Monday, May 18, 2020

PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 18, 2020: School Superintendents Dismiss White House, Will Follow Leaked CDC Guidance on Reopening


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.

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PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 18, 2020



Delaware County Teen Town Hall Virtual Meeting Friday May 22nd at 11 am
Join Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon along with State Lawmakers and Students from Delaware County. Watch this space for a link to register for Friday’s event

Watch Montgomery County’s Teen Town Hall that took place on Friday, May 15 with U.S. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, 14 state senators and representatives, 15 superintendents and Technical School administrators and students from across the county. 



Virtual graduations are the new normal in the age of coronavirus
The ultimate June rite of passage is high school graduation. But for the Class of 2020, the end of this school year has been upended by COVID-19. However, area high school administrators are doing their utmost to make sure this rite of passage occurs in a meaningful and safe manner. Many have plans in the works for both virtual ceremonies in June and possible in-person ceremonies later in the summer. Here is a run-down of what Delaware County districts and private schools are planning for their seniors: Haverford High School will hold a virtual graduation by live-stream beginning at 5:59 p.m. on June 11. It will feature the high school orchestra playing Pomp and Circumstance, the choir will sing the National Anthem, and speeches from the Class of 2020. During the event, each student’s name and photo will be displayed. Students should turn their tassels after Superintendent Dr. Maureen Reusche declares them graduates. Fifteen school buses will drive across the district at that time with teachers and administrators who will deliver their diplomas and a Haverford High School mask. Upper Darby will hold a virtual graduation ceremony on June 9. The school has secured a date of July 21 at the Tower Theater for an in-person graduation if social distancing requirements are lifted. A second date of Aug. 5 will be considered if social distancing hasn’t been relaxed in time for the July date. Springfield High School will hold a virtual celebration of 2020 graduation on June 5 with a ceremony and speeches that morning. Following the virtual ceremony, teachers and administrators will travel throughout the district to hand deliver diplomas to the students, On July 4, all seniors are invited to wear cap and gown and parade through Springfield to the high school where there will be a graduation ceremony. If the July 4 event is cancelled or not able to be held, a graduation ceremony will be held Aug. 1.

‘A tremendous inequality.’ How rural schools, students adapt to remote learning amid pandemic
Centre Daily Times BY SARAH PAEZ FOR THE CDT MAY 17, 2020 07:30 AM , UPDATED 19 MINUTES AGO
Madelyn Bailey starts her week at 6 a.m. with an eight-hour shift at the Dunkin’ in Bellefonte, taking people’s coffee and doughnut orders. On top of finishing her classwork online during a pandemic, the Bald Eagle Area High School senior has been working 40 hours most weeks since school closed to save money for her freshman year at Penn State’s University Park campus. But unlike many of her peers at the flagship state university, Bailey lives in Moshannon, an area of Centre County where internet options are limited and connectivity is both spotty and slow. “I work a lot. So, if I want to skip a day (of schoolwork) and then do it at the end of the week instead, it’s kind of hard sometimes,” she said. “If it’s windy, sometimes the power will go out. If it’s snowing, raining, literally anything ... but sunshine, the power could have a chance of going out. That would delay my schoolwork ... because I can’t use cellular service, because we live in a complete dead zone.” While rural areas of Pennsylvania are less likely to have access to broadband internet, no area of the state is immune. A 2018 Penn State study sponsored by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania found that over 50% of the population in every single county in the state does not have access to broadband — defined as 25 megabits per second download speed. For Bailey, whose internet speed is about 1 Mbps, that looks like waiting until nighttime to do schoolwork because fewer people in her nine-person household are using the internet, making it faster. When she calls her friends over FaceTime to do homework, the call usually drops or the connection lags, leaving her to constantly catch up with the conversation.

