Started in November 2010, 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 team members, superintendents, school solicitors,
principals, charter school leaders, 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, Instagram and LinkedIn.
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Charter school cap
efforts gaining momentum
The League of Women
Voters of Delaware County and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit present: Ron
Cowell, EPLC 2019 Regional Training Workshop for PA School Board Candidates (and
Incumbents) April 27th 8am – 4:30pm at DCIU
For questions contact Adriene Irving at 610-938-9000 ext. 2061.
To register, please visit http://tinyurl.com/CandidatesWksp
“Bethlehem
Area School District paid $25 million in charter school tuition payments in
2017. It was not possible to save $25 million with the students gone, however,
because of the way the students were distributed across the district. The
students enrolled in charter schools came from 13 different grades in 22
different schools. Since students moving to a charter were rarely all of the
students from a single school, grade or class, the district was not able to
reduce staff or close classes to help cover the charter tuition payments. If
next year’s third grade class goes from 28 students to 26 students in a school,
district officials still need to keep that third grade class open. They cannot
pay that teacher 2/28th less, heat 2/28th less of that classroom, or reduce the
operation of electricity in that classroom by 2/28th.”
By Matthew Gardner Kelly Capital-Star
Op-Ed Contributor March 10, 2019
From California to Wisconsin,
efforts to stop charter school growth are gaining momentum. In the April 2019
mayoral election in Chicago, both candidates say they want to halt charter
school expansion. Financial issues lie at the core of these efforts. Schools
were hit particularly hard by the 2008 recession. Many states cut
education funding. As a scholar
of school finance, I would argue that charter school expansion is making
this bad situation worse. Trends in school finance: In my home state of
Pennsylvania, schools watched hundreds of millions of dollars in state support
disappear when former Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, both cut state
funding and refused
to replace federal stimulus funding. A similar pattern unfolded across the
country. In 2015, 29 states were still providing
less money per pupil than before the recession began. In most states,
state aid is designed to assist districts with high needs and low wealth. As a result,
high-poverty districts were hurt the most by state cuts.
School finance scholars often consider school funding systems fair when they
give additional funds to districts with the greatest needs.
Leonard Rich: Analyzing a statewide education
report
New Castle (Lawrence County) News By Leonard Rich Mar 8, 2019 Updated Mar
8, 2019
(Len Rich is the superintendent of the Laurel School District and
director of the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center.)
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association recently released its annual
report, the State of Education 2019. ….The take-away: School districts continue
to adjust to the new normal set by the budget cuts of 2011 and the pension assessments
of greater than 33 percent. Most districts rely on the state for the majority
of their revenues. Therefore, district programming is greatly affected by the
ability of a school district to raise local revenues. In today’s climate,
safety and security is at the forefront of our decisions. Although our primary
goal remains educating the youth of the Commonwealth, Maslow taught us long ago
that on the hierarchy of needs, safety comes first. Pennsylvania is a rural
state as defined by geography and a suburban state as defined by population.
These two categories constitute approximately 80 percent of the Commonwealth’s
public school populations. Urban districts tend to be larger on average (over
11,000 each) than suburban or rural schools.
Blogger note: Total cyber charter
tuition paid by PA taxpayers from 500 school districts for 2013, 2014, 2015 and
2016 was over $1.6 billion; $393.5 million, $398.8 million, $436.1 million and
$454.7 million respectively. Over the next several days
we will continue rolling out cyber charter tuition expenses for taxpayers in
education committee members, legislative leadership and various other
districts.
In 2016-17, taxpayers
in .@SenatorKristin Phillips-Hill’s
districts had to send over $12.7 million to chronically underperforming cybers
that locally elected school boards never authorized. SB34 (Schwank) or HB526
(Sonney) could change that.
|
Central York SD
|
$778,976.93
|
|
Dallastown Area
SD
|
$658,342.15
|
|
Eastern York SD
|
$899,970.21
|
|
Red Lion Area SD
|
$1,451,502.00
|
|
South Eastern SD
|
$864,892.24
|
|
South Western SD
|
$736,219.02
|
|
Southern York
County SD
|
$460,042.21
|
|
Spring Grove
Area SD
|
$892,731.28
|
|
York City SD
|
$3,922,474.02
|
|
West York Area
SD
|
$1,198,270.00
|
|
York Suburban SD
|
$856,433.95
|
|
|
$12,719,854.01
|
How much could your school district and taxpayers save if
there were statewide flat tuition rates of $5000 for regular ed students and
$8865 for special ed.? See the estimated savings by school district here.
