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, 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
Statewide, taxpayers paid over $600 million for cyber
charter tuition in 2018-22019.
Join LEARN and PASA
for a webinar: Keeping Your Students: How to Communicate About and Market
Your Own Cyber Academy This Summer
Open to superintendents,
deputy superintendents, communications staff and board members who regularly
interface with the public.
Date: Thursday
July 9 2020 Time: 10 a.m. - 11:30 am
For more information: sharon@learnpa.org
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_A9K-MY9MSf2FtWfbS7dKFA
Cybers charters are paid at the same tuition
rates as brick & mortar charter schools, even though they have none of the
expenses associated with operating school buildings.
It has been estimated that cyber charters are
paid approximately twice what it costs them to provide an online education.
Those excess funds are then not available to serve all of the students who
remain in the sending school districts.
Here is the 2018-2019 cyber tuition paid in House Speaker
Bryan Cutler’s school districts:
|
School District
|
Cyber Tuition 2018-2019
|
|
Lampeter-Strasburg SD
|
$471,593.12
|
|
Penn Manor SD
|
$988,527.36
|
|
Pequea Valley SD
|
$559,195.21
|
|
Solanco SD
|
$1,035,984.49
|
|
Lancaster SD
|
$3,163,518.00
|
|
|
$6,218,818.18
|
Data Source: PSBA
Wolf: Convincing parents school is safe will be key to
reopening in fall
Johnstown Tribune Democrat By
John Finnerty jfinnerty@cnhi.com Jul 7, 2020
HARRISBURG – The key to successfully
reopening schools in the fall will likely be how well schools can convince
parents that their children will be safe, Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday. As the
states across the country see surges of new cases, based on Pennsylvania’s
lower, by comparison, recent number of new cases, the only major impediment to
plans to reopen schools will be if parents don’t trust that it’s safe, Wolf
said. “The impediment is really going to be what the individual parents feel
when we get to the point of reopening,” Wolf said. “Do parents feel comfortable
allowing children to go to school?” The state Department of Education in June
provided broad guidance for schools to follow to allow for in-person classes.
Before schools reopen, local school districts are required to produce health
and safety plans to disclose to the state and the public how they will limit
the potential exposure of students to coronavirus.
Education official: Part-time schedules, small groups
best way to reduce COVID-19 transmission when schools reopen
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison July 8,
2020
Pennsylvania education officials are urging
schools across the state to offer some form of in-person instruction this fall,
a top education official said Wednesday, though new research shows that
part-time schedules with small groups of students may be the most effective way
to minimize the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. The announcement by Deputy
Education Secretary Matthew Stem represents a stronger stance than the one the
Pennsylvania Department of Education took last month, when it issued guidelines
for K-12 school operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines
don’t technically require schools to offer in-person instruction when they kick
off the 2020-2020 school year. But Stem told the state Board of Education
on Wednesday that mounting evidence shows that students “benefit tremendously”
from in-person classes, even if they are difficult to coordinate during a
pandemic. “While we recognize that there are very significant challenges
in some schools to providing in-person instruction, we have to be
intellectually honest in the fact that students will benefit from it,” Stem
told the board during a virtual meeting. “We strongly encourage districts to do
everything they can to find ways to build in-person instruction into their
models.” Educators and elected officials across the United States are
scrambling to find the safest ways to reopen schools as the nation battles a troubling
surge in COVID-19 cases.
Penn professors call for university to pay taxes to
support Philly schools
Inquirer by
Maddie Hanna, Updated: July 8, 2020-
5:06 PM
More than 500 faculty and staff members at
the University of Pennsylvania have signed a petition calling on the school to
make payments in lieu of taxes supporting the Philadelphia public schools — a
campaign that has escalated in light of national protests demanding attention
to racism and inequality. “Every institution in our society must address the
root causes of racial inequality, which include systems of public finance that
enrich wealthy, private, majority-white institutions while underfunding public
institutions and public services,” reads the petition, which
professors said was delivered Wednesday to the university’s board of trustees. The
petition said the issue was “not a matter of charity but of justice.” Like
other nonprofit institutions in the city, Penn is exempt from paying
property taxes. But the university has for years faced calls to
voluntarily make payments in lieu of taxes. Proponents of a PILOT agreement
cite resource gaps in the city’s public schools, which enroll primarily low-income
students. With school funding in Pennsylvania tied heavily to local
property taxes, activists say nonprofits like Penn should
be contributing.
