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
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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for Nov. 24, 2020
Help Keep Our Schools Open – Mask, Social Distance; Avoid
Gatherings
Congratulations to #331 @AvellaArea for passing the charter funding reform
resolution on November 12. Thank you to @senbartolotta, PA State Rep. Josh Kail and PSBA
Ambassador @LenaHannah4. https://t.co/WbCdKgRMOg
PA Schools Work
Points to Continued Need for School Funding
Lawmakers
Must Immediately Look to Rectify Long-standing Funding Gaps to Keep Students on
Track and Address Dire Needs of PA School Districts
HARRISBURG,
PA (November 21, 2020) – The statewide education advocacy campaign PA
Schools Work issued the following statement on funding for public
schools in Pennsylvania after the General Assembly passed a budget for the
remainder of the 2020-21 fiscal year:
“The General
Assembly passed a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year under
difficult financial conditions, so it is understandable that this supplemental
budget did not invest more in our public schools beyond the flat-funded budget
passed earlier this year. Yet that should not obscure the fact that our
schools, and the students they serve, continue to struggle. “As Coronavirus
cases spike across the commonwealth, school districts are again facing
difficult decisions about creating learning environments that are both
conducive to educating and safe for students, teachers, and support
staff. Educating students during this pandemic means increased costs
for school districts, even as they continue to deal with shortfalls
in local revenue created by the COVID-driven economic turmoil.
“This school
year has been a monumental challenge, but next year will also be difficult. As
the legislative session draws to a close and legislators leave
Harrisburg, they should recognize that increased education
funding should be front and center
when they begin deliberating next year’s budget early in
2021. While lawmakers recognized the need for some financial certainty by
level funding school districts for this school year, that
funding does not meet the true need in our schools. “In Pennsylvania,
we have a longstanding, multi-billion dollar problem in our schools that
continues to worsen. It will not disappear even when the pandemic does. As
we have said year after year, state lawmakers must reach a permanent school
funding solution that fairly invests in all our students and positions them to
succeed.”
https://paschoolswork.org/pa-schools-work-points-to-continued-need-for-school-funding/
As Thanksgiving
nears, Pa. tells people to stay home and bars not to serve Wednesday night
Inquirer by
Justine McDaniel and Erin McCarthy, Posted: November 23, 2020- 8:00
PM
With the
state gripped by the surge in coronavirus cases, Pennsylvania officials rolled
out a wave of new restrictions and mitigation measures Monday in their latest
bid to keep schools safe, hospitals from running out of beds, and bars from
becoming super-spreaders over the looming holiday break. Gov. Tom Wolf’s
administration issued a statewide stay-at-home advisory and said “unless
impossible” all businesses should operate remotely and allow employees to
telework as soon as Friday — although Wolf emphasized that it was not a
shutdown order. With more than 3,000 coronavirus patients hospitalized in the
commonwealth, health officials announced new triggers for when hospitals must
cut elective surgeries to free up beds. And nearly all public schools must pledge
to follow safety protocols or shut down in-person learning.
PDE Website: What's
New?
This page
provides an overview of information, specific to COVID-19 and school
communities, that has been added to/updated on the Pennsylvania Department of
Education’s (PDE) website. Please note: entries may include content that is
accessible from PDE’s website but is maintained on another website (ex. the
Pennsylvania Department of Health).
Week of
November 23 to November 27:
- November 23: Order
of the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health Directing Public
School Entities in Counties with Substantial Community Transmission to
Attest to Health and Safety Protocols
- November 23: Answers
to FAQs – topics updated: Masks/Face Covering Order, Attestation Form
- November 23: Level
of Community Transmission Table (updated
to reflect the week ending November 20)
- November 23: Updated
– Public Health Guidance for School Communities
- November 23: Updated
– Recommendations for Pre-K to 12 Schools Following Identification of a
Case(s) of COVID-19
- November 23: Attestation
Form
- November 23: Message
to School Communities
https://www.education.pa.gov/Schools/safeschools/emergencyplanning/COVID-19/Pages/WhatsNew.aspx
As fall surge rages
on, Pennsylvania passes 300,000 total cases of COVID-19
Hospitalizations
are also on the rise.
