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
Basic
Ed Funding; PlanCon; Cyber Charter Tuition Reform….
Join @PAIU @PasaSupts & @PSBA for Advocacy Day on April 29th at the state
Capitol! The focus for the day will be meetings with legislators to discuss
critical issues affecting public education.
For
more information and registration: https://t.co/Nth5oGZH19
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. 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 House Majority Caucus Chair Marcy Toepel’s school districts in Berks &
Montgomery Counties had to send over $4.9 million to chronically
underperforming cybers that they never authorized. #SB34 (Schwank) or #HB526
(Sonney) could change that. Data source: PDE via .@PSBA
Links to additional bill information and several resources have been
moved to the end of today’s postings
|
Boyertown
Area SD
|
$1,582,202.52
|
|
Perkiomen
Valley SD
|
$466,522.34
|
|
Pottsgrove
SD
|
$925,648.00
|
|
Souderton
Area SD
|
$881,944.12
|
|
Upper
Perkiomen SD
|
$1,115,284.97
|
|
|
$4,971,601.95
|
Has your state
senator cosponsored SB34?
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?
Incivility and its Discontents
Politically Uncorrected Column by G. Terry Madonna & Michael
L.Young April 16, 2019
Love and marriage,
as the old ditty has it, may not always go together, but incivility and
polarization sure go hand in hand in contemporary American politics. It’s
virtually impossible to separate them. More importantly it has led to chronic
dysfunctionality in government.
Recently, in a rare moment the Pennsylvania state party chairs, Democrat Nancy Patton Mills, and Republican Val DiGigiorgio, agreed to participate in a student-organized forum on civil discourse and polarization on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.
What happened at the forum is revealing. Both party leaders decried the lack of civil discourse and urged compromise as a way forward. They agreed that progress is virtually impossible to achieve if polarization and fierce partisanship leads to meaningless and constant attacks on one another. Particularly troubling to the party leaders was actually dealing with polarization among their membership - specifically bringing about compromise on issues their rank and file feel so strongly about. In fact, what led to the sharpest exchanges between the two-party chiefs was the extreme differences over the big issues of the day. The fixedness of party policy positions became immediately evident when health care, climate change and gun control came up; where differences exist between Democrats and Republicans on these and many other issue compromise is virtually impossible to achieve
Recently, in a rare moment the Pennsylvania state party chairs, Democrat Nancy Patton Mills, and Republican Val DiGigiorgio, agreed to participate in a student-organized forum on civil discourse and polarization on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.
What happened at the forum is revealing. Both party leaders decried the lack of civil discourse and urged compromise as a way forward. They agreed that progress is virtually impossible to achieve if polarization and fierce partisanship leads to meaningless and constant attacks on one another. Particularly troubling to the party leaders was actually dealing with polarization among their membership - specifically bringing about compromise on issues their rank and file feel so strongly about. In fact, what led to the sharpest exchanges between the two-party chiefs was the extreme differences over the big issues of the day. The fixedness of party policy positions became immediately evident when health care, climate change and gun control came up; where differences exist between Democrats and Republicans on these and many other issue compromise is virtually impossible to achieve
Equity advocates criticize Wolf’s plan to boost teacher
salaries in Pa.
WHYY/Keystone
Crossroads By Jen Kinney April 17, 2019
Visit Somerset
County in mid-March and you’ll hear it everywhere — you’ve got to see it in the
summer. That’s when Confluence, population 834, really comes alive. The bed and
breakfasts are booked with cyclists making their way along trails that stretch
into Maryland and West Virginia. Scenic views and some of the best whitewater
rafting in Pennsylvania abound. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is just a
stone’s throw away. But it’s a place with another, less proud, distinction —
home to one of the lowest-paying school districts in the state. Bounded by
state game lands and the wrinkled curves of the Casselman River, Turkeyfoot
Valley Area School District covers 100 square miles, but it has just one
school. All 321 students — elementary, middle, and high school — learn in the
same H-shaped building. “Excellent and proud of it” is the school’s motto, and
it’s blazoned on the wall of Jody Gary’s classroom. He’s been teaching math and
science in the district for 27 years. When he was hired in 1992, his starting
salary was $18,500.