School District of Philadelphia virtual town hall
addresses health and safety protocols
PhillyTrib by Chanel Hill Tribune Staff
Writer July 7, 2020
The School District of Philadelphia held its
first virtual town hall sessions Tuesday. The town hall, which was led by
district medical officer Dr. Barbara Klock, addressed healthy and safety
protocols the district had been discussing for the 2020-21 academic school
year. “Four pillars that we will use to stave off the coronavirus include
hygiene, masks, distancing, and screening for symptoms,” Block said during the
hour-long virtual session. “We will need everyone's cooperation and
collaboration to make sure this process will be done smoothly.” All students,
teachers, and staff will be required to wear a mask. No temperature checks will
be taken at any of the schools. “Following the CDC guidelines closely, it’s
been known that temperatures are not completely a strong indicator of the
virus,” Block said. “We also have 130,000 students, so it would be heard to do
the temperature checks without it taking away from their education time.”
“While charter schools must be non-profit by law, they can be
managed by for-profit companies. In the case of CCCS, the management company is
Charter School Management Inc., a private company founded by attorney Vahan
Gureghian, which does not have to reveal its finances. Tax records for Archway
in 2017, the latest available public filing, indicate the non-profit received
approximately $66 million in “grants” and spent $41.6 million on education
services. It also paid $18 million under a line item for “management” that
year.”
Two Chester charter schools received PPP funds
Delco Times by Alex Rose July 8,
2020
Two Chester charter schools were among
thousands of businesses and organizations in the region receiving Paycheck
Protection Program funds, bringing into question their status as “public
schools” that receive taxpayer money to educate students. “The fact of the
matter is that charters are ‘organizations’ and charters are public schools,”
said Chester Community Charter School spokesman Max Tribble. “They are by
definition and according to law, public schools. They are by organization,
non-profit organizations. CCCS, for instance, is a registered 501(c)3
non-profit organization and a public charter school under the Pennsylvania
Charter School Law and authorized by the Chester Upland School District.” But
Tribble noted charters are not “districts” under the law and therefore cannot
levy taxes in times of crisis, requiring them to seek funding wherever they can
– including outside sources. According to information released this week by the
U.S. Treasury, Archway Charter School Of Chester Inc. – the nonprofit entity
doing business as Chester Community Charter School – received between $5-10
million in PPP funds, for which it indicated it had saved 479 jobs. Chester
Charter Scholars Academy also received $1-2 million, according to that data,
which it said resulted in 85 jobs saved. Both schools operate in the Chester
Upland School District.
Lincoln Charter advocates push expansion as York City
vote nears
Lindsay C VanAsdalan York
Dispatch July 8, 2020
Lincoln Charter School’s five-year renewal
and proposed middle school expansion will be up for a vote before the York City
school board in about two weeks. The 4,276-page application was submitted to
York City School District in October, along with a proposal to expand the
charter from K-5 to pre-K to 8. Officials are making a final push for
families to show their support for the school ahead of the school board vote
scheduled for July 22, asking them to send in email testimonials
and speak at the city's upcoming board meetings. "York City hear us,
hear our pain," Akilah Hawkins, president of the Lincoln Charter School
Parent Advisory Committee said at a Tuesday rally at the school playground
before a group of about 40 people. "We just want to be a part of your
family," she added. A Change.org petition in
support of the renewal and expansion, and also asking for approval to open a
new building for the expanded programming, had 341 signatures as
of 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. The district has been supportive of the charter
school in the past — offering a second chance when the school's former
board submitted untimely audits, and
renewing the charter four times prior. However, this year district officials
were hit hard financially, with a 2020-21 budget that cut more than
44 positions — 32 of them teachers — and eliminated or reduced
funding for several programs. York City's district is also facing a $2.5
million increase in statewide charter tuition next year, which could be
exacerbated by even more children attending Lincoln.