WITF by Lisa
Wardle NOVEMBER 21, 2020 | 3:36 PM
Pennsylvania
has marked another grim milestone: more than 300,000 cases of COVID-19 since
the pandemic began. The Pennsylvania Department of Health today reported a
total of 302,564 cases after weeks of multiple record-setting daily increases. It
took more than four months for the state to accumulate its first 100,000 cases
of COVID-19, a milestone passed on July 18. Today’s news comes less than a
month after Pennsylvania surpassed 200,000 cases, on Oct. 28. While testing has
increased from levels seen in the spring, this drastic rise in cases isn’t
entirely the result of additional testing. The state’s positivity rate — the
percentage of tests coming back positive — was 9.6% for the week of Nov. 6 to
12, indicating rapid spread of infections. Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine
has urged
residents to spend Thanksgiving with their own household instead of participating in larger
holiday gatherings.
Williams — It’s Our
Own Damn Fault: Too Many Have Treated a COVID Catastrophe as an Inconvenience,
Leaving Our Health in Grave Danger and Our Kids Locked Out of School
Conor Williams
the74 November 22, 2020
Conor P.
Williams is a fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
I yell a lot
these days. Course, it’s not the same as college yelling, the hollering you do
in a basement full of cheap beer and throngs of people stomping around to too much
bass. Or bleacher yelling, when you’re informing the visiting right fielder of
the low quality of his skill, character and breeding. No, I am a working dad in
a lengthening pandemic. I only yell in a kind of muted yell-as-stage-whisper:
loud enough to clearly project my voice, but not too loud to wake up the kids.
Not so loud that they hear the cracks in the facade you’ve hoisted for the past
eight months. My Washington, D.C. home plays host to two full-time jobs and
three children under the age of 10. The older two kids log onto elementary
school each day. The toddler and I tour our neighborhood’s construction sites
and yell at cement mixers — while I miss meetings and deadlines and meals
and rest.
https://www.the74million.org/article/coronavirus-consequences-ownership-students-no-school/
CHOP-led study
confirms COVID-19 is rare in kids, but more severe among children of color
Inquirer by
Marie McCullough, Posted: November 23, 2020- 11:00
AM
A huge study
of pediatric patients across the country found only 4% were infected with the
new coronavirus, and the vast majority of those cases were mild or
asymptomatic. The study, led by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,
quantifies and confirms — but doesn’t attempt to explain — one of the biggest
mysteries of the pandemic: Why an infection that has so far killed more than
1.3 million people worldwide is uncommon and mostly harmless in children. For
the analysis, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers at CHOP and six other U.S.
children’s hospitals reviewed electronic health records of almost 136,000
pediatric patients, from infants to age 24. All were tested for COVID-19 either
because they had symptoms or needed to be screened before admission for a
medical procedure. Of the 5,374 children and adolescents who tested positive,
less than 7% developed severe illness that required hospitalization. Eight of
them, most with complex preexisting medical problems, died, for a fatality rate
of 0.15%. Infection was more common, and more likely to be severe, among Black,
Hispanic and Asian patients, adolescents ages 12 to 17, those with public
health insurance, and those with certain chronic medical conditions.
Guest Column:
Education in the pandemic
Delco Times By
Joseph Batory Times Guest Columnist November 23, 2020
As a former
superintendent of schools in the Upper Darby School District, I have tremendous
empathy for the monumental obstacles being faced by today’s school
superintendents, principals, teachers, students and parents, especially in
dealing with the Covid 19 crisis.
H.L. Menken
said it best when he noted that “for every complex problem there is a simple
solution…and it is usually wrong.” The pandemic in our nation has
brought unprecedented challenges to schools. And there is certainly no “one
size fits all” way to deal with this crisis. So, we are seeing a variety of
models and approaches by educators. But, regardless of the strategy, the
basic principles for educational success must remain in place.
