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PA Ed Policy Roundup for Dec. 2, 2019
Pa.’s largest charter school wants to take over grades
K-8 in Chester Upland
WHYY By Laura Benshoff December 2, 2019
In what would be a
first in Pennsylvania, a charter school is pushing to take over all traditional
kindergarten through eighth grade education in its home district. Chester
Community Charter School (CCCS) already educates the majority of elementary and
middle school students in the Chester Upland School District, located south of
Philadelphia. Now, the operator has asked a Delaware County judge to approve a
plan for converting the remaining K-8 buildings to charter schools. Since the
first charter school in the country opened in 1992, enrollment in these
privately-run, publicly-funded schools has grown to more than three million
students nationwide. Still, total takeovers of public school districts by one
or more charter operators are rare. If successful, the petition would make
Chester Upland one of the most charterized school districts in the country,
among the likes of New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Flint, Michigan. Here’s
what’s on the table, and how this situation compares to other districts that
have undergone conversion.
“Then there is the question of academic
performance. Some years ago the Pennsylvania Department of Education cited
Chester Community Charter for perceived cheating on standardized test scores,
not in some rogue teacher’s classroom, but at three different grade levels. The
state then took over the task of doing the standardized testing at Chester
Community Charter, whereupon the test scores plummeted, where they remain to
this day, trailing most of those struggling district-run schools.”
Letter to the Editor:
Some questions about Chester charter schools
Delco Times Letter
by Will Richan, Chester Nov 29, 2019
When assessing a
proposal of any kind, it is useful to consider the source.
Take, for example,
Chester Community Charter School’s bid, due in court on Dec. 4, to put the
Chester Upland School District’s schools out of the business of educating
elementary school children. That school doesn’t propose to do all the
educating, but does plan to expand if the petition is granted. Charter schools
are allowed to hire private, for-profit companies to manage their affairs. So
it is that Chester Community Charter is managed by CSMI. Who created Chester
Community Charter in the first place? A gentleman named Vahan Gureghian. And
who founded CSMI? You guessed it, the same Mr. Gureghian. In August, Gov. Tom
Wolf announced a number of executive actions regarding charter schools. They
included, “require that charter school board of trustees and operating
companies – like school district school boards – are free from conflicts of
interest and prohibit them from making decisions that provide a financial
benefit to themselves, friends, and/or family members.”
JOIN EDUCATORS,
PARENTS, AND CHESTER COMMUNITY MEMBERS WHO WANT TO SAVE CHESTER UPLAND SCHOOLS
TUESDAY, DEC. 3, 2019 4:30 P.M.
CHESTER HIGH SCHOOL
200 WEST NINTH STREET CHESTER, PA 19013 (ADMINISTRATION SIDE OF BUILDING)
PSEA Flyer November
22, 2019
This rally will
occur on the eve of an important court hearing on the future of the district’s
public schools. The Chester Community Charter School has filed a petition with
the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas asking a judge to convert all Chester
Upland public schools for prekindergarten through eighth-grade students to
charter schools under the district’s Financial Recovery Plan.
Abington School District got $25 million from Stephen
Schwarzman. It’s still enduring the fallout.
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Updated: November 29, 2019- 3:18 PM
At first glance, a
$25 million gift might seem like a godsend for a school district. But 18 months
later, the criticism and suspicion unleashed over the Abington School
District’s acceptance of a donation from billionaire Stephen Schwarzman
continue to ripple. As of Monday, the school board will have five new members —
a majority of the nine-member board. The only incumbent to retain his seat in
November’s election was the lone board member who voted against the
record-setting gift. Four of the new arrivals effectively ran as a slate,
pledging new transparency in a district roiled by what some complained had been
a closed-door process. Coursing beneath the surface are the same kinds of sharp
political divides that have entangled local boards and agencies nationwide. In her unsuccessful bid for reelection,
departing school board vice president Susan Arnhold decried the board’s critics
as “a room full of party activists” who "decided a $25 million gift was
unacceptable because they didn’t like the politics of the donor.” Schwarzman, a
Republican, is a prominent friend and donor to President Donald Trump. The
incoming slate won with the backing of local Democrats. And at least some saw
the Schwarzman donation as something more than a generous gift from an alumnus.