More Pa. parents eyeing cyber charters amid COVID-19
Lindsay C VanAsdalan York
Dispatch July 8, 2020
Cyber charters across the state are seeing an
uptick in inquiries from parents for fall enrollment this year following a
three-month stint of virtual learning at traditional districts to prevent the
spread of COVID-19. It's too soon to tell whether those numbers will translate
into enrollment, said Richard Jensen, CEO of Montgomery County-based Agora Cyber
Charter School — one of the largest in the state with 5,600 students
enrolled. But interest has spiked in the past month as parents are
exploring their options, he said. The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter
Schools, which represents 12 of the 14 cyber charters in the state, reported
that most of those schools saw an increase in families wanting more information
this March. It was March 13 that schools statewide first shut down because of
the pandemic. Inquiries for cyber charters have been spiking in the last few
months for Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, and CEO Brian
Hayden said he usually doesn't see that kind of interest until
after July 4. The Beaver County-based charter — which, in the 2018-19
school year, was the largest cyber in the state with at 10,110
students — saw inquiries up 68% compared to the the same
period in 2019, he said. "This is typically a slow time for
us," he said, noting that he can't even attribute it to internal efforts,
as there's been no increase in advertising or other recruitment efforts.
Black students at Central High and some faculty call for
overhaul of admissions, school policies to increase equity
WHYY By Dale
Mezzacappa and Neena Hagen, The Notebook July 8,
2020
This story originally appeared on The Notebook.
Central High students Youma Diabira and
Mariame Sissoko say they have grown used to racism at the elite Philadelphia
school. They described Central’s “anti-blackness” as covert but ugly and
palpable. Most of the time, they said, it comes up casually, though that
doesn’t make it any less painful. “I was accused of cheating on a quiz because
my score was too high,” Diabira said.
“In 10th grade, I had an Afro and a teacher
said to me — this was a white teacher — ‘when I stick my finger in a socket my
hair gets like that,’” said Sissoko, who graduated last month. “It just made me
feel so uncomfortable.” Diabira and Sissoko are now leading an effort by
students, faculty, and alumni from Central, one of the most selective high
schools in the city, to demand big changes in admissions policies, curricula,
and staff training to increase Black enrollment and end what they refer to as
the school’s “culture of racism.”
Statement: Demands to improve Black student life at
Central High School
Submitted on behalf of Black students at
Central.
the
Notebook Commentary July 8 —
4:01 pm, 2020
Foreword: On June 9,
Central High School’s African American Student Union, Black Youth Coalition,
and countless other Black students decided we had enough. Inspired
by the subsequent protests seen around the world, current Black students and
alumni recognized that this is a moment for change: a moment to restructure the
anti-Black environment Central High School fosters. It is time for Black
students to be seen, to be heard, and to take action now more than ever. Central
High School functions off of the myth of meritocracy. That every student who
enters the red doors located on 1700 W. Olney Avenue is granted the same
opportunities, perceived the same way, and if a student fails then it is their
fault. This is simply not the case for many Black students who are admitted to
Central. It is clear from the protests outside that we don’t live in an equal
nor equitable society. For this reason, it is impossible for meritocracy to
exist. By operating as if it does, Central unwittingly erases the societal
disenfranchisement of Black and Brown students. The purpose of the following 10
demands is to level out Central’s inequities and foster a pro-Black, affirming
culture where all students prosper.
Statement: Alumni support Central student demands
Letter to Central president Timothy McKenna
from the school's alumni. As of Wednesday it had more than 1,000 signatures.
the
Notebook July 8 — 4:07 pm, 2020
Dear President McKenna,
We, the signed alumni of Central High School,
stand in solidarity with the African American Student Union (AASU) and
support their demands to
improve Black student life at Central. Central would not be Central without its
remarkably diverse student body. Especially since Central prides itself on its
diversity, it must work hard to truly uphold its mission of providing all students
with a rigorous and caring college-prep education. That’s why it was
particularly abhorrent to see a recent string of racist and misogynistic texts written
by Central students and the subsequent outpouring of student
testimonials on social media sharing
experiences of racism at our alma mater. As alumni, we know racism isn’t new to
Central. The administration has an obligation to do much more to support Black
students in this predominantly Black city and school district. We appreciate
that Central administrators have begun to meet AASU’s demands but we urge them
to meet all demands, particularly in regards to testing and tracking, accepting
more Black students, and hiring more Black teachers. While we support all 10
demands, we highlight the following three for immediate action:
“As educators, we believe that we cannot be neutral when
anti-Black racism harms our students. It is our responsibility as educators to
listen to our students, follow their leadership, and proactively build school
communities that humanize and value Black lives.”
Statement: Central teachers stand with Black students in
demanding racial equity
"As educators, we believe that we cannot
be neutral when anti-Black racism harms our students."
the
Notebook July 8 — 4:04 pm, 2020
This statement as of Wednesday afternoon,
July 8, had been signed by 57 current and former Central staff members.
