
Cosmetics and Clothes: Parents Misspent $700,000 in Arizona's School Choice Program
Education Week By Arianna Prothero November 19, 2018
Cosmetics. Clothing. And computer-technology support.
Those are among the prohibited purchases parents in Arizona made with public money meant to support their children’s education, according to a recent audit by the state’s attorney general. In the revolutionary school choice program that gives parents near-total control over how state dollars are used on their children’s education, some parents continue to abuse the system even after many of these issues were flagged in a 2016 audit. In all, Arizona parents fraudulently spent $700,000 in fiscal 2018 on banned items and services. The audit’s findings highlight how innovative new programs beget unique problems and beg the question, is this simply a regulatory bump in the road or a systemic issue? “We want to hold programs to high financial accountability,” said Robert Enlow, the president and CEO of EdChoice, an advocacy group that favors school choice programs such as Arizona’s. “We also really want to make sure we modernize the government to be able to keep up with this.”
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/11/19/cosmetics-and-clothes-parents-misspent-700000-in.html
Build on finance, policy, board culture skills at PSBA’s Applied School Director Training
Four convenient locations in December and January
Take the next step in your professional development with Applied School Director Training. Building upon topics broadly covered in New School Director Training, this new, interactive evening event asks district leaders to dive deeper into three areas of school governance: school finance, board policy and working collaboratively as a governance team. Prepare for future leadership positions and committee work in this workshop-style training led by experts and practitioners. Learn how to:
·
Evaluate key
finance documents such as budget and audit materials
·
Review and analyze board policies and administrative regulations
·
Build positive board culture by developing strong collaboration skills
Locations and Dates:Dec.11, 2018 — Seneca Valley SD
Dec. 12, 2018 — Selinsgrove, Selinsgrove Area Middle School
Jan. 10, 2019 — Bethlehem, Nitschmann Middle School
Jan. 17, 2019 — State College
Cost: This event is complimentary for All-Access members or $75 per person with standard membership and $150 per person for nonmembers. Register online by logging in to myPSBA.
https://www.psba.org/2018/11/applied-school-director-training-state-college/
PSBA Board Presidents’ Panel
Nine locations around the state running Jan 29, 30 and 31st.
Share your leadership experience and learn from others in your area at this event designed for board presidents, superintendents and board members with interest in pursuing leadership roles. Workshop real solutions to the specific challenges you face with a PSBA-moderated panel of school leaders. Discussion will address the most pressing challenges facing PA public schools.
https://www.psba.org/2018/11/board-presidents-panel-2/
NSBA 2019 Advocacy Institute January 27-29 Washington Hilton, Washington D.C.
Register now
The upcoming midterm elections will usher in the 116th Congress at a critical time in public education. Join us at the 2019 NSBA Advocacy Institute for insight into what the new Congress will mean for your school district. And, of course, learn about techniques and tools to sharpen your advocacy skills, and prepare for effective meetings with your representatives. Save the date to join school board members from across the country on Capitol Hill to influence the new legislative agenda and shape the decisions made inside the Beltway that directly impact our students. For more information contact federaladvocacy@nsba.org.
2019 NSBA Annual Conference Philadelphia March 30 - April 1, 2019
Pennsylvania Convention Center 1101 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107
Registration Questions or Assistance: 1-800-950-6722
The NSBA Annual Conference & Exposition is the one national event that brings together education leaders at a time when domestic policies and global trends are combining to shape the future of the students. Join us in Philadelphia for a robust offering of over 250 educational programs, including three inspirational general sessions that will give you new ideas and tools to help drive your district forward.
https://www.nsba.org/conference
Save the Date: PARSS Annual Conference May 1-3, 2019
Wyndham Garden Hotel, Mountainview Country Club
Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools
https://www.parss.org/Annual_Conference
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do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other person or organization
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