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 for Feb 26, 2020
Tweet last evening by Lizzy Hardison .@elizhardison of .@PennCapitalStar
Blogger note: Taxation without representation: The Charter
Appeals Board has the power to spend your local tax dollars, disregarding the
decisions of locally elected school boards.
Saved by the bell? Phone call confusion scuttles state
board’s vote on Reading charter school
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison February
25, 2020
An arts-based charter school that’s fought a
years-long battle to open its doors in Reading may live to see another day,
despite vocal concerns from Pennsylvania’s top education official that it can’t
ensure transparent contracts or complete “the most rudimentary” components of a
charter application. The Berks Charter High School for Performing &
Visual Arts, which hopes to open in the Reading School District this fall,
asked the state Charter School Appeal Board on Tuesday to overturn its 2018
denial by the Reading School Board, which found
fault with almost every aspect of the
school’s application. The appeals board moved to deny the application
after more than an hour of debate in the Department of Education Headquarters
in downtown Harrisburg. But the vote failed because two members were no
longer responding to the conference call that they were using to attend the
meeting. It’s unclear if, when, or why board member Scott Miller and
vice-chair Lee Ann Munger fully dropped out of the meeting. But neither one
responded when the board secretary called a roll call vote, or when the board
counsel tried to confirm their attendance during a five-minute recess. Even
with three other members voting to deny the appeal, and one member abstaining,
the board did not have the quorum necessary for the action to stand. The
charter school’s attorney, Brian Leinhauser, said the snafu “could
theoretically” allow his client to submit a new appeal, if the board lost its
quorum during oral arguments. For now, the case is tabled until the
board’s next meeting, scheduled for April 14 in Harrisburg.
PSBA #VideoEDition: @RepCiresi, a former school board
director, talks with PSBA Chief Advocacy Officer John Callahan about his past
involvement at Advocacy Day and why the event is so impactful.
This year’s event will be on March 23.
For more information: https://www.psba.org/event/advocacy-day-2020/
Register at http://mypsba.org
Video runtime 3:16: http://ow.ly/NF7c50yvmgr
Delco Court of Common Pleas hearing March 3-4 includes
charterizing up to 3 of the 4 Chester Upland SD K-8 schools
Bethlehem school board rejects charter for school
planning $73 million building
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO THE MORNING
CALL | FEB 25, 2020 | 4:13 PM
The Bethlehem Area School Board rejected
Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School’s request for a new charter,
ahead of LVA’s plan to build a $73 million school, kicking off what could be a
lengthy battle. Monday night, the school board unanimously voted against LVA’s
new charter request, which it wants so it can build a 200,000-square-foot
school in Bethlehem Township that would open in 2023. Tuesday morning, LVA CEO
Susan Mauser said the charter school plans to resubmit its application to the
Bethlehem Area School Board after answering questions the board had in
originally denying the charter. LVA’s current charter doesn’t expire until 2021
but the school wanted to apply early to avoid the charter request while in the
middle of constructing the school. The K-12 charter school rents four
facilities in Valley Center Parkway in Hanover Township, Northampton County. Board
President Michael Faccinetto said directors made their decision after an evaluation
of the application, transcripts from two hearings and materials submitted to
the district. “As duly elected public officials, we take our role as school
directors very seriously, and this includes our role as charter school
authorizers,” he said.
Budget turmoil at Philly’s second-largest charter school
— but officials keep quiet about why
Tim Lambert Bradford, PA, USA / WESB
B107.5-FM/1490-AM | WBRR 100.1 The Hero February 25, 2020 05:18 am
(Philadelphia) — Philadelphia’s
second-largest charter school has a large budget deficit, a CEO on leave, and
some sort of problem related to the identification of special education
students. It’s the kind of financial and administrative
turmoil that would draw major headlines at a large, traditional school
district. But the K-12 school at the center of the tumult refuses to say much
of anything — and only recently published a six-sentence letter on its website
explaining that it had made a personnel change. Despite repeated requests for
comment, First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School in Bridesburg has
declined to explain why or how it found itself in, what one official called, a
“difficult time of transition.” Here’s what we know. Longtime CEO Joseph
Gillespie is on a leave of absence and has been replaced, on an interim basis,
by Carleene Slowik. The 1,850-student school sent a brief note to
parents Wednesday explaining the change — only after WHYY contacted the school
and asked for clarification about the leadership situation. Before that note,
the school would not divulge whether Gillespie was still working at First
Philadelphia — or even who was in charge of the school, which is affiliated
with a charter management company called American Paradigm Schools.