Black students in Philadelphia and across the
country are speaking out against the anti-Black racism in their high schools.
The collective outrage at the murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Dominique
Fells, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery has prompted students to direct our
attention to the systemic racism within our own school communities. And Black students at Philadelphia’s Central
High School have had enough. Alongside students from other
schools, they are sharing their experiences on platforms like the BlackPhillyStudents
Instagram account. As teachers who have heard innumerable
stories directly from our students over the years, we can attest that these are
not isolated incidents but rather part of a larger pattern of bias and systemic
racism. Such acts have often been addressed in ways that have done little to
assure those who are most harmed that they are safe. To disrupt and
transform this pattern, Black students and alumni of Central High School have
developed 10 demands to improve Black student life. They
organized a virtual event on June 9 and delivered these demands, alongside
testimony of racism they have faced at our school, to an audience that included
administration, teachers, alumni, and students.
What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently
They view the success of black students as
central to the success of their own teaching.
The Atlantic by PIRETTE MCKAMEY JUNE 17,
2020
Editor’s Note: In the
next five years, most of America’s most experienced teachers will retire. The
Baby Boomers are leaving behind a nation of more novice educators. In 1988, a
teacher most commonly had 15 years of experience. Less than three decades
later, that number had fallen to just three years
leading a classroom. The Atlantic’s “On Teaching” project
is crisscrossing the country to talk to veteran educators. This story is the
17th in our series.
Ask black students who their favorite teacher
is, and they will joyfully tell you. Ask them what it is about their favorite
teacher, and most will say some version of this: They know how to work
with me. So much is in that statement. It means that these students want to
work, that they see their teachers as partners in the learning process, and
that they know the teacher-student relationship is one in which they both have
power. In other words, black students know that they bring intellect to the
classroom, and they know when they are seen—and not seen. As the principal of
San Francisco’s Mission High School and an anti-racist educator for more than
30 years, I have witnessed countless black students thrive in classrooms where
teachers see them accurately and show that they are happy to have them there.
In these classes, students choose to sit in the front of the class, take
careful notes, shoot their hands up in discussions, and ask unexpected
questions that cause the teacher and other classmates to stop and think. Given
the chance, they email, text, and call the teachers who believe in them. In
short, these students are everything their families and community members have
raised and supported them to be.
Trump’s now using your kids as pawns in his re-election.
That’s not leadership. It’s desperation | John L. Micek
PA Capital Star Commentary By John L. Micek July 8,
2020
Here’s how far Donald Trump is willing to go
to ensure his re-election: After trying to normalize COVID-19 deaths among
senior citizens and asking us to just get used to the fact that more
people will die, he’s now willing to use America’s
schoolchildren as pawns in a proxy fight with Democrats. That is the only
reasonable way to read the vitriol that packed the presidential Twitter feed on
Wednesday afternoon, as Trump upped the pressure on state governors to reopen
schools in the fall (news update, Mr. President, many districts have been
working on that for months): “In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many
other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS,” Trump bleated. “The Dems
think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the
November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut
off funding if not open!” Read that again: Trump has just made it clear that
he’s perfectly willing to (try) to cut off funding to cash-strapped school
districts to punish his political rivals.
Stay in your lane, President Trump. Local officials
should decide if it’s safe to reopen schools
Opinion By PAUL MUSCHICK THE MORNING
CALL | JUL 08, 2020 AT 11:29 AM
My school district recently surveyed families
for opinions about how to handle the upcoming school year amid the coronavirus
pandemic. We were asked about masks, online classes, in-person classes,
staggered schedules and many more topics. We weren’t asked whether schools
should reopen to support President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. But
that’s what the president thinks is happening. He said Tuesday he believes some
state and local officials are plotting against him and planning to keep schools
closed not because of the threat of the
coronavirus, but for political reasons, to make
him look bad. Trump’s statements show he couldn’t care less about whether
students, teachers and staff are safe. He’s focused on one thing: retaining his
throne in the White House for another four years. And getting students back on
the bus is the latest chapter in his playbook. “They think it’s going to be
good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed,” Trump said Tuesday
at a White House discussion on school plans for the fall, according to the Associated Press. “No way.
We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open
the schools.”