“It really felt like Abington was serving as a trial balloon for privatizing
public education,” said new board member Tamar Klaiman, a district parent and
researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. It’s not clear
whether the new board members could or would alter how the gift is spent. The
district entered into a contract with Schwarzman’s foundation, and construction
of a $100 million high school addition and renovation project is underway.
Whose properties are on the “Billionaire’s
Row” list of the highest taxed estates in Palm Beach? President Trump, the Koch
Brothers, Howard Stern, Rod Stewart, Steve Wynn, Jeffrey Lurie, Stephen
Schwartzman… and Vahan Gureghian’s recently sold $50 million estate.
Palm Beach homes: 59 owners billed at least $500,000 in
local property taxes, a new record
Palm Beach Daily News By Darrell
Hofheinz Posted Nov 27, 2019
#12. Reiwa LLC, administered by an attorney in West Palm Beach
Tax: $854,300
1071 N. Ocean Blvd.; Reiwa LLC bought in June from the estate from a trust affiliated with
attorney and businessman Vahan Gureghian and his attorney
wife, Danielle
Total Market Value: $50.72 million
Taxable Value: $50.72 million
#31. Stephen Schwarzman, private equity specialist, and wife Christine
Tax: $648,098
1768 S. Ocean Blvd.; owned through a limited liability company
Total Market Value: $38.38 million
Taxable Value: $38.38 million
“Every child counted equals more than
$30,000 in benefits to him or her and the community over the next 10 years.
Many of these funds are allocated to programs that serve the hundreds of
children that pass through our waiting room on a daily basis. Tragically, the
2010 census missed over 2 million children under the age of 4. The number of
young children being missed has increased for the past 40 years.”
As 2020 Census approaches, Philly pediatric doctor warns
of hard-to-count kids | Opinion
Daniel R. Taylor, For the Inquirer December
2, 2019
Daniel R. Taylor is an associate professor at
Drexel University College of Medicine and director of community pediatrics and
child advocacy at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
As I look out at
the bustling waiting room of our outpatient pediatrics practice in North
Philadelphia, I am reminded why I went into pediatrics. I see an infant held
gently under his arms, nose to nose with his father, eyes locked with mirrored
smiles. I see a toddler on his mother’s lap being read to, his fingers pointing
out the animals in the book, asking in Spanish “que es?” I see such promise,
such joy, and know with the right supports, that these kids, in this moment,
have the chance to lead healthy, productive lives in pursuit of the American
dream. I also see children who historically are invisible to society when it
comes to the U.S. Census. Some of the most impactful health interventions in
pediatrics over the past century have a basis in ensuring that children have
their basic needs met with health care, access to food, equitable education,
safe housing, anti-poverty efforts, quality affordable childcare and home visit
programs, and supports for maternal health. Every 10 years, as dictated by our
Constitution, the United States takes on the colossal task of counting every
person living in America. An accurate census count is vital for the
distribution of over $800 billion in federal funds each year. Pennsylvania
received $39 billion in 2016 for over 55 programs alone, as guided by the 2010
census.
In Leechburg, an elementary school stands against a tide
of poverty
In the Kiski Valley, mill closures helped
push half the kids into poverty, forcing a principal and his staff to change
their thinking.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette December 2, 2019
David M. Keibler wanted his dissertation to mean something more than a
fancy title and degree.
The Alle-Kiski
Valley community he served had crashed from stable jobs to few jobs — from
widely comfortable to suddenly not. A grim uptick in poverty had created new
hardships that parents, students and teachers alike were ill-equipped to
handle. As the David Leech Elementary principal saw it, his veteran staff
lacked resources to contend with poverty in a region that had long thrived. He
wanted them to understand the complexities of the changes they saw among
students and their families. “It would just be the constant beat-down of those
kids like, ‘Why don’t you have your homework done,’” Mr. Keibler said of his
staff’s frustrations. “Or ‘What’s going on?’ Or ‘You don’t care.’ ‘The parents
don’t care’ or ‘They don’t come to meetings. They don’t return calls.’ “So once
they understand [poverty], now we can take a different approach.” For his
dissertation — the last leg of a heavy doctoral lift that demanded late nights
and time away from his wife and three daughters — Mr. Keibler chose to examine
the area in which he believed the school could do the most good: child poverty,
and how his teachers perceive it. Armed with his 78-page report, he set out
to equip them with the tools to give as many students as possible a chance in a
messy, changing, often unforgiving world. “You could look at the curriculum,
you could look at assessments, all of those things,” he said. “But really the
driving force in our community was that change, and the teachers didn’t
understand what was happening and how we overcome that.”
