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
If any of your colleagues would like to be added to the
email list please have them send their name, title and affiliation to KeystoneStateEdCoalition@gmail.com
PA Ed Policy Roundup August 15, 2019
Pennsylvania’s
charter schools, explained: How they work, and why Gov. Wolf wants to reform
them
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison -August 15, 2019
Whether they want
more funding for traditional public schools, or support the growing charter
industry, advocates and policymakers across Pennsylvania all agreed on one
thing this week: The debate over
charter school funding has reached a “crisis point.” Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday that he would impose greater regulations and accountability
measures on Pennsylvania’s charter schools, which enroll nearly 140,000
students and are supported by taxpayer-funded contributions from public school
districts across the state. Charter school proponents and school choice
advocates called the plan a poorly conceived power grab. Public education
advocates, meanwhile, hailed it as a long-overdue amendment to the state’s
charter school law, which hasn’t changed since its passage in 1997. A
high-ranking Republican senator from Lehigh County split the difference. Sen.
Pat Browne, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, called for
lawmakers to return from their summer recess and convene a special session to
address concerns about charter school finances. “The Governor’s actions today
are an indication of the seriousness of the concerns for the current funding of
public charter and cyber charter schools and its effect on overall public
school finance in Pennsylvania,” Browne said in a statement. “It has reached a
crisis point creating the potential of significant detrimental effects on all
of our students’ progress in school.” There’s no question that Pennsylvania’s
charter law has attracted criticism from all corners of the political arena.
Here’s a look at how the law works and what could change under Wolf’s
proposal.
Senate hears calls
for 'fair' funding changes to state's cyber charter schools
Johnstown Tribune
Democrat By David Hurst dhurst@tribdem.com August 14, 2019
EVERETT – Some of
state's cyber charter schools often found themselves on the defensive during a
Senate Education Committee hearing on their accountability and funding
Wednesday. But while public school administrators from Bedford, Cambria and
Clearfield counties and several charter school executives didn't agree on much
during the more than three hour session at Everett High School, both sides told
lawmakers a fairer funding formula would serve as one solution to what has
become a decades-long dispute between them. Cyber charter schools follow
guidelines implemented by the state in 1997. As is, public schools must send a
portion of their funding – taxpayers' money – to whatever charter school a
student in their district enrolls in through a per-student amount based on a
percentage of what the district spends each year – with unrelated expenses such
as pension obligations and bussing costs included, school officials said. For
some schools, that might mean $8,000, while others might have to pay more than
$20,000, Bedford Area school officials said. The more than three hour hearing
included testimony from public school administrators from Richland, Bedford,
Chestnut Ridge, Everett and Moshannon Valley, a state school board association
member and former secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak, all of whom
described the method of funding and overseeing charter schools as a 22 year-old
mess. Per-student costs multiply when those students are identified by charter
schools as "special education" needy – a designation public school
officials said they have no control over, even though they are paying the bill.
"We had a recent case where a cyber charter school student missed 108 days
of school but (that) school still received its payment," Chestnut Ridge
Superintendent Mark Kudlawiec said. "Ask yourself, is that the best use of
taxpayer dollars?"
PA Senate committee holds hearing on charter school
funding
WJAC by Marshall
Keely Wednesday, August 14th 2019
EVERETT, Pa. (WJAC)
-- The Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee held a public hearing in Bedford
County Wednesday on the issue of charter school funding. Lawmakers and school
officials talked about what to do with what many called an outdated law. Written
statements were available from charter school representatives not in
attendance. State Sen. Andrew Dinniman asked a panel of superintendents if
charter schools provided the innovation and opportunity they were originally
intended to. Their answer, a resounding, “No.” “The vast majority of students
who are leaving our programs are not leaving seeking out a better education.
That’s not what they are looking for,” said Dr. Danny Webb, Everett Area School
District superintendent. “They are looking for a way to avoid the accountability.”
Superintendents from the region say many students and parents choose to leave
public schools in favor of a charter to escape the consequences of poor
attendance. “Not once did we hear from parents that they were seeking a school
that would challenge their child’s academics or they were seeking a school that
would perform better,” said Arnold Nadonley, Richland Area School District
superintendent. Public school officials say districts that offer cyber school
programming outperform their charter school counterparts.