U.S. Supreme Court rules teachers in church schools are
not protected by anti-discrimination laws
Post Gazette by DAVID G. SAVAGE Los Angeles
Times (TNS) JUL 8, 2020 10:53 AM
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday
restricted teachers who work at church-run schools from filing discrimination
claims against their employers, ruling that the Constitution’s protection for
religious liberty exempts church schools from state and federal
anti-discrimination laws. The justices, by a 7-2 vote, ruled that because two
elementary school teachers at Catholic schools in Los Angeles County helped
carry out the mission of teaching faith as part of their jobs, the schools are
free to hire and fire them without concern for anti-discrimination laws.
In the past, the Supreme Court has recognized
an implied “ministerial exemption” that shields a church, synagogue or other
religious bodies from being sued by priests, pastors and other ministers. The
issue in the pair of cases from Southern California was whether that exemption
extended more broadly to teachers in a church-run school whose primary duty was
not necessarily religious instruction. “The 1st Amendment protects the right of
religious institutions to decide for themselves, free from state interference,
matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine,” Justice
Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority. “The religious education and
formation of students is the very reason for the existence of most private
religious schools, and therefore the selection and supervision of the teachers
upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of their mission,”
he continued. “Judicial review of the way in which religious schools discharge
those responsibilities would undermine the independence of religious
institutions in a way that the 1st Amendment does not tolerate.”
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia
Sotomayor dissented.
Trump Threatens to Cut Funding if Schools Do Not Fully
Reopen
Disregarding the advice of his own health
experts, President Trump also attacked the C.D.C.’s reopening guidelines as
onerous and expensive.
New York Times By Peter
Baker, Erica
L. Green and Noah
Weiland July 8, 2020Updated 9:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — President Trump pressured the
government’s top public health experts on Wednesday to water down
recommendations for how the nation’s schools could reopen safely this fall and
threatened to cut federal funding for districts that defied his demand to
resume classes in person. Once again rejecting the advice of the specialists
who work for him, Mr. Trump dismissed the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “very tough & expensive
guidelines,” which he said asked schools “to do very impractical things.”
Within hours, the White House announced that the agency would issue new
recommendations in the days to come. The president’s criticisms, in a barrage
of Twitter threats, inflamed a difficult debate that has challenged educators
and parents across the country as they seek ways to safely resume teaching
American children by September. Even as the coronavirus is
spreading faster than ever in the United States, Mr. Trump
expressed no concern about the health implications of reopening in person and
no support for compromise plans that many districts are considering.
Teachers union president dares Trump to sit in classroom
amid coronavirus 'and breathe that air'
The Hill BY ZACK
BUDRYK - 07/08/20 10:33 AM EDT 3,088
The president of the nation’s largest
teachers’ union hit back at President
Trump over his demand that schools
resume in-person classes this fall, saying reopening cannot take place without
guaranteeing the safety of students and staff. “Did you hear the word he didn’t
use? ‘Safely,'” National Education Association (NEA) President Lily Eskelsen
Garcia said Wednesday in reference to Trump’s event the previous day on
reopening schools. “There’s no one that wants our kids back more than
teachers ... but we want to open it safely,” she said on CNN’s “New Day.” “We
see what happens when they let bars open prematurely,” she added, noting spikes
in coronavirus community spread in states that were quick to reopen. “This
isn’t a bar. We’re talking about second graders. I had 39 sixth graders one
year in my class. I double dog dare Donald Trump to sit in a class of 39 sixth
graders and breathe that air without any preparation for how we’re going to
bring our kids back safely.”
Arizona delays opening of 2020-21 school year as
coronavirus cases spike. Other states and districts are too.
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss July 9,
2020 at 12:09 a.m. EDT
Arizona is delaying the start of the 2020-21
school year as the number of coronavirus cases
is spiking around the state. West Virginia is doing the same thing even as
President Trump is encouraging all schools to fully open for all students as
soon as possible. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said this week that rather than
open public schools in early August, as usual, the first day of the academic
year will be, at the earliest, be Aug. 17. He said officials would continue to
evaluate the date as conditions unfold. Arizona is one of four states that
White House health adviser Deborah Birx said on Wednesday should reimpose
strict restrictions on the public because coronavirus infections, including
decreasing the size of crowds both inside and outside to 10 people or fewer.
The other states are Florida, California and Texas. According to data tracked
by The Washington Post, thousands of new cases in Arizona and Florida pushed
the country’s total number of confirmed cases past 3 million on Wednesday. Trump
this week began pressuring school
districts to open five days a week for all children, and he threatened to withhold
funding from those that didn’t (though he doesn’t have the legal authority to
cut funding approved by Congress).