Charter Schools Neither 'Silver Bullet' Nor
'Apocalyptic,' Research Indicates
Education Week Politics
K-12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on November 27, 2019 1:40 PM
A new review of
charter schools based on a broad range of studies paints a complicated
picture of their performance, and says that much of both the hype and the fear
that surround them don't match the reality of their impact. "Nearly three decades into the charter school movement, what has
research told us about charter schools?" is a working paper from four researchers published on a website
hosted by Brown University's Annenberg Institute. Reviewing a host of recent
research published in peer-reviewed journals, the paper says that on issues
such as racial segregation, serving students with disabilities, and traditional
public school finances, charter supporters and critics both have evidence and
questions they should consider that don't match their chosen narratives. And
crucially, the paper also says that a lot more research is needed into charter
schools' instructional practices and school environments, as well as their
effectiveness as a turnaround strategy, given a relatively small sample size in
places like Tennessee and New Orleans.
School property tax
options ready for review by Pennsylvania lawmakers
By FORD TURNER THE MORNING CALL | NOV 29, 2019 | 6:00 AM
Party leaders in
the state Legislature will be asked to figure out how many rank-and-file
lawmakers support various plans to cut or get rid of school property taxes as a
months-long study of the topic concludes. State Sen. David Argall, a Schuylkill
County Republican and head of an informal group of lawmakers that did the
study, said its work is largely done. The final product is a short list of
options on how to shift the burden of financing a big piece of school
districts’ operating costs from property taxes to other taxes, according to
Argall. He said it will go to House and Senate party leaders so they can “take
a head count” on preferences of their lawmakers. He declined to give details. Lawmakers
close to the process indicated the stakes are high in figuring out how to
address the thorny issue. With state senators scheduled to be in Harrisburg
only one day in December, it will be nearly impossible for any plan to make
significant progress in the Legislature this year. Argall previously said he
favored House or Senate discussions to occur before next year, when the
presidential campaign is likely to exacerbate political tensions. “It will have
to be January,” said state Sen. Judy Schwank, a Berks County Democrat and
member of the work group. “We have some good, workable proposals. Obviously,
they will need some tweaking. Some progress has been made.”
Turzai: Pa. Republicans have improved the state
Post-Gazette Letter
by Mike Turzai, Speaker Pennsylvania House of Representatives NOV 28, 2019 12:00
AM
Brian O’Neill never
lets a fact get in the way of his stories (Nov. 17, “Just to Mix Things Up, Let
Our Reps Vote”). He is a partisan operative. Under my leadership, our majority
has successfully improved our region and state: The House passed full privatization
of wine and spirits four times. The Senate sent my legislation, providing for
total privatization, to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk. He vetoed it. The House then sent
my legislation, providing for wine and expanded beer sales in stores, which was
signed as Act 39. We have stopped Gov. Wolf’s calls for cradle-to-grave tax
increases, focusing instead on growing the economy. When Republicans retook the
House majority in 2011, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was nearly 8%. It has
been cut in half to 4% today. Last year’s state revenues increased by 6.4%,
with zero increased taxes. We enacted lawsuit abuse and workers’ compensation
reform, eliminated the capital stock and franchise tax, reformed corporate
taxes and commercial banking, and reduced debt. We promote jobs in energy and
manufacturing. Our tax credit attracted a petrochemical facility to a
brownfield in Beaver County, with 6,500 skilled tradespersons working on the
largest construction site in North America. We provide record funding for our
public schools and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Pennsylvania’s
teachers earn the second-highest average salary in the nation. While paying over
$2.5 billion annually towards school employees pensions, meeting the actuarial
standard, we reformed public pensions moving forward. We have significantly
expanded school choice. One size does not fit all.
Pa. teachers have it
wrong: Turzai’s Harrisburg vouchers bill will help kids | Opinion
By Marc LeBlond Capital-Star
Op-Ed Contributor November
29, 2019
Marc LeBlond is a senior policy analyst for
the Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market favoring think-tank in Harrisburg.