Senate Education Committee Public Hearing on Charter
School Funding
You can read the
submitted written testimony from yesterday’s hearing here.
“The testimony also emphasized that the
academic performance of cyber schools is significantly lower than
brick-and-mortar charter schools and lag even more behind traditional public
schools. In fact, none of Pennsylvania's cyber charter schools earned passing
grades during the five years when the state issued School Performance Profile
scores. Under the state’s new accountability system, the Future Ready PA Index,
only two of the 15 cyber charter schools were not identified for support and
improvement.”
PSBA Addresses the
Senate Education Committee on Charter School Funding Reform
PSBA (Mechanicsburg,
PA) Wednesday, August 14, 2019 –
Today the
Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) presented testimony to the Senate
Education Committee concerning charter school funding, calling for reform of
the current flawed system that requires school districts and taxpayers to
provide tuition payments to charter and cyber charter schools without regard to
the actual program costs of those schools. Representing the association was Tom
Bullington, school board president, and Dr. Allen Sell, superintendent, of the
Bedford Area School District. They told the committee that charter and cyber
charter schools receive drastically different tuition amounts from school
districts for similarly situated students, and without regard to the charter
schools’ actual program costs. This results in overpayments being made to
charter schools. The testimony noted that, based on preliminary numbers for the
2019-20 school year, school district tuition payments to charter and cyber
charter schools range from about $9,000 per student for one district to more
than $21,000 per student for another district for the same education. Regarding
special education costs, the range is even more dramatic, with district costs
ranging from $18,000 to more than $48,000 per student, regardless of the
severity of the student’s special educational needs. Bullington and Sell would
also like to see funding changes for those districts that operate their own
cyber programs. In 2017-18, school districts paid cyber charter schools more
than $519 million.
Wolf promises charter school reform at PM West visit
Pocono Record By Maria
Francis Updated Aug 14, 2019 at 9:21 PM
POCONO SUMMIT —
Over 20 years ago, Pennsylvania enacted its first charter school law. “Since
then, this law has gained national notoriety for being the most fiscally
irresponsible in the country,” Governor Tom Wolf said. “Pennsylvania’s current
charter school law is unfair for students, parents, school districts and
taxpayers.” On Tuesday, Wolf made an
appearance at Pocono Mountain West High School and announced comprehensive
charter school reform through executive action, regulation and legislation.
“These changes will level the playing field for all taxpayer-funded public
schools, strengthen the accountability and transparency of charter and cyber
charter schools, and better serve all students,” said Wolf. “Charter schools
were intended to bring new innovation and educational opportunities, and while
many charter schools have succeeded in this mission, many have not,” said Wolf.
“Especially cyber schools, which make up 6% of Pennsylvania schools, which also
occupy 25% of the Department of Education’s list of schools in need of
improvement. They are under-performing and we are not doing enough to hold them
accountable to the taxpaying public and the children they serve.” Charter
schools can be operated by private educational management companies with owners
earning a profit. The schools and their operators are not subject to all the
ethics and transparency standards that are common for organizations that make
decisions about spending taxpayer dollars. For example, charter schools are not
required to solicit competitive bids when spending taxpayer dollars. Charter
schools are not required to be transparent about their admission practices, nor
do they all need to meet state academic goal standards. Charter schools can be
very costly to public school districts, which are obligated to pay a student’s
tuition if that student chooses to enroll.
Pocono Mountain
School District has over 473 students attending charter and cyber schools
according to Dr. Elizabeth Robinson, the district’s superintendent. “111 attend
the brick-and-mortar charter schools and 362 attend cyber charter schools.”
Robinson said at the event Tuesday.
Paul Muschick: Why we
should blow up Pennsylvania charter school system and start over
By PAUL MUSCHICK THE MORNING CALL | AUG 14, 2019 | 8:00 AM
The proposal from
Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday to overhaul the state’s charter school system is
aggressive, welcome and long overdue. The current system is unsustainable.