West Chester school directors urge lawmakers to reform
charter school funding
Pottstown Mercury by MediaNews Group Feb 25,
2020
WEST CHESTER—The West Chester Area School
District Board of Directors approved a resolution this week urging state
lawmakers to support legislation that would reform charter school funding
statewide, potentially saving the district $2.3 million. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom
Wolf is proposing legislation that would reform charter school tuition
calculations. The current charter school funding formula was established in
1997 and has not been modified since it was created. Public school officials
argue that the formula used to calculate costs is outdated and doesn't reflect
actual special education student costs, nor does it reflect the actual costs to
operate cyber-charter schools. "The way the charter laws are currently
written, there is one tuition rate that school districts pay to charter schools
for a special education student," said Dr. Jim Scanlon, West Chester Area
School District superintendent. "We pay $31,000 to charters regardless of
the types of services a student needs. So, for instance, if a child only needs
speech and language help one day per week, rather than paying $1,500 for that
service, we are paying $31,100." Scanlon added additional data to explain
how the current funding formula is costing the district and taxpayers millions
of dollars. The West Chester Area School District enrolled 717 charter school
students in 2015. One-hundred forty of those students enrolled in 11 different
cyber charter schools, and 577 enrolled in five different brick and mortar
charter schools, at a cost of $9.4 million. In 2019, the district enrolled 482
students in charter schools, with 159 of them in cyber charters, at a cost of $7.7
million.
EdVotersPA: Sign a letter to your state lawmakers asking
them to support charter school reform.
Action Network on behalf of Education Voters
PA
Each year, Pennsylvania school districts
spend $1.8 billion in taxpayer money on student tuition bills for charter and
cyber charter schools. Pennsylvania's weak charter school law has allowed
the flagrant waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer money in the charter sector,
while many charters underperform academically and struggle to operate efficiently
and ethically.
Join a statewide movement demanding reforms
to Pennsylvania's charter school law that will:
- End
overpayments to cyber charter schools.
- Apply
state special education funding formula to charter schools to eliminate
the profit that charters reap off of payments for students with
disabilities.
- Prevent
discriminatory enrollment, discipline and suspension practices in
charters.
- Improve
accountability for academic and financial performance.
- End
nepotism, financial self-dealing and conflicts of interest among charter
administrators, boards and related companies.
- Apply
sunshine laws to charter foundations and management companies.
- Limit
the power of the Charter Appeals Board to overturn the decisions of
elected school boards.
At packed Scranton School Board meeting, consultants
outline work needed at Northeast Intermediate
Scranton Times-Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL,
STAFF WRITER / FEBRUARY 25, 2020
SCRANTON — Asbestos abatement work at
Northeast Intermediate School could be complete next month. The return of the
school’s 900 students depends on results of testing on dust throughout the
school and in the ventilation system. With parents still questioning what led
to the school’s closure and if their children are safe in others schools,
district leaders pledged greater communication and frequent updates on the
asbestos work. A crowd filled the board room in the Administration Building on
Monday night, with some parents watching a live video feed of the meeting from
the second floor hallway. The work session did not include public comment,
which frustrated many attendees. Instead, parents submitted questions on index
cards, with the promise that the district or its environmental consultants
would respond this week.
Philly teachers need more support and respect to stay in
their jobs | Opinion
Deanna Burney, For the Inquirer Updated: February
25, 2020 - 11:54 AM
Deanna Burney has served as a principal at
the elementary, middle, and high school levels in the School District of
Philadelphia, and as assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in
the Camden City School District. deannaburney@comcast.net
On Friday, Superintendent William R. Hite
Jr. tweeted a hiring call-out: “Spread
the word — we are hiring teachers now. Anyone who is interested should
visit teachinphilly.com to
learn more and apply.” The School District of Philadelphia does need more
teachers. An Inquirer investigation published in April 2019 found that 26
district schools had lost at least 25% of their teachers for
four years straight, or lost more than one-third in each of the last two school
years. But it’s not enough just to recruit more people. If some important
changes don’t happen within the district and individual schools, the teachers
who apply and are hired won’t necessarily stay or achieve success. Teachers
have always faced a complex task, but the job today is harder than ever. Not
only have rigorous national standards added pressure to improve student
performance, but classrooms must also support an increasingly diverse student
population with a wide range of backgrounds and learning abilities. Workplace
conditions, including instructional resources, facilities, planning time,
collegial relationships, vision of school leaders, and school culture directly
impact what teachers can accomplish in the classroom. Workplace conditions also
have a significant impact on teacher retention. In fact, studies have shown that the
conditions under which teachers work have a bigger impact on retention than
anything that’s happening in the classroom.