A Nov. 17
Capital-Star op-ed attacking
House Speaker Mike Turzai’s emergency scholarship bill for Harrisburg students
seemed to come from an alternate dimension. The teachers’ union president and
other authors who attacked HB 1800 imagine that Harrisburg School District is right on the cusp of
becoming an educational paradise. Things are a little bit different in this
dimension. For generations, Harrisburg students have been subject to a school
district that is unaccountable to parents, to basic standards of governance, civility, and academics, and to the students themselves. Simply pumping more money into that
system and waiting won’t fix it. The authors fear that Turzai’s bill will allow
students to “fall through the cracks” because district bureaucrats aren’t
controlling children’s education. But these students have already fallen into
the pit created for them by those very bureaucrats.
City residents can comment on schools' 'ham-handed'
budget proposal
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE NOV 30, 2019
The public will get
a chance next week to ask Pittsburgh Public Schools officials about the
district’s $665.6 million budget proposal and the suggested real estate tax increase
that comes with it. A public hearing for the budget will be held from noon to 1
p.m. Monday at the Pittsburgh Public Schools building at 341 Bellefield Ave. in
Oakland. The 2020 general fund budget proposal calls for a 2.3% property tax
increase – a millage rise from 9.84 mills to 10.07 mills – or an additional $23
on every $100,000 of assessed real estate value. This is the first time in five
years that the school district is seeking to increase taxes. “We don’t take
this proposed tax increase lightly,” said Ronald Joseph, the district’s chief
financial officer. “It’s something that we feel is the first step in our
process to being able to improve our financial position, and that’s how we’re
approaching it.”
School budget talks
start in Upper Darby
Delco Times By Kevin Tustin
ktustin@21st-centurymedia.com November 30, 2019
UPPER DARBY— The
Upper Darby School Board is eyeing another effort to mitigate its tax increase
for 2020-21. A resolution is expected to be presented to the board to go
forward with the accelerated opt-out budget timeline that holds the board to
not raise taxes over its state-issued Act 1 index rate of 3.8 percent in the
next school year budget. The board has taken the opt-out option over the past
few years. The opt-out option means no preliminary budget will be presented to
the board in the start of 2020. A proposed final budget will be presented in
April and scheduled for adoption in May. A final budget will be adopted in
June. Specifics about any part of a potential 2020-21 budget were not presented
by district Chief Financial Officer Craig Rogers at a Nov. 26 board committee
meeting, but he said now that an audit of 2018-19 district finances has been completed,
his office can start focusing on the budget. If the board goes the regular
budget schedule, it would have to ask the state for a referendum exception that
would bypass a voting referendum in the May primary asking voters for
permission to raise taxes over their Act 1 index. Exceptions include retirement
contributions, special education funding and debt services.
‘Catch me if you
can’: Lehigh Valley schools enforce residency with students
By JACQUELINE
PALOCHKO THE MORNING
CALL | NOV 30, 2019 | 4:09 PM
It often begins
with a tip. Sometimes a school bus driver will notice a child doesn’t come out
of a house but instead gets dropped off in a car at the stop. Maybe bounced
mail comes back to district administrators saying a family doesn’t live at that
address. A neighbor calls a school to say the kids next door are going to the
wrong district. A chatty child lets it slip to a teacher that the drive to
school is a long one. And if school officials determine a family is falsifying
an address to send a child to a specific school, the student is disenrolled —
essentially kicked out and forced to attend his or her proper school. For
years, parents and guardians have used relatives’ addresses to direct children
to districts with better reputations in academics or sports compared to the
schools in their neighborhood. It’s not a new phenomenon that students breach
school district boundaries. But as educational dollars seem increasingly
scarce, districts are spending resources to crack down on students who are
using false addresses.
Council Rock looking at later start times, longer lunch
periods at high schools
Bucks County Courier Times By Chris
English Posted
at 6:01 AM December 2, 2019
A half-hour
added to lunch without lengthening the school day would give high school
students a much needed brain break, the school district superintendent said.