School districts are paying too much money — $1.8 billion statewide last year —
and those figures are only going to increase. Allentown’s costs have doubled to
$60 million, 20% of its budget, in just five years. And that money is going to
charter schools that are public schools in name only, in many ways. They don’t
have the same level of accountability and transparency as school districts.
It’s hard to consider them truly public if they aren’t held to the same
standards, such as publicly bidding major expenses, releasing details
of every dollar spent and
answering to a local, publicly elected school board. Wolf visited Allentown’s
Harrison-Morton Middle School. There, he called for preventing charters from
over charging districts and taxpayers; for a moratorium on new cyber charter
schools; and for charters to pay fees to the state for its costs to support
them. Those changes and others could save districts statewide millions of
dollars, the governor said. The state budget office estimates the struggling
Allentown School District could save more than $10 million a year. Officials
did not provide details, though, of how those savings would be realized. Until
regulations and legislation are enacted, this remains only a proposal.
“So, good for Gov. Tom Wolf for taking
on the lack of accountability and transparency that allow bad and mediocre
charter schools to give the good ones a bad name. The governor said Tuesday he
wanted to reform charters through a mix of proposed legislation and executive
orders. But let’s hope Wolf is working with a solid charter himself, some kind
of plan with what needs to be fixed and what doesn’t. The best way to reform
charter schools is to make them obsolete by improving traditional public
schools so that those are the places people want their kids to spend their days
— places where students learn skills that will carry them through life and help
them reach today’s goals as well as tomorrow’s. Maybe the perfect reform is to
give public schools a better charter.”
Editorial: Education
needs a better charter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW | Wednesday,
August 14, 2019 5:01 p.m.
What is a charter? It’s
the authorization by which something comes into being. William Penn was given a
charter for the land that became Pennsylvania. It was the Charter of Liberties
that he later granted the state’s first ruling body in 1701 that took Penn’s
Woods from being his holding to being its own entity. A charter is meant to
define parameters and breathe life into an idea. It’s not meant to be the
lightning bolt that animates Frankenstein’s monster. Pennsylvania’s charter and
cyber charter schools have used their charters both ways. There are good
charter schools — schools that teach kids things they would never learn in a
traditional public school because of demands those schools have to satisfy. A
good charter school starts with a plan that defines exactly why they have a
different idea for education and what could make it work. It might be an arts
focus, or an emphasis on languages and culture. It might be about science, or
it might be about an innovative teaching method. But there are also bad charter
schools. There are schools that don’t have a framework beyond acquiring as much
money as possible while spending as little as possible in return.
So what’s the status
of Allentown School District’s budget?
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO THE MORNING CALL | AUG 14, 2019 | 4:27 PM
The Allentown
School District is waiting to hear back from 23 charter schools about a
voluntary tuition reduction to balance Allentown's budget. The Allentown School
District awaits word from the 23 charter schools it asked to accept a voluntary
10% tuition reduction so the financially-strapped district can balance its
$341.8 million budget. Although the district begins its 2019-20 fiscal year not
knowing where it will get the $6 million needed to balance its budget as required
by state law, it doesn’t seem to be sweating just yet.
Q. When must charter schools let the Allentown School District know
if they will take a tuition reduction?
A. The Allentown School District did not include a deadline in the
official request it sent charter schools last week.
“We expect they
understand the level of importance around these decisions and will communicate
back shortly,” district communications director Julie Benjamin said.
Q. But will charter schools agree to a
tuition reduction?
A. A handful of charters have told The Morning Call they are not interested
in taking a tuition reduction. Ana Meyers, of the Pennsylvania Coalition of
Public Charter Schools, which represents a number of charters in the Lehigh
Valley, previously called Allentown’s 11th hour request “despicable.” So it
remains to be seen how much if any of the $6 million gap Allentown will close
based on the largess of the charter schools its students attend. Charter
schools are publicly funded but privately run.