Charter Schools in Surprise Political Fight as Trump and
Democrats Turn Away
Public charter schools, long protected as a
bipartisan way to expand school choice, are suddenly in a political battle as
both parties shift to other priorities.
New York Times By Erica
L.Green Feb. 25, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Public charter
schools — caught between growing Democratic disenchantment and a Trump
administration shift toward private schools — are preparing for political
battle, as the long-protected education sector finds itself on the verge of
abandonment. Betsy DeVos, the education secretary,
proposed major changes this month to a federal education fund that for decades
has driven growth of charter schools, which typically are run independently but
funded publicly and available, often through a lottery, to any child in a
school district. In President Trump’s budget proposal for the fiscal year that
begins in October, the stand-alone charter schools fund would be dissolved into
a broad educational block grant to the states, leaving charters to fight for
money with competing educational priorities. Presidential budgets usually hold
little weight, especially when the House is held by the opposition party. But
for charter schools, the Trump administration’s shift in emphasis toward
private school support comes at a precarious time — Democratic lawmakers have
targeted the same federal charter fund. Last year, the Democratic-led House
appropriations subcommittee that oversees the education budget sought to cut
the federal charter school fund by $40 million, though funding ultimately
remained flat from the year before. This year, charters are bracing for the
House to try to zero it out altogether.
Schools Should Prepare for Coronavirus Outbreaks, CDC
Officials Warn
Education Week By Mark Lieberman February
25, 2020 | Updated: February 25, 2020
Schools need to prepare for a nationwide
surge in cases of the coronavirus that’s currently wreaking global havoc and
could disrupt daily life in some communities, federal officials warned Tuesday.
“You should ask your children’s schools about their plans for school dismissals
or school closures,” Nancy Messonnier, a director at the Centers for Disease
Control, said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “Ask about plans for
teleschool.” Messonnier warned at that time that her agency is confident an
outbreak will occur in the United States and is now mulling “exactly when this
will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.” A
few hours later, federal officials, including Health and Human Services
Secretary Alex Azar, sought to downplay the urgency of the earlier warning from
CDC officials. She also said she’d already contacted her local superintendent
asking about the district’s plans in the event of an outbreak.
These Students Are Learning About Fake News and How to
Spot It
News literacy instruction is flourishing in
the wake of the 2016 election as worries about fake news grow.
New York Times By Alina
Tugend Feb. 20, 2020
This article is part of our latest Learning special report. We’re
focusing on Generation Z, which is facing challenges from changing curriculums
and new technology to financial aid gaps and homelessness.
The students sit at desks in groups of four,
watching videos about the recent bush fires in Australia. One shows an
apocalyptic landscape in flames, the other a tourist paradise, with assurances
that much of the continent is safe. Instead of dismissing both as fake news,
the eighth graders know what questions to ask to tease out the nuances: Who put
out the videos? What does each source have to gain? How big is Australia? Could
both videos be true? It is no wonder these students at Herbert S. Eisenberg Intermediate School
303 in the Coney Island neighborhood of
Brooklyn approach their task with such sophistication. They have been studying
news literacy since sixth grade in one of the only schools in the country to
make the subject part of an English language arts curriculum that all students
must take for an hour a week for three years.
Democrats Press D.C. Voucher Program for Information on
Student Civil Rights
Education Week By Evie Blad on February
25, 2020 4:28 PM
Congressional Democrats are pressing the
administrator of the District of Columbia's private school voucher program for
more information about how federal civil rights laws are enforced at private
schools that enroll students through the program. The D.C. voucher program is
authorized through a federal law called the Scholarships for Opportunity and
Results Act, or SOAR, which includes the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
It provides public funding that allows qualifying students to attend private
schools in the district. Lawmakers' concerns, expressed in a Feb. 25
letter to the organization that administers
the voucher program, come as the Trump administration seeks to boost private
school choice programs through a federal tax credit, and to support the
expansion of state-level vouchers and tax-credit scholarships. It also comes as
opponents of private school choice around the country question providing public
funds for private schools, particularly religiously affiliated schools that may
have policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students. In the letter,
lawmakers told Serving Our Children that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
DeVos had provided insufficient responses to their previous requests for
more information about the program's performance, federal oversight, and
whether participating students are "afforded the same civil rights as D.C.
public school students, including protections in federal civil rights laws and
safety regulations."