Central Pa. school board passes ‘biological sex’ policy
for bathrooms, locker rooms
'The minute
we vote on this, we open ourselves up to a lawsuit,' one school board member
said.
Ed Mahon / PA Post APRIL
16, 2019 | 05:10 AM
(New Holland) — A
Lancaster County school district has adopted a new student privacy policy — one
the superintendent said could lead to a lawsuit. If implemented, it would end
the practice of allowing a transgender boy to use the locker room that matches
his gender identity. The policy includes an amendment that says “students are
to use the facilities based on their biological sex” or single-user facilities.
No attorney for the district reviewed the addendum. “I think a lawsuit
potential certainly exists,” Superintendent Robert Hollister said after a more
than three-hour meeting Monday night. For the past few months, some people who
live in the Eastern Lancaster County School District have objected to the
district’s practice of allowing a transgender boy to use the boys’ locker room
and bathroom at the high school. Administrators and the board are considering a
renovation project —estimated to cost
about $1 million — to
get rid of gendered locker rooms. Instead, the district would build private
showers and changing stalls for its high school students. Construction could
begin in the fall. But some people had concerns about what the district will do
before then.
Central York would max tax hike in draft school budget
Lindsay
C. VanAsdalan, York
Dispatch Published 1:14 p.m. ET April 16, 2019
Central York School
District has a maximum tax increase in its proposed 2019-20 budget for the second
year in a row to offset debt, even after carving out about $1 million in
expenses. Expenditures in the draft budget are about $93.3 million — an
increase of about $4.18 million over 2018-19 expenses — as of the district's
April 3 budget workshop, but revenue also increased about $4 million including
a tax increase. The district would see about $1.66 million in additional
tax revenue — an average increase of $96.10 on homeowner bills. All told,
that's about $1.8 million in additional revenue and an $830,824 reduction in
expenses since the board's December budget review, which means the
district faces a deficit of $167,360 versus about $2.8
million — which it plans to cover with Pennsylvania Public School
Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) reserves. An increase to the
district's Act 1 adjusted tax index of 2.9% equates to a 0.58 millage
jump to 20.51. The district raised taxes 3% — also up to that
year's adjusted index — in 2018. District Business Manager Brent
Kessler said the board could consider the option of a lower tax increase
in exchange for using more PSERS reserves. “I want to raise taxes somewhere
between not at all and as little as possible,” said board Vice President
Gregory Lewis.
It’s Poetry Month, and ‘The Undefeated’ celebrates
African Americans who persevered
"Kwame
Alexander captures the spirit of African American warriors in a magical and
poetic style that mimics a battle cry."
The notebook by Rachel
Slaughter April 16 — 2:16 pm, 2019
Each month, “The
Reading Quilt” provides a short review of a book that teachers can use to spark
conversations about culture and race, along with a learning activity that may
help students understand human behavior. Using the acronym QUILT, Rachel Slaughter
offers readers information about the QUality of writing, Imaginative plot, as
well as a mini Lesson plan, and Talking points that stem from the book’s
premise.
April is National
Poetry Month, when teachers gather up Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein and dust
off nearly forgotten copies of Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth to recite
selections like “O Captain! My Captain!” (Whitman, 1865) and “My Heart Leaps
Up” (Wordsworth, 1807) outdoors, in the presence of bunnies and cherry
blossoms. But rare is the teacher who
shelves Seuss and Silverstein to celebrate the poetry of a People. Penned by
Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, The Undefeated (Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), is a tribute to the African American warriors who
refused to taste defeat.