Education Voters PA
Website February 14, 2019
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2019&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=34
Has your state representative cosponsored HB526?
National School Boards Association Website March 7, 2019
Alexandria, Va., (March 7, 2019) – Winchester Public Schools, Winchester, Virginia; Coatesville Area School District, Thorndale, Pennsylvania; and Des Moines Public Schools, Des Moines, Iowa, are the grand-prize winners in the 25th annual Magna Awards program sponsored by the National School Boards Association’s flagship magazine, American School Board Journal (ASBJ). This is the second year that the Magna Awards recognize school districts and their leaders for their efforts to bring educational equity to their students. The Magna Awards, supported by Sodexo, a leader in delivering sustainable, integrated facilities management and food service operations, honor districts across the country for programs that break down barriers for underserved students. A panel of school board members, administrators, and other educators selected the winners from 200 submissions. “It takes commitment to start an equity program and fortitude to sustain it,” said Thomas J. Gentzel, National School Boards Association Executive Director & CEO. “I congratulate the 2019 Magna Award winning districts for performing the hard and sometimes unpopular work to ensure all of their students are supported and provided with the tools and opportunities needed to succeed.” This year’s three grand prize winners and 15 first place winners were selected from three enrollment categories: under 5,000 students, 5,000 to 20,000 students, and over 20,000 students. Each of the grand prize-winning school districts will give a special presentation at NSBA’s annual conference, to be held March 30 to April 1 in Philadelphia.
https://www.nsba.org/newsroom/press-releases/three-school-districts-earn-top-honors-2019-magna-awards-equity-programs
Beyond Legos: 1,200 young robot-builders draw corporate cash and career inspiration
Inquirer by Joseph N. DiStefano, Updated: March 9, 2019- 6:13 PM
She started with Legos, the Danish snap-together blocks kids use to build little worlds. And Arduino, the Italian open-source controller system popular with autonomous-device makers, referred to by some as the Lego brain. “I was doing this in sixth grade,” says fast-moving Lindsey Turner, now 15 and a sophomore at Westtown School, where she is head programmer for the robotics team. The Chester County school this weekend is hosting FIRST’s — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — regional heavyweight-robots competition, where 1,200 high school students from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware square off with creations weighing up to 120 pounds. (That’s bigger than Turner.) With business sponsors such as Boeing and TE Connectivity, the event is as much about inspiring youths to pursue careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — as it is about creative fun. It comes days after the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics released a report that women, people with disabilities, and minorities from three racial and ethnic groups (black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian or Alaska Native) are underrepresented in science and engineering, and following an announcement Tuesday that Philadelphia-area TechGirlz has been acquired by the Illinois-based nonprofit Creating IT Futures in a deal designed to build a more robust pipeline of women interested in technology careers.
https://www.philly.com/news/stem-robotics-competition-first-westtown-20190309.html
STEAM Academy promises educational choice in Harrisburg | Opinion
Penn Live By Founders and Board of STEAM Academy | Opinion Updated Mar 10, 9:37 AM; Posted Mar 10, 9:00 AM
We’ve read much of the on-line debate regarding our recent charter school application and its denial by the Harrisburg School Board, and we felt that it was important to present the facts of the school and its founding to the public. The most important thing a society can do is to educate, nurture and support its children, and in that light the current debate about our application is an extremely significant one for our city and the region, and more importantly for our children and their futures. The Pennsylvania STEAM Academy, a non-profit K-to-8 public charter school, was founded by career educators and community business and service leaders. Its goal is to create a total educational and social experience in a nurturing environment that will transform K-8 education in the city and the region. The STEAM Academy curriculum has been extensively researched and designed to be as effective as possible. Features of the curriculum are:
https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2019/03/steam-academy-promises-educational-choice-in-harrisburg.html
Blogger note: two of the signers of the above charter school support letter, Carolyn Dumaresq and Ron Tomalis, were previously senior education department officials in the Corbett Administration
Reprise August 2014: Ron Tomalis, under fire from ghost employee allegations, calls it quits in Corbett Administration education job
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Updated Aug 12, 2014
Gov. Tom Corbett's special advisor on higher education issues has resigned after two weeks of unceasing questions about whether he was filling a job or floating on a golden parachute at taxpayers' expense. Ron Tomalis has resigned his position as Gov. Tom Corbett's special advisor on higher education. Ron Tomalis announced his resignation from the $139,542-a-year post in a letter to Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq Tuesday. Tomalis, in the letter, referred obliquely to the criticisms that he was serving as a ghost employee, noting that "given recent events, I believe it is in the best interest of the Administration that I resign" to pursue other endeavors.