School Superintendents Dismiss White House, Will Follow Leaked CDC Guidance on Reopening
Superintendents call recent guidance insufficient and instead will follow recommendations from a leaked report that was reportedly shelved by the White House.
US News By Lauren Camera, Senior Education Writer May 15, 2020, at 10:43 a.m.
SCHOOL DISTRICT superintendents – those responsible for making decisions about how and when to reopen schools – are planning to follow detailed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was shelved by the White House last month instead of the official guidance published Thursday. Education officials have been clamoring for more thorough direction from the Trump administration as to how and when they can safely reopen schools, but the long-awaited CDC guidance published to its web site last night – a one-page decision tree – left them underwhelmed. "Our recommendation to our members will be to follow that first report, official or not, because at least it gives pretty specific guidelines," says Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, which represents school district leaders across the country. "The bottom line is that this new guidance is underwhelming," he says. "The proposal that was leaked we found very comprehensive, providing the specificity we had been looking for. Apparently that was too specific for the administration and was squelched." Earlier this week, reporting by the Associated Press uncovered a 63-page document the CDC prepared for the White House that provides step-by-step instructions to help education officials, business owners and others begin reopening their communities. Among other things, it recommends that schools currently closed remain closed – a recommendation at odds with President Donald Trump, who's been saying daily for the last week that schools "absolutely" should open. But the CDC documents were buried, according to AP reporting, by White House officials who preferred less restrictive guidance that left discretion up to state and local leaders rather than a national response.

CDC's latest reopening guidance to schools: Screen students and employees, wear masks and practice social distancing
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer May 16, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released a one-page checklist regarding reopening schools. 
With Pennsylvania schools expected to reopen in the fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released a one-page checklist offering guidance to schools during the coronavirus pandemic’s next phase. The guidance, posted to the CDC’s website as schools continue to wait for detailed recommendations from both the state and the Trump administration, says schools shouldn’t reopen if they cannot screen students and employees upon arrival and urges schools to adopt social distancing practices and mask-wearing once they’re deemed fit to reopen. In order to open, schools must follow applicable state and local orders and protect those who are at higher risk of severe illness, the CDC says. Once schools reopen, they should follow health and safety guidelines and continuously monitor students and employees.

Erie schools aim for hybrid plan for reopening
Go Erie By Ed Palattella @etnpalattella Posted at 12:02 AM
Erie School District Superintendent Polito says he’s focusing on online and in-person classes, waiting on state guidance.
Pennsylvania Education Secretary Pedro Rivera told the state Senate Education Committee last week that “we fully expect to come back to school in the fall” with more guidance to come. What the return will look like is starting to take shape at the Erie School District.  Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito said he and his staff are developing a hybrid plan that will allow students to attend classes in person at school or get instruction online at home until the pandemic subsides. He said he wants the instruction to be seamless, no matter what the mode of delivery, while the district follows health and safety guidelines. “Everything would be very similar whether online or in-person,” Polito said in an interview. He said the school district must develop such a plan to take into account that social distancing and other measures likely still will be in place on Aug. 31, when the first day of the 2020-21 academic year arrives for the Erie School District’s 11,000 students. “We have kind of settled on the fact that we are not going to be able to bring everybody back to school at the same time,” Polito said. “There’s probably going to be restrictions on the number of students and class sizes.” Like school districts throughout the state, the Erie School District has used distance learning to teach students at home since Gov. Tom Wolf ordered schools closed on March 13, a directive he extended on April 6 for the rest of the academic year. Using its experience over the past several weeks, the Erie School District in 2020-21 aims to have a setup that allows students to switch back and forth from online instruction to in-person learning, Polito said, depending on the social distancing requirements and other issues.

