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
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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If any of your colleagues would
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PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 7, 2020
School
Leaders: If you were previously registered for Advocacy Day at the Capitol,
please register and join us for our first ever Virtual Advocacy Day
on Monday, May 11, 2020, via Zoom. Register now at no
cost on myPSBA.
Franklin Regional plans ‘back-to-school task force’ to
plan for 2020-21 year
Trib Live by PATRICK VARINE | Wednesday,
May 6, 2020 9:25 p.m.
As of early May, there’s just no telling what
education in Pennsylvania could look like in the fall. Whatever form it takes, and whatever may
happen during the 2020-21 school year related to the coronavirus, Franklin
Regional school officials want to be prepared. “Right now none of us have a
crystal ball,” Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said. “I don’t know what the
status of Pennsylvania will be: red, yellow, green or green with significant
restrictions.” To try to plan for contingencies, Piraino proposed creating a
“back-to-school task force” to map out and address varying scenarios and “to
assist with the logistical planning for the 2020-21 school year,” he said. The
task force would include school board members, district administrators, members
of the teachers’ union, parents, students, health care workers and district
vendors. “We know that currently, we’re online,” Piraino said. “We don’t know
what the situation will be with our ability to return to school and what the
parameters around that might be in late August.” Piraino said the task force’s
is in line with similar decisions being made at the state level.
A coronavirus high school graduation: Seniors to drive
cars across Pocono Raceway finish line
By PAUL MUSCHICK THE MORNING
CALL | MAY 06, 2020 | 8:00 AM
With graduation day approaching and virtually
no chance for many Pennsylvania schools to hold the typical ceremonies that
seniors deserve, the pressure is on to come up with unique alternatives. The
winner so far is scheduled to occur in the Poconos on June 12. Robbed by the
coronavirus of a chance to cross a stage as their name is called, the Class of
2020 at North Pocono School District instead will drive across the finish line
at Pocono Raceway. The raceway and district announced the plan Monday, and said
it will be done according to state and federal public health guidelines. Graduates
and their families will participate from their vehicles on the track. The
ceremony will be broadcast on the raceway’s internal FM radio station and its
double-sided video boards. As Principal Ron Collins calls the graduates’ names,
their photos will be shown on the video boards and the students will drive
their own cars across the track’s start/finish line. The seniors and their
loved ones are being encouraged to decorate their vehicles to celebrate their
high school achievements. The ceremony will be open for guests to attend from
their vehicles as well. It also will be live streamed on the district’s
website. The district said it will soon share more information about the
logistics for participants and guests.
West York school board makes graduation decision
Lindsay C VanAsdalan, York
Dispatch Published 8:06 p.m. ET May 6, 2020 | Updated 9:17 p.m. ET May 6,
2020
The West York Area school board has decided
to have a online graduation for seniors on their original scheduled graduation
date of June 5. The board, in a virtual meeting Wednesday evening, voted
8-1 to approve the graduation plans. Board Treasurer George Margetas voted
against the proposal in favor of waiting a little bit longer to see if the
governor would relax restrictions in York County, which he expects might happen
as early as next week. "We’re acting as though things are going
to stay the way they are right this minute," he said. "I feel
like we’re rushing."
GoErie By Ed Palattella @etnpalattella Posted
May 6, 2020 at 12:05 AM
Custodians, others to go back to buildings on
Monday as Erie County enters “yellow” phase of COVID-19 reopening plan.
The Erie School District is ready to shift
from red to yellow.
District schools will remain closed to
students for the rest of the academic year, but district buildings will house
more activity starting on Monday. The district will permit some employees to
reenter buildings as needed and will require custodians and other
noninstructional staff to return to the buildings to work, Erie schools
Superintendent Brian Polito said. Students and teachers will stay at home. The
district is launching the limited reopening of its 16 school buildings and
other facilities as Erie County on Friday enters the yellow phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to
ease coronavirus-related restrictions in northwestern and northcentral
Pennsylvania. Wolf made the plan official this past Friday. Nearly all
of the Erie School District’s 1,273 employees have been working from home since
Wolf first closed school buildings on March 13 and as the county and state have
stayed in the red phase of coronavirus restrictions. Wolf on April 9 ordered schools statewide
closed for the rest of the academic year. Among the
exceptions at the 11,000-student Erie School District have been district police
officers, who have been patrolling school grounds, and food-service workers who
have been distributing free meals to students and families. Following state and
federal safety regulations, those employees have been required to wear masks
and abide by social-distancing measures. The Erie School District is keeping in
place similar rules for employees who enter the buildings starting on Monday, Polito
said.
Polito: No school tax hike as Erie deals with COVID-19
GoErie By Ed Palattella @etnpalattella Posted
May 6, 2020 at 7:12 PM
Superintendent says school district facing
challenges but “now is not the time” for tax increase as residents struggle.