Blogger note: support Governor Wolf’s proposed charter reforms:
Reprise: PA Ed Policy Roundup for Feb 10, 2020
1. Adopt resolution for charter funding
reform
2. Ask your legislators to cosponsor HB2261
or SB1024
3. Register for Advocacy Day on March 23rd
Adopt: the 2020 PSBA resolution for charter school funding
reform
PSBA Website POSTED ON FEBRUARY 3,
2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
In this legislative session, PSBA has been
leading the charge with the Senate, House of Representatives and the Governor’s
Administration to push for positive charter reform. We’re now asking you to
join the campaign: Adopt the resolution: We’re asking all school
boards to adopt the 2020 resolution for charter school funding reform at your
next board meeting and submit it to your legislators and to PSBA.
Cosponsor: A 120-page
charter reform proposal is being introduced as House Bill
2261 by Rep. Joseph Ciresi (D-Montgomery), and Senate Bill 1024,
introduced by Senators Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and James Brewster
(D-Allegheny). Ask your legislator to sign on as a cosponsor to House Bill
2261 or Senate Bill 1024.
Register: Five compelling reasons for .@PSBA .@PASA .@PAIU school leaders to come to the Capitol
for Advocacy Day on March 23rd:
Charter Reform
Cyber Charter Reform
Basic Ed Funding
Special Ed Funding
PLANCON
For more
information: https://www.psba.org/event/advocacy-day-2020/
Hear relevant content from statewide experts, district practitioners and
PSBA government affairs staff at PSBA’s annual membership gathering. PSBA
Sectional Advisors and Advocacy Ambassadors are on-site to connect with
district leaders in their region and share important information for you to
take back to your district.
Locations and dates
- Wednesday,
March 18, 2020 — Section 7, PSBA
Headquarters, 400 Bent Creek Blvd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
- Tuesday,
March 24, 2020 — Section 1, General McLane
High School, 11761 Edinboro Rd, Edinboro, PA 16412
- Tuesday,
March 24, 2020 — Section 4, Abington
Heights School District, 200 East Grove Street, Clark Summit, PA 18411
- Wednesday,
March 25, 2020 — Section 3, Columbia-Montour
AVTS, 5050 Sweppenheiser Dr., Bloomsburg, PA 17815
- Wednesday,
March 25, 2020 — Section 6, Bedford County
Technical Center, 195 Pennknoll Road, Everett, PA 15537
- Thursday,
March 26, 2020 — Section 2, State College
Area High School, 650 Westerly Pkwy, State College, PA 16801
- Monday,
March 30, 2020 — Section 5, Forbes Road
Career & Technology Center, 607 Beatty Road, Monroeville, PA 15146
- Monday, March 30, 2020 — Section 8, East Penn School District, 800 Pine St, Emmaus,
PA 18049
- Tuesday, April 7, 2020 — Section 5, Washington School District, 311 Allison
Avenue, Washington, PA 15301
- Tuesday, April 7, 2020 — Section 8, School District of Haverford Twp, 50 East Eagle
Road, Havertown, PA 19083
Sectional Meetings are 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m. (across all locations). Light
refreshments will be offered.
Cost: Complimentary for
PSBA member entities.
Registration: Registration is
now open. To register, please sign into myPSBA and look for
Store/Registration on the left.
Allegheny County Legislative Forum on Education March 12
by Allegheny Intermediate Unit Thu, March
12, 2020 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
Join us on March 12 at 7:00 pm for the
Allegheny Intermediate Unit's annual Allegheny County Legislative Forum. The
event will feature a discussion with state lawmakers on a variety of issues
impacting public schools. We hope you will join us and be part of the
conversation about education in Allegheny County.
All school
leaders are invited to attend Advocacy Day at the state Capitol in
Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), Pennsylvania
Association of Intermediate Units (PAIU) and the Pennsylvania Association of
School Administrators (PASA) are partnering together to strengthen our advocacy
impact. The day will center around meetings with legislators to discuss
critical issues affecting public education. Click here for more information or register
at http://www.mypsba.org/
School
directors 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
Register now for
Network for Public Education Action National Conference in Philadelphia March
28-29, 2020
Registration, hotel
information, keynote speakers and panels:
PSBA Board Presidents Panel April 27, 28 and 29; Multiple
Locations
Offered at 10 locations across the state,
this annual event supports current and aspiring school board leaders through
roundtable conversations with colleagues as well as a facilitated panel of
experienced regional and statewide board presidents and superintendents. Board
Presidents Panel is designed to equip new and veteran board presidents and vice
presidents as well as superintendents and other school directors who may pursue
a leadership position in the future.
PARSS Annual Conference April 29 – May 1, 2020 in State
College
The 2020 PARSS Conference is April 29 through
May 1, 2020, at Wyndham Garden Hotel at Mountain View Country Club in State
College. Please register as a member or a vendor by accessing the links below.
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.