These are the five signs of a failed school | Pennlive
Editorial
By PennLive Editorial Board Updated Aug 14, 1:53 PM; Posted Aug 14, 1:02 PM
According to Win
Cleland, a retired educator, the definition of a failed school is simple. It’s
a school “that doesn’t meet its mission to educate children.” He has seen his
share of problems in schools. He spent several decades as an
educator, including as superintendent of the West Perry School District and as
a member of the reform team that Mayor Steve Reed assembled after he took over
the Harrisburg School District in 2001. Cleland was one of a panel of experts,
parents and PennLive readers who came together recently to discuss the issue of
failed schools in the aftermath of the state’s takeover of the Harrisburg
School District. Last year, PennLive compiled a list of the 50 worst school
districts in Pennsylvania, among them Harrisburg, York, Steelton-Highspire, Reading and Lebanon school districts.
From the discussion with our readers, there emerged at least five signs of a
failed school district -- signs that were evident in these districts. They
included:
Fox Chapel school district board hired law firm to
conduct an investigation they won’t tell the public about
The lawyer
hired by the district reached out to PublicSource, indicating the inquiry is
about 'alleged inappropriate shredding' of public records.
Public Source by Mary
Niederberger | August 13, 2019
The Fox Chapel Area
School District board hired a Butler law firm to act as special counsel in an
investigation without telling the public what the investigation is about or how
much it would cost the taxpayers. The board retroactively voted to approve the
ongoing investigation at Monday's board meeting. Although the public was not
made aware of the reason for the investigation at the board meeting, Thomas
Breth, an attorney with Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, contacted
a PublicSource reporter via email on Aug. 7, stating he had been “asked to
conduct an independent investigation into allegations that employees of the
School District inappropriately shredded public records in an attempt to avoid
disclosure under the Right-to-Know Act.” Breth asked the PublicSource reporter
who wrote a July story on
concerns about lack of transparency in the district to meet with him to “discuss any information that you
may have regarding the alleged inappropriate shredding of School District
records on or about June 18, 2019.” He wrote that he reviewed “most, if not
all” of the Right-to-Know requests submitted by PublicSource. Among other
items, PublicSource submitted a request in June for information about what was
sent for shredding after being provided a photo of a truck containing bins of
documents. PublicSource referred Breth to its lawyer; as of publication time,
he had not reached out.
“If the School Board fails to comply
with the plan, the law empowers Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera to order a
takeover after consultation with the district’s state-appointed financial
administrator, Charles Zogby. He wrote the financial improvement plan, which
Rivera approved in May. Zogby after Wednesday night’s meeting said he was in
contact with the Department of Education over the School Board’s votes.”
Erie School Board defies monitor, tempting a takeover
GoErie By Ed
Palattella Posted Aug 14, 2019 at 8:49 PM Updated
at 4:52 AM
Directors
reject state appointee’s directives by keeping pro-union bidding rule, refusing
to bid for outside custodians.
The Erie School
Board has initiated a high-risk political challenge with Harrisburg. The school
directors on Wednesday night rejected two requirements of its state-mandated
financial improvement plan. The votes raise the possibility that the state
education secretary could order the district’s state-appointed financial
administrator to take over the financial operations of the 11,000-student
district. The board voted 7-1 to refuse to change its pro-union policy for
bidding construction work. The vote keeps in place the current policy, which
stipulates that all qualified bidders for work that exceeds $25,000 must have
registered apprenticeship programs, which are standard among union shops. Changing
the policy would open up the bidding process to nonunion contractors while also
requiring all contractors to abide by state regulations and other rules meant
to ensure quality work, according to the proposal in the financial improvement
plan. In the other vote that defied the plan, the School Board failed to approve
the requirement that the school district get bids to outsource custodial
services. The vote was tied, 4-4, which killed the proposal. Approval of the
resolution would not have mandated that the board outsource the services, only
that the board review the bids to evaluate costs. The school district must
follow the financial improvement plan as a condition of its receipt of $14
million in additional state aid to stay solvent. The General Assembly approved
the aid in 2017, and the district started receiving the money in 2018. The
School Board has approved all the plan’s directives except those that the
directors rejected on Wednesday night.
Lawmakers are talking
about eliminating school property taxes. Again.