The pandemic is spurring Erie schools
Superintendent Brian Polito to propose a yearlong break from a major part of
the Erie School District’s state-mandated financial improvement plan. Polito
wants the School Board to approve a 2020-21 budget with no property tax
increase. “Now is not the time to ask our community for a tax increase,” Polito
said on Wednesday. He commented ahead of the presentation of his preliminary
budget to the School Board at its monthly nonvoting study session on Wednesday
night. The board met online. The board
has until June 30 to pass a final budget. The board is to vote on the $203.4
million preliminary budget at its regular monthly meeting in a week. The
preliminary budget includes a fund balance of $12.9 million, which Polito said
provides a short-term financial cushion. The Erie School District’s five-year
financial improvement plan calls for an annual fund balance of at least $8
million and tax increases of 2.46% a year for the foreseeable future to help
the school district maintain financial stability. In June 2019, a month after
the state approved the financial improvement plan, the School Board included a
2.46% property tax increase in the final 2019-20 budget. A year
earlier, with the financial improvement plan under development, the board
approved a tax increase of a half percent. In
2019-20, the 2.46% increase boosted the the Erie school property tax bill by about
$41.30 for the owner of a home assessed at $100,000. The 2.46% increase
generated about $1 million in additional revenue for the Erie School District. The
2020-21 budget will be the first for the Erie School District as it deals with
the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak, including what Polito predicts
will be a drop in earned income tax revenue and a decrease in the rate of
property tax collections, both due to high unemployment. Without cuts,
negotiated wage freezes or additional revenue in the years ahead, the Erie
School District could finish the 2025-26 year with a mid-range budget deficit
of about $10.6 million due to the financial effects of the the pandemic,
according to Polito’s presentation to the School Board on Wednesday. Polito said
he and Public Financial Management, of Philadelphia, the district’s
state-appointed financial adviser, based the projections on the slide in
revenue that the district experienced during the Great Recession that started
in 2008.
Pottstown launches $350K fund drive for student computers
Pottstown Mercury by Evan Brandt ebrandt@21st-centurymedia.com
@PottstownNews on Twitter May 6, 2020
POTTSTOWN — The Foundation for Pottstown
Education Wednesday announced an ambitious $350,000 capital fund drive to
purchase 1,000 Chromebook computers for the school district's students. The
announcement received an immediate boost from two major donors. This was
followed up by the announcement of a $50,000 contribution from an anonymous
Hill School alum. "It's a huge task, but a task that's doable," said
Joe Rusiewicz, executive director of the education foundation. The drive comes
amidst the closing of all Pennsylvania schools due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As wealthier districts pivoted with relative ease to online learning, Pottstown
Schools scrambled to ensure all their students had the equipment necessary to
participate.
Italy Is Reopening but Its Schools Aren’t. What’s a
Parent to Do?
Millions of Italians went back to the office
this week. But with schools and day care closed and grandparents at risk, many
feel the coronavirus has upended their futures as working parents.
New York Times By Elisabetta Povoledo May 6, 2020
ROME — When Chiara Monti went to her office
on Monday morning, she joined millions of Italians returning
to work after nearly two months of being on lockdown because of the coronavirus. And when
she arrived, she immediately went to the personnel office and asked to have her
hours reduced. Like many working parents, Ms. Monti faced a dilemma: how to
ease back into her professional life when her three young children still can’t
go to school. Italy, once the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe,
became the first European country to impose national lockdown restrictions on
March 10. On Monday, it lifted some of those restrictions, and around four
million Italians returned to work, with more to follow. But schools, nurseries,
day cares and summer camps have remained closed. Families say the government
hasn’t done enough to take into account the unique challenges faced by working
parents in the pandemic. And that the measures that have been introduced fall
short. Many parents — and especially mothers — fear they will be forced to
choose between their jobs and their family as the country slowly crawls back to
life, and have called on the government to step in and act.
Trump Again Pushes Schools to Reopen, Says Older Teachers
Should Stay Home
Education Week By Andrew Ujifusa on May
6, 2020 4:43 PM
President Donald Trump on Wednesday again
lobbied for the nation's schools to reopen, saying children do relatively well
in response to the coronavirus—although he did say teachers of a certain age
shouldn't report to class due to health concerns. Trump, who doesn't have the legal
authority to mandate that schools reopen
or stay closed, repeated a pitch he made more than a week ago that
he thinks schools should open their doors again, and that young people seem not
to be very affected by the virus—even though there is growing evidence about
children's ability to transmit the virus. In
an Oval Office event focused
on nurses, in response to a question about the idea of schools
reopening, Trump said that, "I would like to see schools open,
wherever possible." As of Wednesday afternoon, 47 states, four U.S.
territories, and the District of Columbia have ended traditional
in-person instruction for the rest of this school
year. The president went on to say, however, that perhaps with respect to
teachers over 60 or have chronic health issues like diabetes, "I think
that they should not be teaching school for a while, and everybody would
understand that fully." He then turned to students: "We see how well
children seem to do, it's incredible. You realize how strong children are,
right? Their immune system is maybe a little bit different, maybe it's just a
little bit stronger, or maybe it's a lot stronger."