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2014/08/ron_tomalis_under_fire_from_gh_1.html
Time to dump overripe Charter Appeals Board
PCCY Opinion March 8, 2019
This week we’re asking you to sign a petition to correct an issue affecting millions in tax dollars and the quality of education that students in charter schools receive. Across the state, students and taxpayers continue to feel the impact of an archaic and broken system of charter oversight. Since the Charter School Law was enacted in 1997, it has not been updated to ensure better accountability or consider the financial impact charter schools have had on taxpayers, students or communities. No surprise that the universally despised and ridiculed PA charter law brings with it some terrible governance. During the 2016-2017 school year alone, school districts were required by law to send $1.6 billion dollars in payments to charter schools – schools that they do not manage or have control over. This means that traditional public schools have less money to spend. Fewer teachers means bigger class sizes. Big cuts mean fewer art and music classes. Less money means things like repairs and updated technology must wait. Yet, school districts are required by law to review new and existing applications from charter schools. If they deny applications, the Charter Appeals Board (CAB) reviews the decision. If the CAB overrides the local school district’s decision, even if the district has already ascertained a charter is skirting the law or is of low quality, taxpayers and students bear the growing costs.
https://www.pccy.org/news/time-dump-overripe-charter-appeal-board-march-8-2019/
Decline in readers, ads leads hundreds of newspapers to fold
AP News By DAVID BAUDER and DAVID A. LIEB yesterday
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Five minutes late, Darrell Todd Maurina sweeps into a meeting room and plugs in his laptop computer. He places a Wi-Fi hotspot on the table and turns on a digital recorder. The earplug in his left ear is attached to a police scanner in his pants pocket. He wears a tie; Maurina insists upon professionalism. He is the press — in its entirety. Maurina, who posts his work to Facebook, is the only person who has come to the Pulaski County courthouse to tell residents what their commissioners are up to, the only one who will report on their deliberations — specifically, their discussions about how to satisfy the Federal Emergency Management Agency so it will pay to repair a road inundated during a 2013 flood. Last September, Waynesville became a statistic. With the shutdown of its newspaper, the Daily Guide, this town of 5,200 people in central Missouri’s Ozark hills joined more than 1,400 other cities and towns across the U.S. to lose a newspaper over the past 15 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by the University of North Carolina. Blame revenue siphoned by online competition, cost-cutting ownership, a death spiral in quality, sheer disinterest among readers or reasons peculiar to given locales for that development. While national outlets worry about a president who calls the press an enemy of the people, many Americans no longer have someone watching the city council for them, chronicling the soccer exploits of their children or reporting on the kindly neighbor who died of cancer. Local journalism is dying in plain sight.
https://apnews.com/0c59cf4a09114238af55fe18e32bc454
“You can help by subscribing to at least one local newspaper. “
Guest column: Communities lose when newspapers die or slide into decline
Delco Times By Joyce Terhaar Guest columnist Mar 10, 2019 Updated 12 hrs ago
Joyce Terhaar is a board member with the American Society of News Editors and the former executive editor of The Sacramento Bee.
It is a story of corruption that will stay secret, politicians who will need fewer votes to win, even dangerous communicable diseases that will spread faster as our best scientists struggle to fight them. The story is the slow and painful demise of local newspapers, a story whose ending is not yet written but which — without bold intervention and strong reader support — could bring catastrophic repercussions. Whether you follow the news or not, whether you trust journalists or not, the financial challenges slaying local newspapers will affect your community, your wallet, your quality of life. In some cities, they already have. We’ve watched local newspapers lose revenue to tech giants for the better part of the last quarter century. In recent years, the outcome has become dire, with nearly one in five — almost 1,800 newspapers — closed in the last 15 years, according to Penelope Muse Abernathy, the Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Economics at the University of North Carolina. Even more prevalent than closures are what Abernathy calls “ghosts,” newspapers that are a shell of what they were. Tens of thousands of journalists left newsrooms in the decade ending 2017.
https://www.delcotimes.com/opinion/guest-column-communities-lose-when-newspapers-die-or-slide-into/article_c8b404a8-a4f8-53fd-9252-9e496f2e5e58.html
What we lose when we lose news | Editorial
The Inquirer Editorial Board Updated: 24 minutes ago
If you were reading this 10 years ago, you wouldn’t actually have been reading this.