Philadelphia Orchestra gives gift of ‘Pomp’ to graduates everywhere
Inquirer by Peter Dobrin, Updated: May 15, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic may have robbed graduation time of its full pageantry, but the Philadelphia Orchestra stands ready to restore some sense of occasion. The orchestra is making available to anyone who wants it a recording of about a minute’s worth of Elgar’s 1901 Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D Major, the traditional cap-and-gown tune. The orchestra has provided the recording directly to the School District of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, and local universities for use in official graduation ceremonies across the city and state. It’s also available to the public. If the Philadelphia Orchestra’s take on the piece with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin sounds extra grand, it might be because, well, it’s the Philadelphia Orchestra. Another reason is that rather than lifting the serene and dignified first appearance of the famous melody from Elgar’s six-minute piece, the orchestra excerpted its final statement. That ecstatic last stretch is pretty much the soundtrack anyone and everyone would want launching them into the next phase of life. The recording may bring an extra twinge of nostalgia for some. It was captured at this year’s Academy of Music Anniversary Concert, which, the orchestra has announced, may be the last in its traditional form. This January, the orchestra plans to take a pause from the venerable event while it mulls other ways of celebrating the 163-year-old opera house. Even those not celebrating graduation can listen in on Elgar’s stirring piece — at philorch.org/graduation.

Seniors, ‘you’ve lost a lot.’ Coronavirus pandemic steals graduations, proms and memories
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO and MICHELLE MERLIN THE MORNING CALL | MAY 16, 2020 | 7:41 AM
No Prom
For the last four years, Allen High School senior Kerine Palacios has been looking forward to the day when her parents, who immigrated to the United States before she was born, would watch her receive her diploma and become the first in the family to graduate from high school. It was going to be a special moment that not only celebrated Kerine’s accomplishments but also paid tribute to the sacrifices her parents made when they left Mexico and Columbia for a better life. Neither of Kerine’s parents made it past sixth grade, but they saw to it that her education came first, driving her to school every morning and making sure she did her homework every night. In the fall, Kerine will attend Kutztown University, where she received a scholarship that will cover nearly all of her tuition so she can study biology. She plans to have a career in the medical field. Much of the credit goes to her parents, she said. “That diploma is my thank you to them.” But like seniors across the country, Kerine, 18, is unsure if she will have a moment where she is in cap and gown with her classmates as her proud parents take photos of the ceremony. The coronavirus pandemic forced Pennsylvania schools to shut down in mid-March and remain closed for the rest of the school year.

Pandemic causes county students to adapt to remote learning, despite the internet connection
Centre Daily Times BY ABBY DREY  MAY 16, 2020 07:24 PM
Internet access around Centre County has been a topic for several years, but with the students having to remote learn during the coronavirus pandemic it has been brought to the forefront.

Will Centre County residents see an increase in taxes as school districts plan for the start of the fiscal year?
Centre Daily Times BY MARLEY PARISH MAY 16, 2020 08:00 AM , UPDATED MAY 16, 2020 09:44 AM
As students wrap up online learning, school administrators are scrambling to plan for the start of the fiscal year. With COVID-19 wreaking havoc on finances across the country, Centre County residents could see an increase in taxes as area school districts anticipate millions in revenue loss. Before educators add more financial stress to district residents and families, financial officers are working to cut costs and secure alternative sources of funding. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced that the state Department of Education was approved to receive $523.8 million in one-time federal emergency funds. The money is supported by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — an initiative that provided $13.2 billion to support the continued learning of K-12 students. “Our schools and educators have been working tirelessly to help students and their families during this crisis,” Wolf said in a statement. “These efforts must be paired with investments that reflect the unprecedented scale of this challenge. USDE’s approval of Pennsylvania’s application is an important, first step in securing those investments.” Local education agencies can apply to PDE to receive their allocation of the funding. Once approved, they should receive funds within several weeks. While districts wait for funds to be released, school financial officers are doing their best to budget for the unknown with estimated projects and data.

I-LEAD Charter School in Reading preparing to close by end of June
The final round appears to be coming for the I-LEAD Charter School in the former CNA building at Fourth and Penn streets. It would close at the end of June under an agreement City Council is expected to consider Monday night. It's part of a broader agreement involving taxes and the sale of the building to Alvernia University for it's CollegeTowne initiative. 
I-LEAD Inc. is in final negotiations to close I-LEAD Charter School, and if the terms are approved, Berks County’s only brick-and-mortar charter school will close by the end of June. City Council is scheduled to vote Monday night on an agreement among the city, Reading School District, Berks County and Downtown Improvement District that will resolve the unpaid taxes and any ongoing litigation with I-LEAD. If the entities approve the agreement the school will close its doors June 30 and agree not to operate at another location or under another name. However, individuals associated with the charter school could file a new charter with the school district for a different school. A source with knowledge of the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity said legal counsel representing the other parties have agreed to the proposal. DID plans to vote on the agreement at its meeting Monday, Executive Director Charles E. Broad said. The Reading School Board will vote on the agreement at its next meeting. Berks County commissioners approved the agreement at its May 7 meeting. I-LEAD consisted of 391 students from 10 school districts, 24 teachers, 22 support staff and five administrators, according to the 2018-19 audit of the school. The Reading School District paid more than $4 million a year for 389 city students to attend the charter school in 2019-20, according to district officials.