Lancaster Online by
GILLIAN McGOLDRICK
| Staff Writer August 15,
2019
Pennsylvania's
“age-old” struggle to eliminate school property taxes and shift that tax burden
elsewhere is back on Harrisburg's radar. Whether lawmakers will actually be
able to make massive changes to the state’s main source of education funding
remains unclear. Pennsylvanians are ready for a total overhaul of state
taxes, with
61% supporting it, according
to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll released last week. As Sen. Ryan
Aument, R-Landisville, told his fellow Senate leaders, the property taxes have
been controversial in Pennsylvania since the 1600s. But if lawmakers want to
eliminate the school property tax, they need to find $15.285 billion just this
year that's generated by the tax. And this number is expected to continue to
grow by approximately $500 million per year, according to Independent Fiscal
Office predictions. For
decades, lawmakers have tried to find a solution, said G. Terry Madonna, who
directs the poll and F&M's Center for Politics and Public Affairs. He
called it the “age-old problem.” One proposal that is consistently presented
would eliminate school property taxes and fund school districts by increasing
the personal income tax and sales tax, plus expanding what goods can be taxed
under Pennsylvania's 6% sales tax. This proposal has failed in numerous ways,
whether on the Senate floor or on the ballot. It most recently made it to the
Senate floor in 2015 and lost by just one vote. Aument and then-Sen. Lloyd
Smucker both co-sponsored the bill in 2015.
Pa. ranks 38th in the
nation for early childhood education programs, report | Wednesday Morning
Coffee
PA Capital Star By John L. Micek August 14, 2019
Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
If there’s one
thing that experts across the spectrum can agree upon, it’s the importance of
early childhood education. A quality early learning experience can make all the
difference in the world in a child’s educational experience. In fact, as we noted
elsewhere in 2017, there’s a
mountain of data out there showing that kids with access to high-quality,
early childhood education exhibit higher levels of proficiency in math and
reading; they’re less likely to be held back in the primary grades and more
likely to graduate high school; they need less remediation, and there’s less of
a need for individual education plans, often formulated for
struggling students. “Early learning programs are a ‘fork in the road’
opportunity to reduce the number of future criminals by placing more at-risk
children on a secure path to school and life success,” David Freed,
the United States Attorney for Pennsylvania’s Middle District, said in a 2016 interview. Freed was the long-serving, elected Republican
district attorney for Cumberland County. Over the last few years, Pennsylvania
has been steadily ramping up public support for early childhood education
programs. The $34 billion budget plan that lawmakers and the Wolf
administration agreed to back in June includes $50 million in new spending for
both early childhood and special education programs, PennLive reported. Despite that progress, a new
report suggests that Pennsylvania still has some ground to make up.
Guns will be on the
agenda during Sept. 24, 25 state Senate hearings
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison August 14, 2019
Pennsylvania’s
state Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for vetting criminal justice
legislation, is set to hear expert testimony on gun control, statute of
limitations reform, and parole practices in September, according to a press
release issued Tuesday. The Judiciary Committee’s two-day hearing on
“behavioral health, Second Amendment rights, and other gun related issues” will
take place on Sept. 24 and 25 in the state Capitol. According to the release,
testifiers and other details will be announced closer to the hearing date. The
decision by committee Chairwoman Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, to hold public
hearings on these topics indicates the policy priorities of the powerful
Judiciary Committee as lawmakers prepare to return from their summer recess. Baker,
who took charge of the Senate panel in late 2018, announced her
intent to
hold hearings on gun control last week, after gunmen in El Paso, Texas and
Dayton, Ohio killed 31 people in mass shootings.
Another cautionary
tale for the Elanco school board about the legal peril of violating transgender
students' rights [editorial]
Lancaster Online by
THE LNP EDITORIAL BOARD August 15, 2019
THE ISSUE: At least a dozen LGBT activists
attended an Eastern Lancaster County school board meeting Monday to urge board
members to change its controversial bathroom policy, LNP’s Alex Geli
reported. “The policy, which goes into
effect Aug. 26 — the first day of school — would separate students by
biological sex in bathrooms and locker rooms” while private, single-user
facilities are built districtwide, Geli explained. “Critics say it
discriminates against transgender students who wish to use facilities matching
their gender identity.” We’ve said
this before, but it bears repeating: The Elanco school board is failing
in its fiduciary duty to keep that school district from facing potentially costly litigation.
