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 March 3, 2020
PSBA: Coronavirus Preparedness Guidance
In the last few weeks, the novel coronavirus
(SARS-CoV-2), which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, has become a topic
of concern nationwide. Although the virus is not widespread in Pennsylvania at
this time, that status could change. Being proactive is key to prevention and
mitigation. Below, you will find a list of resources on all aspects of
preparedness, including guidance on communication planning, policy, emergency
management and disease control. Use these resources to help you make decisions
regarding the safety and health of those in your school district.
Bucks County Intermediate Unit: FLU AND CORONAVIRUS
RESOURCES
Resources for School Leaders; Bucks County
Intermediate Unit Website
This page contains a collection of news
articles, health agency resources, and school system templates related to the
Flu and Coronavirus. This page is by no means exhaustive and in no way
serves as an endorsement for specific resources. Instead, it
serves as a collection point for school leaders seeking resources and
exemplars. Please contact Dr.
Mark Hoffman with any additional documents or
links to post!
Bucks County Courier Times By Peg Quann @pegquann
Posted Feb 28, 2020 at 3:09 PM
Funding for charter schools needs to change —
that’s the message the Bensalem school board wants to send to Harrisburg. Its
members unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday urging the state to find new
ways to fund these privately run but publicly funded schools. The resolution
states that Bensalem’s costs to finance both brick-and-mortar and cyber charter
schools has risen by $5.42 million in the past four years. According to the
resolution, Bensalem Township School District paid $15.9 million to support
charter schools in the 2018-19 school year, including more than $2 million for
cyber charter schools and $13.9 million for brick and mortar charter schools. Charter
school reform isn’t a suggestion; it’s an obligation,” said Bensalem school
board member Rachel Fingles, founder and chair of the school board’s policy
committee. “The charter school laws in Pennsylvania are some of the most
damaging laws to public schools in the nation,” she said. Bensalem is home to
the highly regarded School Lane Charter School. Neither Fingles nor Marc Cohen,
another school board member, said they were targeting the local charter school
by voting for the resolution, but rather the funding method. “In Bensalem, we
have an outstanding charter school...We are fortunate to have a charter school
working with us,” Cohen said. “The funding is not an equitable formula. It’s
hurting our district.” School Lane Charter School CEO Karen Schade could not be
reached for comment Friday afternoon.
“At a planned hearing on March 3-4, ELC will present evidence
that the plan fails to evaluate whether this conversion will improve or imperil
students’ educations. The plan also ignores how the proposal will affect
students with disabilities, though data shows that potential charter school
options serve a far lower percentage of children with more significant
disabilities. We hope our action will help shift the current proceedings toward
a focus on the quality of education children will receive under any proposal.”
Court Grants Our Petition to Intervene on Behalf of
Chester Families
Education Law Center March 2020 Newsletter
The Delaware County Court of Common Pleas on
Feb. 24 granted our petition to intervene in In Re: Appointment Of A Receiver
For The Chester Upland School District, giving Chester parents as well as
advocates for students with disabilities a voice in plans for the future of
that district. ELC, along with Public Interest Law Center, filed the petition
on behalf of parents of students in Chester Upland School District and the
Delaware County Advocacy and Resource Organization, a nonprofit advocating for
students with disabilities. We intervened to challenge a “revised financial
recovery plan” that contemplates the conversion of all Chester Upland K-8
schools to charter schools.
Delco Court of Common Pleas hearing March 3-4 includes
charterizing up to 3 of the 4 Chester Upland SD K-8 schools
Two visions of school safety dominate House and Senate
hearings
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison March 2,
2020
As they grilled Pennsylvania’s top education
officials in budget hearings, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Harrisburg
both said the state needs to put aside more money to improve school
safety. The stance could be a rare spot of consensus in the state’s
months-long budget negotiations — if it not for a persistent, partisan
disagreement over what threats demand attention and money from the General
Assembly. Legislative Republicans are calling on the Wolf administration to
abandon proposed cuts to a school safety grant program, which helps schools
fortify themselves against violent intruders. Democrats, meanwhile, are
calling for a massive infusion of cash to address less visible threats: lead,
asbestos, mold and other toxins lurking in Pennsylvania’s aging school
buildings. Lawmakers from both parties framed their proposals as a way to make
schools safer for Pennsylvania’s 2 million-plus school children. But as state
appropriators embark on the months-long project of drafting Pennsylvania’s new
annual budget, it’s possible that one vision of safety might be funded at the
expense of the other.