Thanksgiving lessons
in U.S. schools have jettisoned Pilgrim hats and added conflict and injustice
Inquirer by
Collin Binkley, Associated Press, Posted: November 23, 2020- 11:05 AM
BOSTON — A
friendly feast shared by the plucky Pilgrims and their native neighbors? That’s
yesterday’s Thanksgiving story. Students in many U.S. schools are now learning
a more complex lesson that includes conflict, injustice and a new focus on the
people who lived on the land for hundreds of years before European settlers
arrived and named it New England. Inspired by the nation’s reckoning with
systemic racism, schools are scrapping and rewriting lessons that treated
Native Americans as a footnote in a story about white settlers. Instead of
making Pilgrim hats, students are hearing what scholars call “hard history” —
the more shameful aspects of the past. Students still learn about the 1621
feast, but many are also learning that peace between the Pilgrims and Native
Americans was always uneasy and later splintered into years of conflict.
A Buckeye Voucher
Victory
Ohio expands
private school choice to half of all students.
Wall Street Journal
Editorial By The Editorial Board Nov. 23, 2020 6:42 pm ET (paywall)
The pandemic
has been especially tough on low- and middle-income families, but the GOP
Legislature in Ohio has given parents in their state something to be grateful
for this Thanksgiving by passing a major expansion of private-school vouchers. Legislation
approved late last week expands eligibility for the state’s private-school
scholarship program to families earning up to 250% of the poverty line from
200%. Students in schools where at least 20% of families are low-income or that
fall in the bottom 20% of academic performance...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-buckeye-voucher-victory-11606174978?mod=searchresults_pos1&page=1
Covid-19 claims
Jeannette elementary school secretary
Trib Live by
JEFF
HIMLER | Monday, November 23,
2020 9:05 p.m.
The
Jeannette community is mourning the loss of Dana Hall, a secretary at Jeannette
City School District, who died of covid-19 complications on Sunday. Jeannette
football Coach Roy Hall confirmed the death of his sister-in-law, whom he said
was last at work a week and a half ago before she became ill. She later was
admitted to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, where she eventually was placed on
a ventilator and succumbed Sunday afternoon. Roy Hall couldn’t say how his
sister-in-law may have contracted covid-19. He expressed sadness that she has
joined the growing number of Americans who have died of the illness. “There are
over 250,000 families who feel like our family does today,” he said.
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/covid-19-claims-jeannette-elementary-school-secretary/
PIAA might decrease
football title game crowds based on new state mitigation guidance
GoErie By
Times-News staff November 23, 2020
The
Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association might have to severely decrease the
size of football championship crowds this weekend based on the state's new
COVID-19 mitigation guidelines. When the PIAA officially announced Monday
morning the schedule for this weekend's six football titles games in Hershey —
three games Friday and three Saturday — the organization announced that up to
990 tickets would be available to each school. That would make the gathering
size for each game well over 2,000, including players, coaches, staff,
officials and media. The PIAA's goal was to stay under 2,500, the limit at the
time. However, on Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced new
gathering limits in an effort to contain the spread of COVID. Those guidelines
limited any stadium with a capacity of 10,000 or more fans to 5% of
capacity.
“Feinberg ended Thursday’s meeting
telling parents and residents if they want to help keep schools open, they
should wear a mask, social distance, apply to be a substitute teacher, and
reconsider traveling or large gatherings over the Thanksgiving holidays.”
Haverford schools
returning to all-virtual classes
Delco Times Pete
Bannan Pbannan@21st-Centurymedia.com November 24, 2020
Haverford
School board members met Monday evening to vote on returning to all-virtual
classes.
At a special
meeting of the School District of Haverford Township Monday evening, board
members voted to return to a fully virtual setting for all students in the
district following the Thanksgiving holiday. The vote was 8-1, with Ari
Flaisher opposing. At the district’s regular November meeting, which was held
virtually on Zoom last Thursday, Schools Superintendent Dr. Maureen Reusche
said staffing challenges in the elementary level, particularly with
instructional assistants and teaching staff, were one of the major factors
guiding the decision. “We recognize that shifting to a virtual model presents
families with the challenge of adjusting their carefully made plans and
routines. Please know that every decision about our instructional model
throughout this pandemic is made thoughtfully and with considerable
deliberation,” Reusche wrote in a letter to parents Friday. Wednesday will be
the last day of in-person school with students returning virtually the Monday
after the holiday weekend. The district hopes to return to in-person hybrid
learning Dec. 9; however, that may involve only younger students and students
who receive a high level of special education services. Speaking
at the start of the meeting was
Dr. Patrick Brennan, chief medical officer and senior vice president of the
University of Pennsylvania Health Systems, who pointed to the rising numbers of
COVID-19 infections in the area. “In Delaware County, the incidence is over 230
cases per 100,000 (persons), which is up from 92 just four weeks ago,” said
Brennan. “The test positivity rate, which was under 3 percent in the county at
one point, rose to 4.7 percent four weeks ago and is now around 9.4 percent.”