Two big changes could
be coming to both Council Rock School District high schools in the 2021-22
academic year, and another might follow a few years later. Superintendent
Robert Fraser said in a recent interview and in messages to residents that
district officials are working toward instituting later start times and longer
lunch periods at Council Rock High School North in Newtown Township and Council
Rock South in Northampton. The hope is that both measures could be implemented
by the start of the 2021-22 school year, he said. Council Rock is among many
school districts across the region and country looking to implement later
secondary school start times, a practice being recommended by many
organizations as a way to get students in that age category more sleep and
improve their academic performance, among other benefits. The district would
also like to start middle school students later, if possible, Fraser said.
Personal finance courses get a boost in Pennsylvania
schools
AP News November
29, 2019
HARRISBURG, Pa.
(AP) — Pennsylvania will require public schools to allow students to apply
personal finance class credits toward high school graduation requirements. Gov.
Tom Wolf signed the bill this week and it will take effect in the 2020-21
school year. Under the new requirement, a student who successfully completes a
high school course in personal finance will be allowed to apply up to one
credit to satisfy social studies, math, business education or family and
consumer science requirements for graduation. Advocates say personal finance
courses should be encouraged to help high schoolers learn to make wise
financial choices.
The award winning documentary Backpack Full of
Cash that explores the siphoning of funds from traditional public
schools by charters and vouchers will be shown in three locations in the
Philadelphia suburbs in the upcoming weeks.
The film is
narrated by Matt Damon, and some of the footage was shot in Philadelphia.
Members of the
public who are interested in becoming better informed about some of the
challenges to public education posed by privatization are invited to attend.
At all locations, the film will start promptly
at 7 pm, so it is suggested that members of the
audience arrive 10-15 minutes prior to the start of the
screening.
………………………………………….
Backpack Full of
Cash hosted by State
Senator Maria Collett, and State Representatives Liz Hanbidge and Steve Malagari
Monday,
December 2, 2019
Wissahickon
Valley Public Library, Blue Bell 650 Skippack Pike Blue Bell, PA 19422
………………………………………….
Backpack Full of
Cash hosted by
Montgomery County Democracy for America (Montco DFA)
Thursday,
December 5, 2019
Jenkintown Library
(Park and enter at rear.)
460 York Road
(across from IHOP) Jenkintown, PA 19046
………………………………………….
Backpack Full of
Cash hosted by State
Representatives Mary Jo Daley, Tim Briggs, and Matt Bradford
Monday,
January 6, 2020
Ludington
Library 5 S. Bryn Mawr Avenue Bryn Mawr,
PA 19010
Charter Schools;
Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
PENNSYLVANIA
BULLETIN PROPOSED RULEMAKING DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION [ 22 PA. CODE CH. 711 ]
Church, state
separation issue has been addressed, central Pa. school official says
The Freedom
From Religion Foundation claims the violation occurred before the high school
football team’s first two games of the season.
PA Post by John
Beauge/PennLive NOVEMBER 28, 2019 | 8:35 AM
(Sunbury) — The
superintendent of the Shikellamy School District questions why the Freedom From
Religion Foundation wants an investigation into an issue he says has been
addressed.
Superintendent
Jason S. Beadle Wednesday was reacting to a Nov. 22 letter that accuses the
district of violating the constitutional principle of separation between church
and state.The non-profit organization based in Madison, Wis., claims the
violation occurred before the high school football team’s first two games of
the season when coaches appeared to be praying with players.
Defenders of Public Education Speak Before the Philly BOE,
November 21, 2019
Alliance for
Philadelphia Public Schools December 1,
2019 appsphilly.net
Click on the individual’s name to read a
transcript of his or her testimony.
Trump administration backs Maryland Christian school in
voucher fight
Politico By MICHAEL STRATFORD 11/27/2019 10:00 AM EST
Presented by the
Walton Family Foundation
With help from
Catherine Boudreau
The departments of
Justice and Education on Tuesday sided with a private Christian school that’s
fighting Maryland’s decision to kick it out of a state voucher program over its
anti-LGBTQ views. The Trump administration filed a “statement of interest” backing
the federal lawsuit filed by Bethel Christian Academy, which accuses Maryland
education officials of unconstitutionally discriminating against the school
based on its religious beliefs.
“The
article’s claim that “hundreds of thousands” of students are on “waiting lists”
to enroll in charters links to a five-year-old press release by a charter advocacy group, the National Alliance
for Charter Schools. In fact, there has never been verification of any
“waitlist” for charters. Although there are surely charters that do have
waitlists, just as there are public schools that have long waitlists, there is
no evidence that hundreds of thousands of students are clamoring to gain
admission to charters. That claim appears to be a marketing ploy.”