Ten years ago, we would have remained silent over the news that a journalistic institution in this city was in peril. But the recent news that Spirited Media, parent company of local news website Billy Penn, is seeking a buyer for its websites in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and has sold its Denveroperation, is no cause for celebration for any of us. The business, started by Jim Brady in 2014, was an experiment in finding a way to provide news to a millennial audience. Similar experiments have been taken up by many in this region (including us). The result has been the creation of a new journalistic ecosystem whose health has serious implications for our city and region. That’s not just philosophy, that’s reality. Reductions in local news have very tangible impacts on cities. A 2011 study by University of Chicago and Harvard economists found that opening new newspapers increases voter participation in elections. Another study by economists from MIT and Stockholm University from 2010 found that members of Congress from districts that have less local news coverage don’t work as hard for their constituents, and those districts end up receiving less federal funding.
https://www.philly.com/opinion/editorials/billy-penn-journalism-lenfest-democracy-editorial-20190311.html
“Over the past decade, local newsrooms across the country have been decimated. Between 2004 and 2016, the number of U.S. newspaper employees dropped by more than half — from 375,000 to about 173,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2019 alone, we’ve seen layoffs by BuzzFeed, Gannett, HuffPost, McClatchy and Vice Media, leaving more than a 1,000 news employees without jobs.”
Tax social media to invest in journalism
Mr. Rogers virtually saved public broadcasting. Now we must fight for high-quality news
Post Gazette Opinion by TIMOTHY KARR Free Press MAR 11, 2019
One of the most remarkable testimonies before Congress occurred in 1969 as the Senate Communications Subcommittee was weighing heavy cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity charged with distributing federal money to public television and radio stations. Subcommittee Chairman John Pastore was skeptical about the need for publicly funded media. He called to testify a soft-spoken Presbyterian minister from Pittsburgh who had recently moved into WQED studios to produce a childrens’ television program for a handful of local stations. Over the next six-and-a-half minutes, Fred Rogers made such a compelling case for public broadcasting that it gave Mr. Pastore goosebumps. Mr. Rogers ended his testimony with a children’s song. Pastore’s position softened on the spot and he voted to restore funding. In the 50 years since, public broadcasting has survived similar funding threats. Today, most of the CPB’s annual allotment from Congress (around $450 million) goes to support noncommercial television and radio programming. And while “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” stopped airing in 2001, PBS and NPR programs like All Things Considered, Frontline, Morning Edition and PBS NewsHour remain popular among U.S. audiences.
https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2019/03/11/Mr-Rogers-saved-public-broadcasting-Now-we-must-fight-for-journalism/stories/201903110031
“Public charity? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court set the standard of a five-part test to decide whether an entity qualifies under state law as a purely public charity (and thereby can avoid paying property taxes). To qualify, a nonprofit organization must:
1. Advance a charitable purpose
2. Donate or render gratuitously a substantial portion of its services
3. Benefit a substantial and indefinite class of persons who are legitimate objects of charity
4. Relieve the government of some of its burden
5. Operate entirely free from private profit motive
Source: Pennsylvania Supreme Court”
Allegheny County lacks resources to scrutinize tax breaks for ‘Big 4’ charities
Trib Live by NATASHA LINDSTROM | Monday, March 11, 2019 5:30 a.m
Allegheny County says it lacks the resources to scrutinize hundreds of tax-exempt properties owned by the region’s so-called “Big 4” charities, further delaying an oversight probe that was supposed to be completed years ago, the Tribune-Review has learned. Four massive nonprofit organizations with billion-dollar portfolios control the county’s most valuable, tax-free real estate: UPMC, Highmark/Allegheny Health Network, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Worth a combined $5.47 billion, roughly 700 parcels owned by the Big 4 and other complex nonprofits make up just 25 percent of tax-exempt properties countywide, but they account for 72 percent of the total value of the county’s tax-exempt properties. In February 2013, at the request of Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, the owners of all 2,800 tax-exempt parcels on the books countywide received letters stating they had to submit documents proving their statuses as “purely public charities” — or risk having their tax exemptions revoked. Fitzgerald pledged to follow through on a 2007 ordinance by County Council calling for the review to take place once every three years.