School districts must
sign off on covid-19 safety procedures or go virtual by month’s end
Trib Live by
JEFF
HIMLER | Monday, November 23,
2020 8:57 p.m.
School
districts in Westmoreland, Armstrong and Allegheny counties have until 5 p.m.
Nov. 30 to switch to full remote instruction or affirm that they are complying
with the state’s covid-19 safety measures. Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of
Health Rachel Levine announced the new directive Monday for all public schools
in counties that have experienced a “substantial” level of transmission of the
covid-19 virus for at least two consecutive weeks. As of Friday, with cases
spiking across most of the state, there were 59 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties
that had seen those heightened case levels since Nov. 6 — including
Westmoreland, Armstrong and Allegheny, according to state data.
Quakertown high
school goes virtual Monday because of staffing shortages
By JACQUELINE
PALOCHKO THE MORNING CALL | NOV 23, 2020 AT 5:11
PM
Quakertown
Community High School switched to virtual learning Monday because teachers
called out sick after a number of students attended an event over the weekend. High
school Principal Mattias van ‘t Hoenderdaal sent an email Monday telling
parents that the school was experiencing “a large number of staffing
shortages.” He referenced an event held over the weekend at a local business,
which students attended. “We believe that this staff shortage is due to
concerns about an event that occurred in our community this week that a large
crowd of students attended, causing a potential safety concern to themselves,”
van ‘t Hoenderdaal wrote in the email, which The Morning Call viewed. “To avoid
this in the future please encourage your children to wear their mask, to social
distance, and to avoid large gatherings.”
District
officials did not return messages Monday. Quakertown middle and high school
students went back to school full time as of last week.
Alburtis Elementary
is the latest East Penn school to close early ahead of Thanksgiving because of
COVID-19
By MICHELLE
MERLIN THE MORNING CALL | NOV 23, 2020 AT 2:43
PM
Alburtis
Elementary School is closing Tuesday, a few days ahead of schedule before the
Thanksgiving break. District officials Monday announced another case of the
coronavirus at the school, after previously announcing cases Wednesday and
Saturday. The district already closed Eyer Middle School and Emmaus High School
ahead of the break. All East Penn schools will be closed after the Thanksgiving break until Dec. 14.
Fox Chapel Area
schools back to remote teaching for students
Post-Gazette
by RITA MICHEL NOV 23, 2020 12:35 PM
In yet
another example of how quickly COVID-19 changes things, Fox Chapel Area School
District administrators have gone from urging the school board to open all its
buildings to in-school learning at its Nov. 9 meeting to announcing -- four
days later -- that all students will now attend virtually. Superintendent Mary
Catherine Reljac notified families of the course change in an email to parents
last Friday. The school board had planned a Dec. 1 vote on whether to reopen
all district schools to students and had invited parental input on the
decision. That move now is on hold.
Warrior Run to go
virtual after Thanksgiving
By
Kevin Mertz/The Standard-Journal November 23, 2020
TURBOTVILLE
— Due to a surge in COVID-19 cases across the region, the Warrior Run School District
will be switching to a virtual learning model for at least three days following
the Thanksgiving break. During meeting held online via Zoom on Monday, the
board approved converting Tuesday, Dec. 1, from a return to in-school
instruction for students after the break to a teacher in-service day. In
addition, the board approved converting Dec. 2-4 from in-school to virtual
learning days.
https://www.standard-journal.com/news/local/article_c9103864-91aa-5835-bbcf-a4bada9904e3.html
Camp Hill board votes
to move to remote learning for at least 2 weeks
Penn Live By Paul Vigna | pvigna@pennlive.com Updated Nov 24, 2020; Posted Nov 23,
2020
Following
more than three hours of comments, the Camp Hill School Board on Monday night
voted to move to fully remote learning for two weeks, from Dec. 1-11. The board
is next scheduled to meet Dec. 7 and will reassess the situation and make a
determination of whether to stay remote or return students to the classroom. Thanksgiving
break for students and teachers will begin Wednesday and continue through Nov.