The New York
Times Is Spreading Charter School Lies
Jacobin Magazine BY
DIANE RAVITCH December 1, 2019
The New
York Times is still fawning over them, but the charter school
experiment has been an abject failure. People are clamoring for well-funded
public schools, not billionaire pet projects. Many people have
written to me to complain about an article that appeared Wednesday on the front page of the New York
Times, saying it was pro-charter propaganda. The article claims that black
and brown parents are offended that the Democratic candidates (with the
exception of Cory Booker, now polling at 1 percent) have turned their backs on
charter schools. This is not true. Black parents in Little Rock, Arkansas are
fighting at this very moment to stop the Walton-controlled state government
from controlling their district and resegregating it with charter schools. Jitu
Brown and his allies fought to keep
Rahm Emanuel from closing Walter
H. Dyett High School, the last open-enrollment public high school on the South
Side of Chicago; they launched a thirty-four-day hunger strike, and Rahm backed
down. Jitu Brown’s Journey for Justice Alliance has organized black parents in
twenty-five cities to fight to improve their neighborhood public schools rather
than let them be taken over by corporate charter chains.
Black parents in
many other districts — think Detroit — are disillusioned with the failed
promises of charter schools. Eve Ewing wrote a terrific book (Ghosts in the
Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side) about
resistance by parents, grandparents, students, and teachers in the black
community to Rahm Emanuel’s mass closings of public schools to make way for
charter schools; Ewing called their response “institutional mourning.” When
Puerto Rico teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, parents, teachers, and
students rallied against efforts to turn the island’s public schools over to
charter chains.
Most Oklahoma virtual
charter schools' students don't graduate
Enid News By Ben
Felder The Frontier December 1, 2019
Dressed in blue
robes with gold-colored stoles around their neck, graduates of Epic Virtual
Charter School walked across the stage at the Mabee Center arena in Tulsa
earlier this year, shaking hands with school officials as they were handed a
high school diploma. “This is just the beginning of the next chapter of your
lives,” David Chaney, superintendent and co-founder of Epic, told the students
before yellow and blue balloons fell from the rafters, signifying the
culmination of hard work that had ended in high school graduation. But Epic’s
graduation ceremony is an event not experienced by a majority of its students. In
a state where the average graduation rate is 83%, just 40.2% of Epic’s students
graduated on time last year, according to recently released school assessment
data from the state Department of Education. Accounting for fifth- and
sixth-year graduates, Epic’s rate remains near 40%. In fact, fewer than half of
all students at three of the four virtual charter schools in Oklahoma graduated
within six years, according to the same state data. Leaders of Oklahoma’s
growing virtual charter school system promote it as an option of last resort
for thousands of students not adequately served in traditional school
environments, and despite low overall academic performance, they claim students
demonstrate significant growth and eventually will be prepared to graduate. But
low graduation rates bring into question the effectiveness of these
computer-based public schools that now educate more than 25,000 students in
nearly every community across the state. “It’s alarming,” State Superintendent
Joy Hofmeister told The Frontier. “It should cause those school districts and
their sponsors to take a very fine-tuned focus to examining why the rate is so
low.”
A Networking and
Supportive Event for K-12 Educators of Color (teachers, school counselors, and
administrators)! Thursday, December
12, 7:00-8:30 pm Villanova University, Dougherty Hall, West Lounge
You are cordially
invited to this gathering, with the goal of networking and lending support and
sustenance to our K-12 Educators of Color and their allies. This is your chance
to make requests, share resources, and build up our community. Please feel free
to bring a school counselor, teacher, or administrator friend! Light
refreshments provided.
Where: Villanova
University, Dougherty Hall, West Lounge (first floor, back of building)
Directions, campus
and parking map found here
Parking: Free
parking in lot L2. Turn on St. Thomas Way, off of Lancaster Avenue. You will
need to print a parking pass that will be emailed shortly before the event to
all who register.
Questions? Contact
an event organizer: Dr. Krista Malott (krista.malott@villanova.edu), Dr.
Jerusha Conner (Jerusha.conner@villanova.edu), Department of Education &
Counseling, and Dr. Anthony Stevenson, Administrator, Radnor School District
(Anthony.Stevenson@rtsd.org)
PSBA Alumni Forum: Leaving school board service?