Study: There’s no evidence that hardening schools to make
kids safer from gun violence actually works
Washington Post Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss April 16 at 7:00 AM
Hundreds of
millions of dollars have been spent on measures to harden public schools in an
attempt to make students safer from gun violence, but a new report says there
is no evidence those measures have worked. Instead, it says, they have created
“a false sense of security.” Researchers at the University of Toledo and Ball
State University conducted a comprehensive review of 18 years of reports on
school security measures and their effectiveness and wrote in their paper,
which was recently published in the journal Violence and Gender: This
comprehensive review of the literature from 2000 to 2018 regarding school
firearm violence prevention failed to find any programs or practices with
evidence indicating that they reduced such firearm violence. Hardening of
schools with visible security measures is an attempt to alleviate parental and
student fears regarding school safety and to make the community aware that
schools are doing something. Federal data show that 2018 was the worst on
record for school shootings and gun-related incidents. The Naval Postgraduate
School’s K-12 School
Shooting Database says
there were 94 school gun-violence incidents, a record since the data started
being collected in 1970. The database includes every instance a gun is
displayed or fired on campus or if a bullet hits school property for any reason.
Parkland Students Bask in
Pulitzer Mention: ‘They Took Us Seriously’
New York Times By Patricia Mazzei April 16, 2019
MIAMI — As 3 p.m.
approached on Monday, the editors of The Eagle Eye student newspaper at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., huddled around their adviser’s
desk for the announcement of this year’s
Pulitzer Prizes. They watched
not as journalism groupies, but as award contenders. In an unusual move, the
staff had submitted an entry to the most prestigious of journalism prizes for
coverage of the mass shooting at their school, including a special memorial
issue devoted entirely to 17 detailed obituaries honoring the classmates, teachers
and coaches they lost on Feb. 14, 2018. “We knew it was a long shot,” said
Hannah Kapoor, 18, one of the newspaper’s co-editors in chief. As it happened,
when Dana Canedy, the Pulitzer awards’ administrator, began to announce the
winners, The
Eagle Eye was
the first publication she named. “I want to break with tradition and offer my
sincere admiration for an entry that did not win, but that should give us all
hope for the future of journalism in this great democracy,” Ms. Canedy said.
Then she cited The Eagle Eye’s submission, which described how Parkland’s 44
student reporters and editors had to “put aside our grief and recognize our
role as both survivors, journalists and loved ones of the deceased.” “These
budding journalists remind us of the media’s unwavering commitment to bearing
witness, even in the most wrenching of circumstances, in service to a nation
whose very existence depends on a free and dedicated press,” Ms. Canedy said.
“There is hope in their example.”
Facing Segregated Schools,
Parents Took Integration Into Their Own Hands. It’s Working.
Changes to
middle school enrollment in parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan could force City
Hall to take action on school segregation.
New York Times By Eliza Shapiro April 16, 2019
For months, in two
of New York City’s most politically progressive neighborhoods, parents debated
what to do about their deeply segregated schools. Now, after adopting a series
of initiatives last year following many spirited and emotionally charged discussions,
these neighborhoods are starting to see swift changes in enrollment, according
to city data released on Monday. Several schools in districts in Manhattan and
Brooklyn will be more racially and socioeconomically diverse on the first day
of school this fall than they are today as a result of these new measures. And
the apparent success these districts are seeing could prompt other
neighborhoods to consider their own diversity initiatives. Also, the strategies parents implemented, which
included setting new enrollment rules and eliminating using academic screens to
sort students for admission, could compel City Hall to take more forceful
action to integrate one of the nation’s
most segregated school systems. “Part of why we did this is we felt very strongly that you couldn’t
improve just one school,” said Kristen Berger, who helped create the plan for
Manhattan’s District 3, which includes the Upper West Side and Harlem. “That’s
not very useful. It’s really a system. We really wanted to see movement at
high- and low-demand schools.”