As parents demand more answers, Scranton School Board
approves more work at Northeast Intermediate
Times Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL, STAFF
WRITER / PUBLISHED: MARCH 3, 2020
SCRANTON — Calling the ventilation system in
Northeast Intermediate School an “accident waiting to happen,” environmental
consultants recommended the district complete asbestos abatement on duct work,
pipes and other areas before students return. The Scranton School Board voted
9-0 late Monday night to begin making some of those repairs. “If we want to get
children back there, we need to move sooner rather than later,” said Candis
Finan, Ed.D., chief recovery officer. Students could return in 30 days, pending
various approvals from city, state and federal agencies. The school has three
separate heating and ventilation systems — one each for the 1904 and 1931
sections and the auditorium. Each system needs abatement work, including
removing asbestos insulation and repairing asbestos-lined intake ducts. The
fresh air intake system for the auditorium is used as a storage area, filled
with desks, chairs and old boxes.
PA Gives Out School Safety Funding For A Second Year,
Demands Remain Strong
WESA By MIN XIAN | WPSU March 2, 2020
For a second year, Pennsylvania has approved
more than $60 million in school safety funding.
For a second year, Pennsylvania’s School
Safety and Security Committee has approved more than $60 million in school
safety funding, which was announced Wednesday. The Pennsylvania Commission on
Crime and Delinquency said demands for funding to improve safety in
Pennsylvania schools remained strong. PCCD received a total of 970 applications
during this round of funding, and the total cost of all those projects was
$134.5 million. More than $53 million dollars will be spread out among
nearly all of Pennsylvania’s school districts. An additional $7.5 million
dollars will go to programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters for violence
prevention work. Overwhelmingly, schools are asking for grants to address
mental health needs and to strengthen security measures. State Senator
Wayne Langerholc, R-Bedford, is on the committee that approves the funding and
said the main areas of focus have been consistent since the legislation that
created the funding was enacted in 2018. “There needs to be more mental
health professionals, more school counselors, more guidance counselors, things
that kind of treat the root cause of the problem,” Langerholc said.
“School districts can also petition the state Department of
Education to grant an exception, which California Area also pursued. Although
the Department of Education on Thursday granted California a $300,000 exception
for special education programs and the inflation index, Burford said this
amount did not give the district enough leeway to balance next school year’s
budget. The district estimates it will need more than three times that amount
to balance the 2020-21 budget.”
Referendum on tax increase for special ed headed to
ballot in California (PA) school district
Observer-Reporter by Barbara Miller Mar
1, 2020 Updated Mar 1, 2020
Voters in the California Area School District
will be the first in Washington County to see a referendum question dealing
with a larger than state-indexed property tax increase. School district
business manager and board treasurer Mary C. Burford submitted paperwork
Wednesday to the Washington County elections office based on action by the
board at a public meeting Feb. 19. The California Area school board hopes to
levy a property tax millage rate of 14.3542 mills for the 2020-21 school year.
This amount exceeds the district’s permissible millage as defined by Act 1 of
2006. This millage rate may only be imposed under Act 1 by submitting the
proposal to the district’s voters. The April 28 primary takes place before the
end of the school district’s fiscal year on June 30. The board must adopt a
budget for the following fiscal year by that date. Burford, in a letter
submitted to the elections office, phrased the ballot question as, “Do you
support raising the real estate tax levied by California Area School District
by 2.8539 mills for the 2020-21 fiscal year?” Voters would choose “yes” or
“no.”
‘It would be a good shift,’ grad says as court boosts
plan to split Steelton-Highspire School District
Penn Live By Matt
Miller | mmiller@pennlive.com Updated Mar
02, 2020; Posted Mar 02, 2020
So, would it be a good idea or a bad one for
Highspire and its 276 students to split from Steelton-Highspire School District
and mesh with the far less than willing Middletown Area School District? “It
would be a good shift,” said Deanne Armstrong, a Steel-High grad. Armstrong
gave that assessment as she watched her grandchildren playing in Highspire’s
Grant Street park on Monday afternoon. Hours earlier, a Commonwealth Court panel
gave an important OK to the Highspire Education
Coalition’s years-long fight to secede. It overturned a Dauphin County judge’s
rejection of the break-away proposal and ordered county Judge Andrew H. Dowling
to establish an “independent school district” consisting of just Highspire.