RECAP – White House Summit on Safely Reopening America's
Schools
U.S. Department of Education sent this
bulletin at 07/08/2020 06:23 PM EDT
National Dialogue on Safely Reopening
America's Schools
Yesterday, the White House hosted a half-day
Summit on Safely Reopening America’s Schools focusing on reopening America’s
schools in safe ways that respect the holistic health and learning needs of
America’s students. The Summit included state and local leaders, health
professionals, teachers, administrators, parents, and higher education
institution leaders from across the Nation.
Watch the Summit:
- Full
Summit (Here)
- Remarks
from Second Lady Pence (Here)
- Remarks
from White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx,
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Health & Human Services Secretary
Alex Azar (Here)
- Panel
Discussion – ABCs of Reopening Schools Safely (Here)
- Panel
Discussion – Implementing Safe School Reopenings (Here)
- RoundTable
with the President, First Lady, Vice President, & Second Lady (Here)
Interested in becoming an Advocacy Ambassador? PSBA is seeking
ambassadors to fill anticipated vacancies for Sections 1, 2 and 6.
PSBA Advocacy Ambassador program brings legislators to
you
POSTED ON JULY 1, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
PSBA’s Advocacy Ambassador program is a
key resource helping public school leaders connect with their state legislators
on important education issues. Our six ambassadors build strong
relationships with the school leaders and legislators in their areas to support
advocacy efforts at the local level. They also encourage legislators to visit
school districts and create opportunities for you to have positive
conversations and tell your stories about your schools and students. PSBA
thanks those school districts that have worked with their advocacy ambassador
and invites those who have not to reach out to their ambassador to talk about
the ways they can support your advocacy efforts. Interested in becoming an
Advocacy Ambassador? PSBA is seeking ambassadors to fill anticipated vacancies
for Sections 1, 2 and 6. For more information contact jamie.zuvich@psba.org.
PSBA seeking Allwein Society nominations
POSTED ON JUNE 29, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
PSBA is accepting nominations for The Allwein
Society, the association’s award program recognizing school directors who are
outstanding leaders and advocates on behalf of public schools and students.
This prestigious honor was created in 2011 in memory of Timothy M. Allwein, a
former PSBA staff member who exemplified the integrity and commitment to
advance political action for the benefit of public education. Learn more and submit
your nomination online.
PSBA Fall Virtual Advocacy Day: OCT 8, 2020 • 8:00
AM - 5:00 PM
Sign up now for PSBA’s Virtual Advocacy Day
this fall!
All public school leaders are invited to join
us for our fall Virtual Advocacy Day on Thursday, October 8, 2020, via Zoom. We
need all of you to help strengthen our advocacy impact. The day will center
around contacting legislators to discuss critical issues affecting public
education. Registrants will receive the meeting invitation with a link to our
fall Virtual Advocacy Day website that contains talking points, a link to
locate contact information for your legislator and additional information to
help you have a successful day.
Cost: As a membership benefit, there is no
cost to register.
Registration: School directors can register
online now by logging in to myPSBA. If you have
questions about Virtual Advocacy Day, or need additional information, contact Jamie.Zuvich@psba.org.
Apply Now for EPLC's 2020-2021 PA Education Policy
Fellowship Program!
Applications are available now for the 2020-2021 Education Policy
Fellowship Program.
The Education Policy Fellowship Program is
sponsored in Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center
(EPLC). The 2020-2021 Program will be conducted in briefer, more
frequent, and mostly online sessions, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The content
will be substantially the same as the traditional Fellowship Program, with some
changes necessitated by the new format and a desire to reduce costs to sponsors
in these uncertain fiscal times.
The commitment of EPLC remains the same. The
Fellowship Program will continue to be Pennsylvania's premier education policy
leadership program for education, community, policy and advocacy leaders! The
Fellowship Program begins with two 3-hour virtual sessions on September 17-18,
and the Program ends with a graduation event in June 2021.
The application may be
copied from the EPLC web site, but it must be submitted by mail or scanned and
e-mailed, with the necessary signatures of applicant and sponsor.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of
the Fellowship Program and its requirements, please contact EPLC Executive
Director Ron Cowell at 412-298-4796 or COWELL@EPLC.ORG
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 270 PA school boards have adopted charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 270 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.
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
The Network for Public Education Action Conference has
been rescheduled to April 24-25, 2021 at the Philadelphia Doubletree Hotel
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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