https://triblive.com/news/pittsburgh-allegheny/county-lacks-resources-to-scrutinize-tax-breaks-for-big-4-charities-as-pledged-12-years-ago/
Sorting out the education numbers in Mayor Kenney’s budget
Kenney is planning big increases in the city's contribution to the District from its own general fund rather than proposing new revenue sources or a tax increase.
The notebook by Dale Mezzacappa March 8 — 7:05 pm, 2019
In his budget address on Thursday, Mayor Kenney wanted to make it clear that he puts a high priority on education funding, now and in the future. The mayor announced that he wants the city to contribute $214 million to the School District from its general fund – on top of the local revenue the District gets through taxes the city raises specifically for its needs. Those include the property tax, of which the District gets 55 percent; the use and occupancy tax; the liquor-by-the-drink tax; the school income tax; the cigarette tax; and the 1 percent sales tax surcharge that was enacted in 2014. Compared to $180 million from the general fund last year, the $214 million is an increase of more than $33 million. The five-year plan anticipates steady increases each year after that. Altogether, nearly half the District’s annual $3 billion general operating budget comes from local sources, or close to $1.5 billion a year. The rest comes from the state. Revenue sources for the District’s Fiscal Year 2018 are on page 40 of this document. In total, Kenney said, the city was pledging to give $1.2 billion to the District over the next five years from its own general fund, which is $700 million more than the city had planned to contribute from the general fund as recently as 2018. “This mayor has made school funding his main priority,” said City Budget Director Anna Adams. “It’s one of the main things the city has invested in.”
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2019/03/08/sorting-out-the-education-numbers-in-mayor-kenneys-budget/
Harrisburg school, under investigation over grant money, must give job, grading info to state
Penn Live By Christine Vendel | cvendel@pennlive.com Updated Mar 8, 2019; Posted Mar 7, 2019
The Pennsylvania Department of Education has requested job descriptions, grading policies and the district’s conflict of interest policy amid a state inquiry into the spending of federal grants at the high school. The Pennsylvania Department of Education suspended a chunk of federal money from the Harrisburg School District after noting “serious compliance issues” related to the spending of School Improvement Grants at the main high school, according to the letter the department sent to the district. PennLive obtained a copy of the letter from the department this week through a Right to Know request. PennLive previously reported on the suspension of the grants, but the letter reveals additional details about the nature of the state’s investigation. The letter requested a series of documents from the district and said the federal money would not be released until all the information received was reviewed and approved by the division of Federal Programs.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/03/harrisburg-school-under-investigation-over-grant-money-must-give-job-grading-info-to-state.html
Betsy DeVos effort to delay special-ed regulations rejected by court
Washington Post By Laura Meckler March 8
A federal court ruled this week that an Obama-era regulation designed to ensure children of color are not disproportionately punished or sent to special-education classrooms must take effect immediately. Published in the final days of the Obama administration, the rules were supposed to have taken effect in 2018. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moved in the summer to delay them for two years. The decision, issued Thursday, is a rebuke of her action. Under the regulation, states will face tighter rules about how they count children in special education. Those calculations may tip more states over a threshold that requires them to create a plan to ensure students of color are not being disproportionately targeted. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), chairman of the House Education Committee, called the decision from U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan a “major victory” for students and parents. “By forcing the Trump administration to implement the rule, the court’s ruling will put us back on a track toward reversing systemic racial discrimination in education,” he said. “The court’s ruling confirms our suspicion that the Education Department’s delay of the . . . rule had no basis in evidence or facts.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/betsy-devos-effort-to-delay-special-ed-regulations-rejected-by-court/2019/03/08/2df38bb4-41b8-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html?utm_term=.5b494b49fa64
DeVos Illegally Delayed Special Education Rule, Judge Says
New York Times By Erica L. Green March 8, 2019
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ruled that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos illegally delayed an Obama-era rule that required states to address racial disparities in special education programs. In a decision on Thursday, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia called the Education Department’s delay of the special education rule “arbitrary and capricious.” The rule, drafted under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, would require states to identify districts with “significant disproportionality” in the number of minority students channeled into special education services, segregated in restrictive classroom settings or disciplined. The rule, passed in the final weeks of the Obama administration, required districts to examine policies and practices that contributed to the disparities and fund remedies. The judge’s ruling vacates Ms. DeVos’s decision to put off the regulation by two years. Instead it will take effect immediately. Leaders in the Education Department said last summer that they needed time to study the rule’s potential consequences because they were concerned that it could promote unconstitutional “racial quotas.” Civil rights groups hailed the ruling as a victory over one of the most significant policy moves that Ms. DeVos has made to date. While the department has rescinded nonbinding guidance documents, which championed Obama-era practices for addressing racial bias, the special education rule is binding, and states had been preparing to enforce it for more than a year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/betsy-devos-special-education.html
Testing Resistance & Reform News: February 27 - March 5, 2019
FairTest Submitted by fairtest on March 5, 2019 - 3:45pm
Ever-growing numbers of Americans are coming to understand that decades of test-and-punish policies have failed to boost educational quality or enhance equity. Many states are getting the message and backing away from high-stakes exams, as this week's news stories and commentaries demonstrate.