Penn Hills schools prepares for coronavirus,
communication procedures
Trib Live by Dillon
Carr Monday, March 2, 2020 | 11:44 AM
Penn Hills School District administrators are
asking parents to double check email addresses and contact information in the
event schools are forced to shut down due to a coronavirus outbreak. “Our
district principals will be working with instructional teams to develop
standards-based, K-12 lessons that may be forwarded to families via email,”
read a letter penned by Penn Hills High School Principal Eric Kostic, Linton
Middle School Principal Sandy Barker and Penn Hills Elementary School Principal
Kristin Brown. The letter was forwarded to families Feb. 28. The school
district uses “Skyward,” a digital system to communicate with students’
families and store individual student information. “We encourage all families
to verify that your family’s email is correctly listed in our Skyward system,”
Kostic wrote. Kostic said the school district has not been made aware of anyone
infected with coronavirus so far, and there have been “no reported symptoms
among our students or staff” related to the respiratory disease. “Still, the
Penn Hills School District is following the CDC’s recommendation for
preparedness,” Kostic said.
https://pennhills.triblive.com/penn-hills-schools-prepares-for-coronavirus-communication-procedures/
Philadelphia public schools need a policy for voter
education and registration
It is "puzzling that the District has no
policy to assure that all 8,000 eligible students have the opportunity to
register to vote."
The notebook Commentary by Coleman
Poses and Thomas Quinn March 2 — 4:07 pm, 2020
Asbestos and lead threaten the air that
students breathe and the water that they drink in many of our Philadelphia schools.
Meanwhile, the state, the Parking Authority, and wealthy nonprofits shortchange
our School District by hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Good
politicians can address each of these problems through the legislative process,
and every citizen over 18 can help to elect them. The School District of
Philadelphia should be doing everything in its power to encourage the city’s
citizens to participate in the election process, starting with voter
registration. According to the most recent census estimates and voter
registration data, our city has more than 80,000 unregistered voters. It is
therefore puzzling that the District has no policy to assure that all 8,000
eligible students have the opportunity to register to vote.
Just 5% of Philadelphia schools are named after women
Only a third of those have women of color as
a namesake.
Billy Penn by Michaela Winberg March 2, 2020
Philly’s public and charter schools are named
after a wide assortment of people. The namesakes are founding
fathers and former governors. They’re astronauts and Civil War generals, architects and horticulturists. Despite the varied backgrounds of
these namesakes, most of them look the same. A Billy Penn analysis revealed
that a vast majority of Philadelphia schools are named after white men. Out of
345 public and charter schools, 193 are named after men. Women? 18 are named
after women. There’s North Philly’s Mary McLeod Bethune School, named for
the National Council of Negro Women founder and
civil rights leader. Laura H. Carnell School in Oxford Circle takes its name
from Temple University’s first-ever dean. Julia Ward
Howe Elementary in Fern Rock honors the Civil War suffragist and abolitionist.
Altogether, schools named after women make up
5% of Philly’s total.
Population decline spurs conversation about education
Beaver County Times By Daveen
Rae Kurutz @DK_NewsData and @DKreports Posted
Mar 2, 2020 at 11:31 PM
The Beaver County Partnership Community and
Economic Growth and its Quality Education Council unveiled its K-12 education
study Monday evening.
CENTER TWP. — There are about 30,000 fewer
school-aged children in Beaver County than there were in the 1970s, a number
education experts expect to continue to drop. It’s startling numbers that have
led members of the Beaver County Partnership Community and Economic Growth and
its Quality Education Council to ask how the county can continue to provide
equitable, high-quality educational opportunities without going broke. On
Monday evening, the partnership unveiled its study on “Population Trends and
Fiscal Implications on the Future of Education in Beaver County” at Penn
State-Beaver. Officials expected more than 150 people to attend the
presentation, which Charles “Skip” Homan, chairman of the board of directors of
the partnership, said was designed to start conversations. The county’s 14
school districts serve about 20,500 students, with an additional 2,500 children
attending charter, parochial and other schools in Beaver County, according to
the report. But while enrollment continues to decline, the expenses of
educating a student doesn’t drop at the same time, officials said.
Former POWER leader joins Philly DA’s office as senior
advisor
Gregory Holston, the former executive
director of POWER, joined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office as senior
adviser on advocacy and policy.
WHYY By John N. Mitchell March 2, 2020
This article originally appeared on The Philadelphia Tribune.
The Rev. Gregory Holston, who has served as
the executive director of POWER, joined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s
Office as the senior advisor on advocacy and policy. “To be on the ground floor
of a really dramatic and revolutionary change in the District Attorney’s Office
is such a great opportunity,” said Holston, who stepped down from his post at
POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild) earlier this
year. “I’m confident that the place for criminal justice change in America is
the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.” In his new role, Holston will
advise District Attorney’s Office employees on “ways to integrate social
justice best practices and community-based policies and procedures” into their
work. Externally, he will “work to advance the mission of the office to make
the criminal justice system in Philadelphia more accessible and accountable” in
order to build public trust in law enforcement, the DA’s office and the court
system. The position is newly created.