Continue your connection and commitment to public education by joining PSBA Alumni Forum. Benefits of the complimentary membership includes:
Continue your connection and commitment to public education by joining PSBA Alumni Forum. Benefits of the complimentary membership includes:
- electronic access to PSBA Bulletin
- legislative information via email
- Daily EDition e-newsletter
- Special access to one dedicated annual briefing
Register
today online. Contact
Crista Degregorio at Crista.Degregorio@psba.org with questions.
Save the Date: PSBA/PASA/PAIU Advocacy Day at the Capitol-- March 23, 2020
Registration
will open on December 2, 2019
PSBA New and Advanced
School Director Training in Dec & Jan
Do you want
high-impact, engaging training that newly elected and reseated school directors
can attend to be certified in new and advanced required training? PSBA has been
supporting new school directors for more than 50 years by enlisting statewide
experts in school law, finance and governance to deliver a one-day foundational
training. This year, we are adding a parallel track of sessions for those who
need advanced school director training to meet their compliance requirements.
These sessions will be delivered by the same experts but with advanced content.
Look for a compact evening training or a longer Saturday session at a location
near you. All sites will include one hour of trauma-informed training required
by Act 18 of 2019. Weekend sites will include an extra hour for a legislative
update from PSBA’s government affairs team.
New School
Director Training
Week Nights:
Registration opens 3:00 p.m., program starts 3:30 p.m. -9:00 p.m., dinner with
break included
Saturdays: Registration opens at 8:00 a.m., program starts at 9:00 a.m. -3:30 p.m., lunch with break included
Saturdays: Registration opens at 8:00 a.m., program starts at 9:00 a.m. -3:30 p.m., lunch with break included
Advanced
School Director Training
Week Nights:
Registration with dinner provided opens at 4:30 p.m., program starts 5:30 p.m.
-9:00 p.m.
Saturdays: Registration opens at 10:00 a.m., program starts at 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m., lunch with break included
Saturdays: Registration opens at 10:00 a.m., program starts at 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m., lunch with break included
Locations
and dates
- Saturday, December 7 — AW Beattie
Career Center, 9600 Babcock Blvd., Allison Park, PA 15101
- Saturday, December 7 — Radnor
Township School District, 135 S. Wayne Ave., Wayne, PA 19087
- Tuesday, December 10 — Grove City
Area School District, 511 Highland Avenue, Grove City, PA 16127
- Tuesday, December 10 — Penn Manor
School District, 2950 Charlestown Road, Lancaster, PA 17603
- Tuesday, December 10 — CTC of
Lackawanna County, 3201 Rockwell Ave, Scranton, PA 18508
- Wednesday, December 11 — Upper St.
Clair Township SD, 1820 McLaughlin Run Road, Upper St. Clair, PA
15241
- Wednesday, December 11 — Montoursville
Area High School, 700 Mulberry St, Montoursville, PA 17754
- Wednesday, December 11 — Berks
County IU 14, 1111 Commons Blvd, Reading, PA 19605
- Thursday, December 12 — Richland
School District, 1 Academic Avenue, Suite 200, Johnstown, PA 15904
- Thursday, December 12 — Seneca
Highlands IU 9, 119 S Mechanic St, Smethport, PA 16749
- Thursday, December 12 — School
District of Haverford Twp, 50 East Eagle Road, Havertown, PA 19083
- Saturday, December 14 — State
College Area High School, 650 Westerly Pkwy, State College, PA 16801
- Saturday, January 11, 2020 — PSBA
Headquarters, 400 Bent Creek Blvd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Congress, Courts, and
a National Election: 50 Million Children’s Futures Are at Stake. Be their
champion at the 2020 Advocacy Institute.
NSBA Advocacy
Institute Feb. 2-4, 2020 Marriot Marquis, Washington, D.C.
Join school leaders
from across the country on Capitol Hill, Feb. 2-4, 2020 to influence the
legislative agenda & shape decisions that impact public schools. Check out
the schedule & more at https://nsba.org/Events/Advocacy-Institute
Register now for
Network for Public Education Action National Conference in Philadelphia March
28-29, 2020
Registration, hotel
information, keynote speakers and panels:
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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