Guidance from DeVos means more coronavirus relief for
private schools
Chalkbeat By Matt Barnum Updated May 5, 2020,
4:27pm EDT
Private schools are set to receive more
support than they expected from the federal coronavirus relief package, while
high-poverty school districts are set to receive less, thanks to guidance put
out by Betsy DeVos’s federal education department. The move will be a boon to
private schools, many of which are likely facing their own fiscal challenges
because of the pandemic. But it already has public school advocates up in arms,
arguing that it will funnel precious resources to wealthy private schools while
districts struggle to provide computers and free meals. “The guidance as
released allows for wealthy children in private school — ineligible for Title I
— to receive CARES funding that was allocated to districts based on the
low-income students they serve,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate
executive director of the national school superintendents association. “That is
inequitable.” The guidance, which
relies on what one lawyer called a “creative” interpretation of the federal
CARES Act, appears to be the latest effort by
DeVos to use the pandemic response legislation to further her educational
philosophy, which favors alternatives to traditional public school districts
and private school choice.
Court Bars Tennessee From Starting School Voucher Program
Education Week By Evie Blad on May
5, 2020 5:32 PM
A state court has barred Tennessee from
enacting a new school voucher program, ruling Monday that legislators violated
the state's constitution when they passed a law last year that targeted
specific areas without local consent. The Tennessee Education Savings Account
Pilot Program, would direct up to $7,300 in public funds to eligible students
to pay for private school tuition and other educational expenses. The criteria
for the program, which was set to start in the fall, applied only to Davidson
and Shelby counties, home of Nashville and Memphis. The ruling was watched by
opponents of private school choice, who argue such efforts divert needed funds
away from public schools. The lawsuit was brought by local government officials
who argued it violated their right to "home rule" under the state
constitution. The state defended the program, arguing that the criteria
were written generally. But Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin said
lawmakers went through rounds of "horse trading" to narrow the
eligibility requirements until they only fit specific areas. The criteria are
based on school districts' academic achievement data from 2015, 2017, and 2018.
In her order, she quoted remarks on the House floor by then-Deputy House
Speaker Matthew Hill, who summarized the House majority's motives as follows:
"We are leading the way to protect [local school districts], while also
ensuring that our poorest children in those deep blue metropolitan areas have a
fighting chance at a quality education."
Nearly Half of Men Say They Do Most of the Home
Schooling. 3 Percent of Women Agree.
A survey suggests that pandemic-era domestic
work isn’t being divided more equitably than before the lockdown.
New York Times By Claire Cain Miller
May 6, 2020
Home schooling, the new parental chore
brought about by coronavirus lockdowns, is being handled disproportionately by
women, according to a new poll by Morning Consult for The New York Times.
Fathers don’t necessarily agree — nearly half of those with children under 12
report spending more time on it than their spouse — but just 3 percent of women
say their spouse is doing more. Eighty percent of mothers say they spend more
time on it. There is also more of the usual housework and child care during lockdown.
Even though men and women are both doing more, the survey found, the results
suggest they aren’t dividing the work any differently or more equitably than
they were before. Seventy percent of women say they’re fully or mostly
responsible for housework during lockdown, and 66 percent say so for child care
— roughly the same shares as in typical times.
If you previously registered for this live event at the Capitol
please register for the virtual event.
PSBA Virtual
Advocacy Day 2020 MAY 11, 2020 • 9:00
AM - 4:30 PM
Now
more than ever before – Make your voice heard!
Join
us virtually to support public education!
All
public school leaders are invited to join us for our first ever Virtual
Advocacy Day on Monday, May 11, 2020 via Zoom. We need all of you to
help strengthen our advocacy impact. The day will center around reaching out to
your legislators to discuss the steps you have taken to deal with the pandemic
crisis and the steps legislators can take to provide schools the flexibility
and creativity needed to weather the storm. Mandate relief, budgeting
flexibility, charter funding reform and other legislative changes need to be
considered to give school district flexibility.
Info
and Registration: https://www.psba.org/event/advocacy-day-2020/
Monday, May 4, 2020 2:18 PM Update:
The PA Educational Leadership Summit for this August has been
canceled due to the COVID-19 situation.
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).
Network for Public Education 2020 Conference in Philly Rescheduled
to November 21-22
NPE Website March 10, 2020 7:10 pm
We so wanted to see you in March, but we need
to wait until November!
Our conference will now take place on November
21 and 22 at the same location in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Please
read the important information below.
Registration: We will be rolling over our
registration information, so there is no reason to register again. You will
be automatically registered for the November dates. If you cannot attend in
November, we ask that you consider donating your registration to absorb some of
the costs associated with rescheduling the conference. If you feel you cannot
make such a donation, please contact: dcimarusti@networkforpubliceducation.org.
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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