Belle Vernon Area teachers issue strike notice to school
district
ANDREW GOLDSTEIN Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette agoldstein@post-gazette.com MAR 2, 2020
The union that represents teachers and other
staff in Belle Vernon Area schools announced it will go on strike next week
unless a contract is reached with the district. The Belle Vernon Area Education
Association, which represents 161 teachers, nurses, counselors and education
specialists, issued a strike notice to the district and school board on Monday
indicating that a work stoppage would begin March 13. Until then, the
union will perform under a “work to rule” designation, meaning that teachers
will not perform duties outside of their contractual obligations, such as
sponsoring clubs and after-school tutoring. The union and the Belle
Vernon Area School District have been negotiating a contract since January
2019. Teachers have been working without a contract since June 30.
How to Respond to Coronavirus: 6 Steps for Schools
Education Week By Mark Lieberman March
2, 2020
Cases of the novel coronavirus have begun to
hit K-12 schools, and it’s likely more will appear in the coming days as
evidence mounts of the disease’s spread beyond people who have recently
traveled abroad. Schools in states with confirmed cases have begun closing,
either to help limit the spread or to test out remote-learning capabilities in
the event a longer closure is necessary. There’s still a lot that’s unknown
about the disease. Children have largely not been severely affected thus far,
but scientists have yet to determine to what extent they contribute to the
disease spreading to more vulnerable populations. The fatality rate for
COVID-19 thus far (between 1 and 2 percent) outstrips the more typical influenza virus (0.1
percent on average), but that might be in part because it’s difficult to detect
the disease in patients who aren’t exhibiting outward-facing symptoms, said
Rachel Orscheln, an associate professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases
at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It’s easy to imagine
panicking at the thought of COVID-19 appearing in your district, but there’s
plenty of information and resources available to take action. Start by reading the CDC’s full list of guidelines for schools. Below are
six critical steps K-12 leaders should follow if coronavirus emerges in your
communities.
“Nearly 30 states that have private
school choice programs that either directly pay students’
tuition at private schools or provide generous tax-credits to incentivize
businesses and individuals to do so. But few require private schools to follow
standard policies used to ensure transparency and accountability in the
nation’s public schools, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey of
states on how private school voucher and other closely related programs are
regulated.”
Private School Choice Programs Fall Short on
Transparency, Accountability
Education Week By Arianna Prothero and Alex Harwin February
28, 2020
Montana, like many other states, helps some
students pay for tuition at private schools. But the rules for the schools that
participate in its tax-credit scholarship program are scant: They do not have
to hire teachers with college degrees or conduct criminal background checks on
all their employees. Schools do not have to publicly report graduation rates or
demonstrate that they are on sound financial footing. And no entity—be it the
state, the organization that awards the scholarships, or the private schools—is
required to track and report basic demographic data on the students who use the
program. Montana is hardly an outlier.
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.
Event: Transparency
in Pennsylvania Cyber Charter Schools
A Free Educational Event Hosted at Capitol
Building in Harrisburg, March 16, 2020
CONTACT Holly Lubart EMAIL HollyL@PANewsMedia.org PHONE 717-703-3032
A Free Sunshine Week Educational Event Hosted
at Capitol Building in Harrisburg, Pa.
Guest Speaker: Sarah Hofius Hall, Education
Reporter, The Times-Tribune
Guest Speaker: Representative Curt
Sonney, Chairman, House Education Committee
Guest Speaker from the Wolf Administration
To register for this event, please complete
the form below.
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:
NSBA annual conference -- April 4-6, 2020 Chicago
Registration for the 2020 NSBA Annual
Conference is now open. The event will be held April 4-6 in Chicago
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.
Register today for the 2020 PASA/PA Principals
Association PA Educational Leadership Summit, August 2-4, at the Lancaster
Marriott at Penn Square
(hosted by the PA Principals Association and
the PA Association of School Administrators). Participants can earn up to 80
PIL hours (40 hours for the Summit and - for an additional cost of $50 -
40 hours for EdCamp) for
attending the conference and completing program requirements. Register
early to reserve your seat! The deadline to take advantage of the Early Bird
Discount is April 24, 2020.
Click here to
register today!
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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