Cheltenham teachers got a new contract. But coronavirus could change the terms.
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Updated: May 15, 2020
The Cheltenham school board has approved a new three-year contract with its teachers union that grants raises each year — but with a coronavirus-induced caveat that some say could become more common for school districts in the wake of the pandemic. If the Montgomery County district’s financial situation worsens, it will be able to reopen the contract — which will cost $3.1 million over three years — under provisions agreed to by the union and approved by the board this week. Among the circumstances that would trigger a reopening of the contract: if the district’s projected tax collection rate falls by more than 3% from the year before, or if its primary source of state aid shrinks by $300,000. The district’s budget for next year is about $122 million. “I don’t believe there is a more comprehensive reopener provision in any Commonwealth of Pennsylvania collective bargaining agreement,” said Jeff Sultanik, a lawyer who represents school districts, including Cheltenham, in contract negotiations. As the pandemic upends the economy, jeopardizing school budgets, Sultanik said he expected other districts to pursue similar agreements. “Otherwise, negotiating more than a one-year contract becomes very difficult," he said.

With $8 million budget hole, Allentown School District mulls tax hike, staffing needs
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO THE MORNING CALL | MAY 15, 2020 | 7:40 AM
The Allentown School District is recommending a 4% tax increase in the 2020-21 budget.
The Allentown School District is looking at raising taxes by 4%, but it still won’t be enough to fill an $8 million hole in the proposed 2020-21 budget. Thursday night, the district gave a first glance of a proposed $361 million budget for next year. The deficit for next year is $7.6 million, but because the district has a $718,507 gap in this year’s budget, it’s $8.3 million in the red for next year. To work to eliminate the deficit, the district will review cost reduction options, evaluate staffing needs and analyze health care costs, Superintendent Thomas Parker said. In a 6-3 vote, the board approved moving the proposed budget to the full meeting later this month for a vote. Directors Lisa Conover, Phoebe Harris and Linda Vega voted against it. Director Cheryl Johnson Watts voted for it, but repeatedly said that the proposed budget is a “conversation starter” and can change. The 4% tax hike will bring in an additional $4 million. That’s an annual increase of $90 for those with a house assessed at $108,000. Last year, the board raised taxes by 1.75%.
If the board decides to do a tax increase that’s lower than 4%, the district’s deficit will be higher than $8.3 million. Harris asked how the district can justify raising taxes when people are out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic. She suggested administrators look at freezing the top salaries in the district before raising taxes.

CDC Issues Tools To Guide Reopening Of Schools, Businesses, Transit
NPR by HANNAH HAGEMANN May 14, 20208:34 PM ET
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of documents on Thursday designed to provide guidance on how child care centers, schools, restaurants and bars, and other establishments could begin the process of reopening in the face of the coronavirus. The direction comes after calls from lawmakers and state officials mounted for the CDC to weigh in on how regions should reopen their economies. The "decision tools" the agency released recommend that all workplaces hold off on reopening unless they are ready to protect employees at higher risk for severe illness, including those 65 and older and people of all ages with underlying medical conditions. If an organization can protect workers and goes forward with reopening, the CDC recommends intensifying cleaning and sanitation and establishing health and safety actions "as feasible," such as hand-washing, wearing a cloth face covering and social distancing. The documents also advise employers to encourage workers to stay home if they feel sick. Schools, child care centers and camps should not reopen, the guidelines stipulate, unless they are able to implement coronavirus screening protocols, evaluating employees and children daily for symptoms and potential past exposures to COVID-19.