The school district’s
chances of being sued over its restroom policy increased — yet again — last week when
a federal judge in Virginia confirmed the right of transgender public school students to use the bathroom
facilities that align with their gender identity. It
was the latest in a series of such rulings. We’ll get to that in a bit.
EPLC/DCIU 2019 Regional Training Workshop for PA School
Board Candidates Sept. 14th
The Pennsylvania
Education Policy and Leadership Center will conduct a regional Full Day Workshop
for 2019 Pennsylvania School Board Candidates at the DCIU on September 14,
2019.
Target Audience: School Board Directors and
Candidates, Community Members, School Administrators
Description: Full Day Workshop for 2019 Pennsylvania School Board Candidates. Incumbents, non-incumbents, campaign supporters and all interested voters are invited to participate in this workshop. The workshop will include Legal and Leadership Roles of School Directors and School Boards; State and Federal Policies: Implications for School Boards; School District Finances and Budgeting; Candidates and the Law; Information Resources; "State and Federal Policies" section includes, but is not limited to:
K-12 Governance
PA Standards, Student Assessment, and Accountability
Curriculum and Graduation Requirements
K-12 State Funding
Early Education
Student Choices (Non-Public, Home Schooling, Charter Schools, Career-Technical, and more)
Teacher Issues
Linking K-12 to Workforce and Post-Secondary Education
Linking K-12 to Community Partners
***Fee: $75.00. Payment by Credit Card Only, Visa or Mastercard, PLEASE DO NOT SELECT ANY OTHER PAYMENT TYPE*** Registration ends 9/7/2019
Description: Full Day Workshop for 2019 Pennsylvania School Board Candidates. Incumbents, non-incumbents, campaign supporters and all interested voters are invited to participate in this workshop. The workshop will include Legal and Leadership Roles of School Directors and School Boards; State and Federal Policies: Implications for School Boards; School District Finances and Budgeting; Candidates and the Law; Information Resources; "State and Federal Policies" section includes, but is not limited to:
K-12 Governance
PA Standards, Student Assessment, and Accountability
Curriculum and Graduation Requirements
K-12 State Funding
Early Education
Student Choices (Non-Public, Home Schooling, Charter Schools, Career-Technical, and more)
Teacher Issues
Linking K-12 to Workforce and Post-Secondary Education
Linking K-12 to Community Partners
***Fee: $75.00. Payment by Credit Card Only, Visa or Mastercard, PLEASE DO NOT SELECT ANY OTHER PAYMENT TYPE*** Registration ends 9/7/2019
Join @RepBrianFitz and @CongBoyle at this complimentary focus meeting to talk about the
critical need to modernize and fully fund the federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Register for Federal Focus: Fully funding IDEA at William
Tennant HS Wednesday August 21st, 7-9 pm
PSBA News July 30, 2019
Join U.S. Representative Brian
Fitzpatrick (R-01) and other IDEA Act co-sponsors at this complimentary focus meeting to
talk about the critical need to modernize and fully fund the federal
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Learn about bipartisan
efforts now in the U.S. Congress to ensure that special education funding is a priority
in the federal budget, and how you can help bring this important legislation to
the finish line. Bring your school district facts and questions. This event
will be held Aug. 21 at 7:00 p.m. at Centennial School District in Bucks Co.
There is no cost to attend, but you must register through myPSBA.org. Questions
can be directed to Megan McDonough at (717) 506-2450, ext. 3321. This
program is hosted by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) and the
Centennial School District.
“Each member entity will have one vote
for each officer. This will require boards of the various school entities to
come to a consensus on each candidate and cast their vote electronically during
the open voting period (Aug. 23 – Oct. 11, 2019).”
PSBA Officer
Elections: Slate of Candidates
PSBA members
seeking election to office for the association were required to submit a
nomination form no later than June 1, 2019, to be considered. All candidates
who properly completed applications by the deadline are included on the slate
of candidates below. In addition, the Leadership Development Committee met on
June 15th at PSBA headquarters in Mechanicsburg to interview candidates.