30. They will have a half-day in the classroom Tuesday before the vacation
begins.
3rd Hempfield school
closes due to rise in covid-19 cases
Trib Live by
MEGAN
TOMASIC | Tuesday, November
24, 2020 4:20 a.m.
Another
Hempfield Area school is closing as covid-19 cases continue to rise. Harrold
Middle School will close Tuesday due to staffing shortages in relation to
positive test results and staffers being identified as close contacts, said
Superintendent Tammy Wolicki. The closure will last through Dec. 1 in
conjunction with the Thanksgiving break.
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/3rd-hempfield-school-closes-due-to-rise-in-covid-19-cases/
“Thousands of people crowded Main Street
in downtown Irwin on Nov. 19 for a holiday parade. Some people wore masks,
others did not.”
Norwin reports 13
more coronavirus cases; pushes total to 78
Trib Live JOE NAPSHA | Monday, November 23,
2020 6:21 p.m.
The spike in
coronavirus cases among Norwin’s students and staff continued this week with
the school district reporting 13 more on Monday — 10 students and three staff
members. On Monday, three students each at the high school and at Stewartsville
Elementary reported they tested positive for coronavirus along with two
students at Hillcrest Intermediate and one each at the middle school and
Sheridan Terrace Elementary. Two staff members tested positive at Sheraden
Terrace and one at the high school also tested positive for coronavirus.
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/norwin-reports-13-more-covid-19-cases-pushes-total-to-78/
Highlands moving all
students to remote learning
Trib Live by
BRIAN C. RITTMEYER | Monday, November 23,
2020 9:39 p.m.
Highlands
School District will move all students to full remote instruction beginning
Dec. 1 and continuing through Jan. 15, the district announced Monday. All
extracurricular activities and sports will be suspended during that time. The
announcement comes a week after the district closed its middle school through the Thanksgiving break because
of covid-19 cases among students and staff.
https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/highlands-moving-all-students-to-remote-learning/
Kiski Area High
School reopens, district introduces online covid tracker
Trib Live by
TEGHAN SIMONTON | Monday, November 23,
2020 4:31 p.m.
Kiski Area
High School reopened Monday after a week-long closure, allowing students to attend class in person
for up to four days a week. Students had moved online last week after seven
cases of covid-19 were reported among students and staff. The school district
had just reported two new cases Friday – an additional student at the high
school and a staff member at Kiski Area South Primary School – bringing the
district-wide total to 24.
Lackawanna Trail
teacher tests positive for virus; Elk Lake staffer awaits results
Times
Tribune by SARAH
HOFIUS HALL Nov 23, 2020 Updated 2 hrs ago
A
kindergarten teacher at Lackawanna Trail Elementary Center is the latest
educator in the region to test positive for the coronavirus. The district, one
of the only in the region to remain fully open, started to alert students and
staff Monday afternoon. Superintendent Matthew Rakauskas said the teacher and
13 students will have to quarantine. The students will be able to learn from
home. This is the first case at the school since September. The district’s high
school closed for two weeks last month due to nine cases among students and
staff. About 50% of students have opted for a fully virtual option.
Two New Brighton
Students Test Positive for COVID-19
NOVEMBER
23, 2020 / BEAVER
COUNTY RADIO
(New
Brighton, Pa.) The
New Brighton School District announced via the school district website that
both an elementary school student and a middle school student have tested
positive for COVID-19. The school district is currently working at contact
tracing for both students. The middle school student was last in school on
November 16, 2020 and the elementary student was last in school on November 20,
2020. The district also issued a letter warning parents of the
possibility of the school district transitioning to an all virtual learning
model after the increase in cases locally.
https://beavercountyradio.com/news/two-new-brighton-students-test-positive-for-covid-19/
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.
Resolution for charter funding reform (pdf)
Link
to submit your adopted resolution to PSBA
332 PA school boards have
adopted charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 300 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.
https://www.psba.org/2020/03/adopted-charter-reform-resolutions/
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
https://www.pacharterchange.org/
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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