https://www.fairtest.org/testing-resistance-reform-news-february-27-march-5
The League of Women Voters of Delaware County and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit present: EPLC 2019 Regional Training Workshop for PA School Board Candidates April 27th 8am – 4:30pm at DCIU
Ron Cowell of The Pennsylvania Education Policy and Leadership Center will conduct a regional full day workshop for 2019 Pennsylvania School Board Candidates.
Date & Time: Saturday, April 27, 2019, 8am to 4:30pm
Location: Delaware County Intermediate Unit,
200 Yale Ave. Morton, PA
Incumbents, non-incumbents,
campaign supporters and all interested voters are invited to participate in
this workshop. Registration is $75 (payable by credit card) and includes coffee
and pastries, lunch, and materials. For questions contact Adriene Irving at
610-938-9000 ext. 2061.To register, please visit http://tinyurl.com/CandidatesWksp
“BACKPACK FULL OF CASH” DOCUMENTARY – Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor, Matt Damon, BACKPACK explores the real cost of privatizing America’s public schools. Before the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the appointment of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, filmmakers Sarah Mondale and Vera Aronow couldn’t have known that the new administration would dramatically shift the national debate about education to the very issues at the heart of their film: charter schools, vouchers and privatization. Now, this timely new documentary takes viewers into the world of market-based education “reform”.
BACKPACK FULL OF CASH follows the tumultuous 2013-14 school year in Philadelphia and other cities where public education – starved of resources and undermined by privatization – is at risk. The documentary also showcases a model for improving schools – a well-resourced public school system in Union City, New Jersey, where poor kids are getting a high-quality education without charters or vouchers. BACKPACK FULL OF CASH makes the case for public education as a basic civil right. The film features genuine heroes like the principals, teachers, activists, parents and most hearteningly, students who are fighting for their education. Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, writer David Kirp and policy expert Linda Darling Hammond are among the national thought leaders who provide analysis in the film.
2019 State of
Education report now online
PSBA Website February 19, 2019
The 2019 State of Education report is now available on PSBA.org in PDF format. The report is a
barometer of not only the key indicators of public school performance, but also
the challenges schools face and how they are coping with them. Data reported
comes from publicly available sources and from a survey to chief school
administrators, which had a 66% response rate. Print copies of the report will
be mailed to members soon.
All
PSBA-members are invited to attend Advocacy Day on Monday, April
29, 2019 at the state Capitol in Harrisburg. In addition, this year PSBA
will be partnering with the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units
(PAIU) and Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) to strengthen
our advocacy impact. The focus for the day will be meetings with legislators to
discuss critical issues affecting public education. There is no cost to attend,
and PSBA will assist in scheduling appointments with legislators once your
registration is received. The day will begin with a continental breakfast and
issue briefings prior to the legislator visits. Registrants will receive
talking points, materials and leave-behinds to use with their meetings. PSBA
staff will be stationed at a table in the main Rotunda during the day to answer
questions and provide assistance. The day’s agenda and other details
will be available soon. If you have questions about Advocacy Day, legislative
appointments or need additional information, contact Jamie.Zuvich@psba.org Register for
Advocacy Day now at http://www.mypsba.org/
PSBA members can register online now by logging in to myPSBA. If you
need assistance logging in and registering contact Alysha Newingham, Member
Data System Administrator at alysha.newingham@psba.org or call her at (717)
506-2450, ext. 3420
Board Presidents’ Panel
Learn, discuss, and practice problem solving with school leader peers
facing similar or applicable challenges. Workshop-style discussions will be
facilitated and guided by PSBA experts. With the enormous challenges facing
schools today, effective and knowledgeable board leadership is essential to your
productivity and performance as a team of ten.