Turn State Report Cards into Positive Practices: 3 Tips
for Schools to Give Data a Voice
NSBA Website April
2019
Traditionally,
students receive report cards to gauge and reflect their academic performance;
nowadays, schools do, too. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), each
state educational agency (SEA) and local educational agency (LEA) that receives
Title I Part A funds must prepare and disseminate an annual report card that
includes a variety of data about public schools. The data cover a wide range of
measures on student and school performance, accountability, per-pupil
expenditures and educator qualifications, as well as any other information that
the SEA or LEA deems relevant. Many schools funded by Title I dollars may be
stigmatized as “F” schools, but comprehensive, descriptive data can help dispel
that stigma. Low-performing schools often suffer from additional pressure and
challenges in terms of improving student achievement. For instance, at Allen Middle School in Greensboro, North Carolina, nearly every student comes from a
disadvantaged family background, and their performance, as measured by
standardized tests, was rather poor. But the students and educators were
motivated by a Martin Luther King Jr. quotation: “A man can't ride your back
unless it's bent.” They were determined turn the school around. In 2015, the
school spent two years working on elevating the grade level of the school, but
the results were still discouraging — grades only improved from an “F” to a
“D.”
Diane Ravitch Speaking at Penn State Harrisburg April 25th
at 7:00 p.m.
777 West Harrisburg Pike, Harrisburg, PA
Mukund S. Kulkarni Theatre, Student
Enrichment Center
Join Diane Ravitch
as she presents "The End of the Faux Reform Movement." Ravitch is the
author of the national bestseller "Reign of Error The Hoax of the
Privatization Movement" and the "Danger to America’s Public
Schools." There will be a book signing opportunity after the event.
For more
information, contact Dr. Hannah Spector at hms22@psu.edu.
Electing PSBA Officers – Application Deadline is May 31st
Do you have strong
communication and leadership skills and a vision for PSBA? Members interested
in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to submit
an Application for Nomination no
later than May 31 to PSBA's Leadership Development Committee (LDC).
The nomination process:
All persons seeking nomination for elected positions of the Association shall
file with the Leadership Development Committee chairperson an Application
for Nomination (.PDF) on a form to be provided by the Association expressing interest in the
office sought. The Application for nomination shall be marked received at PSBA
Headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked no later than the application
deadline specified in the timeline established by the Governing Board to be
considered timely-filed.” (PSBA Bylaws, Article IV, Section 6.E.). Application Deadline: May 31, 2019
Open positions are:
- 2020 President-Elect (one-year term)
- 2020 Vice President (one-year term)
- 2020-22 Central At-Large
Representative – includes Sections 2, 3, 6, and 7 (three-year
term)
- 2020-21 Sectional Advisors – includes Sections
1, 3, 5 and 7 (two-year term)
Success Starts Here is a multi-year public awareness campaign
sharing positive news in PA public education.
.@PSBA .@PasaSupts .@PAIU .@PenSPRA1 .@PSEA .@PAPRINCIPALS .@SuccessStartsPA Read more stories and share your own on http://www.SuccessStartsHere.org .
Together we can harness the power of all to make a difference in our schools and communities! Hear from the experts and learn how to advocate! Free breakfast & givewaways. Don't miss out!
Sponsored by Norristown Men of Excellence, The Urban League of Philadelphia & PA Schools Work.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/norristown-parents-students-for-education-tickets-59590097586
PSBA: Nominations for
the Allwein Society are welcome!
The Allwein Society is an award program recognizing school directors who
are outstanding leaders and advocates on behalf of public schools and students.
This prestigious honor was created in 2011 in memory of Timothy M. Allwein, a
former PSBA staff member who exemplified the integrity and commitment to
advance political action for the benefit of public education. Nominations are
accepted year-round and inductees will be recognized at the PASA-PSBA
School Leadership Conference, among other honors.
PSBA: 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
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/
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
PSBA Tweet March
12, 2019 Video Runtime: 6:40
In this installment of #VideoEDition, learn about legislation
introduced in the PA Senate & House of Representatives that would save
millions of dollars for school districts that make tuition payments for their
students to attend cyber charter schools.http://ow.ly/RyIM50n1uHi
PSBA Summaries of Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526
PSBA Sample Board Resolution in Support of Statewide
Cyber Charter School Funding Reform
PSBA Sample Board Resolution in Support of Senate Bill 34
and House Bill 256
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?
Any comments contained herein are my comments, alone, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other person or organization
that I may be affiliated with.
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