The Sheer Number of School Districts Is Tilting the Playing Field
Changing their borders would go a long way toward getting public school money where it most needs to go.
New York Times By Rebecca Sibilia May 14, 2020
Ms. Sibilia is the chief executive of a school funding advocacy group.
If we really want to balance school budgets in the wake of the coronavirus — and create more long-term equity in our public school system — we need to come to terms with the idea that we need far fewer than the 13,000 school districts that are currently in operation in the United States. Today, the lines that define school district borders are largely arbitrary. They’re zigzagging areas of local control, a term that conflates two separate concepts: the ability to oversee a group of neighborhood schools and the right to keep the proceeds from property wealth in narrow jurisdictions. The more exclusively these borders are drawn, the more advantage accrues to wealthy districts, each of which has an independent financial structure, at the expense of the students next door. This structure may explain the educational geography of Camden County in southern New Jersey, which contains 35 school districts, 23 of which are within a five-mile radius of the city of Camden. Half of these districts serve fewer than 1,000 students apiece, with wide wealth disparities. The median property in Gloucester City School District is worth about $120,000, but four miles away in Haddonfield Borough a median home sells for $500,000. From this wealthy tax base, Haddonfield can raise $13,500 per student, four times higher than what can be collected in Gloucester City.

No Pomp and Circumstance? No Problem
Students, parents and alumni are making graduation a special occasion, even in quarantine.
New York Times By Ronda Kaysen May 15, 2020
The day the governor of Rhode Island announced that schools would remain closed for the rest of the school year, Dan Freedman rallied his high school classmates to gather for an impromptu car parade on campus. Their prom and graduation may not happen, but the Cumberland High School class of 2020 would have its honk out anyway. And if it had to happen on April 23, and not in June, so be it. “When school got canceled, we were angry and confused and venting,” said Dan, 17, who lives in Cumberland, R.I., with his parents and younger sister. “It just felt like we needed to do something.” About 75 cars assembled on the sunny spring afternoon, carrying roughly 100 seniors. When all the cars were in place, Dan gave the signal to his classmates to start and took off in his green Toyota Highlander. Like millions of other students around the country, the seniors of Cumberland High School were mourning the loss of a season of celebration, and eager to eke out a little togetherness, despite the mandatory separation.

Obama tells 2020 graduates: ‘If the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you.' Read the transcripts of two speeches.
Washington Post By  Valerie Strauss  May 16, 2020 at 9:59 p.m. EDT
Former president Barack Obama gave two commencement addresses for 2020 graduates that were made public on Saturday, telling them in one: “If the world’s going to get better, it going to be up to you.” Obama first spoke at a virtual commencement ceremony for graduates of the country’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). He talked about the systemic racism in the United States that harms black Americans and about how the covid-19 pandemic is laying bare long-standing inequities. He also referred to the shooting death by two white men of a 25-year-old black man, Ahmaud Arbery, while he was jogging in Georgia. “You’re being asked to find your way in the world in the middle of a devastating pandemic and terrible recession,” he said.” The timing is not ideal. And let’s be honest — a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. We see it in the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog, and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.” Then a video of Obama delivering a different commencement, this one to all of America’s 2020 high school graduates, was broadcast on a show called “Graduate Together: America Honors the Class of 2020.”
The transcripts of both speeches are below.


Adopt the 2020 PSBA resolution for charter school funding reform
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.

Over 230 PA school boards adopt charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be a concern as over 230 school boards across the state have adopted a resolution calling for legislators to enact significant reforms to the Charter School Law to provide funding relief and ensure all schools are held to the same quality and ethics standards. Now more than ever, there is a growing momentum from school officials across the state to call for charter school funding reform. Legislators are hearing loud and clear that school districts need relief from the unfair funding system that results in school districts overpaying millions of dollars to charter schools.
The school boards from the following districts have adopted resolutions calling for charter funding reform. 

Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:


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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