Locations & Dates
Due to
inclement weather, some dates have been rescheduled. The updated schedule is
below.
- Mar.
21, 2019 — West Side CTC (Section 4)(Rescheduled from Feb. 12)
- Mar.
28, 2019 — Crawford Cty CTC (Section 1)(Rescheduled from Jan. 30)
- Apr.
3, 2019 — Lehigh Career and Technical Institute (Section 8)(Rescheduled
from Feb. 12)
School safety and security is a complex, multi-perspective topic impacting school entities in dramatic ways. This complimentary PSBA member meeting featured in ten locations will offer essential updates and information on Safe2Say reporting, suicide awareness related to student safety, school climate, and emergency preparedness planning. Representatives from the Attorney General’s office, PEMA, and a top expert in behavioral health will be presenting. Updates on legislation impacting your schools will be presented by PSBA staff. Connect with the experts, have your questions answered, and network with other members.
Locations and Dates
Section Meetings are 6-8 p.m. (across all locations).
Register online by logging in to myPSBA.
Pennsylvania schools work – for students, communities and the economy when adequate resources are available to give all students an equal opportunity to succeed.
Join A Movement that Supports our Schools & Communities
PA Schools Work website
Our students are in classrooms that are underfunded and overcrowded. Teachers are paying out of pocket and picking up the slack. And public education is suffering. Each child in Pennsylvania has a right to an excellent public education. Every child, regardless of zip code, deserves access to a full curriculum, art and music classes, technical opportunities and a safe, clean, stable environment. All children must be provided a level chance to succeed. PA Schools Work is fighting for equitable, adequate funding necessary to support educational excellence. Investing in public education excellence is the path to thriving communities, a stable economy and successful students.
http://paschoolswork.org/
Indiana Area School District Safety & Security Symposium March 15, 2019
Indiana Area School District Website
Background: It’s 2019, and school safety has catapulted as one of the top priorities for school districts around the country. With an eye toward providing educators with various resources and opportunities specific to Pennsylvania, the Indiana Area School District -- in collaboration with Indiana University of Pennsylvania, PA Representative Jim Struzzi, and as well as Indiana County Tourist Bureau-- is hosting a FREE safety and security symposium on March 15, 2019. This safety and security exchange will provide information that benefits all stakeholders in your education community: administrators, board members, and staff members alike. Presenters offer valuable resources to help prepare your organization to continue the discussion on safety and security in our schools. Pre-registration is required, and you will be invited to choose the breakout sessions that you feel will have the most impact in your professional learning on these various topics, as well as overall impact on your District’s systems of operations. Please take time to review the various course breakout sessions and their descriptions. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect and learn.
How to Register: Participants attending the Safety Symposium on March 15, 2019, will have the option to select a maximum of 4 breakout sessions to attend on this day. Prior to the breakout sessions, attendees will hear opening remarks from former Secretary of Education - Dr. Gerald Zahorchak. We want to empower the attendees to exercise their voice and choice in planning their day! Please review the various break out session descriptions by clicking on the "Session Descriptions" on the right-hand side of this page. On that page, you will be able to review the sessions offered that day and register for the symposium.
https://www.iasd.cc/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1491839&type=d&pREC_ID=1637670
Annual PenSPRA Symposium set for March 28-29, 2019
Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association Website
Once again, PenSPRA will hold its annual symposium with nationally-recognized speakers on hot topics for school communicators. The symposium, held at the Conference Center at Shippensburg University, promises to provide time for collegial sharing and networking opportunities. Mark you calendars now!
We hope you can join us. Plans are underway, so check back for more information.
http://www.penspra.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
Wyndham Garden Hotel, Mountainview Country Club
Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools
https://www.parss.org/Annual_Conference
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