According to bylaws, the Leadership Development Committee may determine
candidates highly qualified for the office they seek. This is noted next to
each person’s name with an asterisk (*).
Take the four-week PSBA advocacy challenge
POSTED ON JULY
22, 2019 IN PSBA NEWS
Calling all public
education advocates! Even though students are out for the summer, we need you
to continue your efforts to share your district's story, and the needs of
public schools across the state, with your legislators. Follow the four easy
steps on the challenge to increase your engagement with lawmakers this summer
and you'll receive some PSBA swag as a thank-you. We've also included some
talking points to help inform you on the latest issues. Contact Advocacy
Coordinator Jamie Zuvich at jamie.zuvich@psba.org with questions. Click
here to see the challenge and talking points.
In November, many boards will be
preparing to welcome new directors to their governance Team of Ten. This event
will help attendees create a full year on-boarding schedule based on best
practices and thoughtful prioritization. Register now:
PSBA: Start Strong:
Developing a District On-Boarding Plan for New Directors
SEP 11, 2019 • 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
In November, many
boards will be faced with a significant transition as they prepare to welcome
new directors to their governance Team of Ten. This single-day program
facilitated by PSBA trainers and an experienced PA board president will guide
attendees to creating a strong, full year on-boarding schedule based on best
practices and thoughtful prioritization. Grounded in PSBA’s Principles for
Governance and Leadership, attendees will hear best practices from their
colleagues and leave with a full year’s schedule, a jump drive of resources,
ideas for effective local training, and a plan to start strong.
Register online at MyPSBA: www.psba.org and click on “MyPSBA” in the upper right corner.
The deadline to
submit a cover letter, resume and application is August 19,
2019.
Become a 2019-2020 PSBA Advocacy Ambassador
PSBA is seeking
applications for two open Advocacy Ambassador positions. Candidates
should have experience in day-to-day functions of a school district,
on the school board, or in a school leadership position. The purpose of the
PSBA Advocacy Ambassador program is to facilitate the education and engagement
of local school directors and public education stakeholders through the
advocacy leadership of the ambassadors. Each Advocacy Ambassador will
be responsible for assisting PSBA in achieving its advocacy goals. To
achieve their mission, ambassadors will be kept up to date on current
legislation and PSBA positions on legislation. The current open
positions will cover PSBA Sections 3 and 4, and
Section 7.
PSBA Advocacy
Ambassadors are independent contractors representing PSBA and serve
as liaisons between PSBA and their local elected officials. Advocacy
Ambassadors also commit to building strong relationships with PSBA members with
the purpose of engaging the designated members to be active and committed
grassroots advocates for PSBA’s legislative priorities.
PSBA: Nominations for The Allwein Society are open!
This award program
recognizes school directors who are outstanding leaders & advocates on
behalf of public schools & students. Nominations are accepted year-round
with selections announced early fall: http://ow.ly/CchG50uDoxq
EPLC is accepting
applications for the 2019-20 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program
Education Policy & Leadership Center
PA's premier education policy leadership program for education, policy
& community leaders with 582 alumni since 1999. Application with program
schedule & agenda are at http://www.eplc.org
2019 PASA-PSBA School
Leadership Conference Oct. 16-18, 2019
WHERE: Hershey Lodge and
Convention Center 325 University Drive, Hershey, PA
WHEN: Wednesday, October
16 to Friday, October 18, 201
Registration is now open!
Growth from knowledge acquired. Vision inspired by innovation. Impact
created by a synergized leadership community. You are called upon to be the
drivers of a thriving public education system. It’s a complex and challenging
role. Expand your skillset and give yourself the tools needed for the
challenge. Packed into two and a half daysꟷꟷgain access to top-notch education
and insights, dynamic speakers, peer learning opportunities and the latest
product and service innovations. Come to the PASA-PSBA School Leadership
Conference to grow!
NPE Action National
Conference - Save the Date - March 28-29, 2020 in Philadelphia, PA.
The window is now open for workshop proposals for the Network for Public
Education conference, March 28-29, 2020, in Philadelphia. I hope you all sign
on to present on a panel and certainly we want all to attend. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NBCNDKK
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.