Wednesday, April 6, 2016

PA Ed Policy Roundup April 6: Gov. Wolf Announces Basic Ed Funding Distribution; BTW, in 2011 Philly had just 12% of the state’s students but took 35% of the cuts.

Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 3900 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, 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 and LinkedIn

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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup April 6, 2016:
Gov. Wolf Announces Basic Ed Funding Distribution; BTW, in 2011 Philly had just 12% of the state’s students but took 35% of the cuts.



Campaign for Fair Education Funding - Rally for Public Education
Save the date: May 2nd at the Capitol



Susan Spicka of Education Voters PA and PA Budget Secretary Randy Albright are guests on EPLC’s “Focus on Education” one-hour program that will be broadcast initially on PCN on Sunday, April 10, at 3:00 p.m.
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Susan Spicka is the guest for the first half of the program and discusses the work of Education Voters PA and the Campaign for Fair Education Funding and related education funding issues.
Secretary Randy Albright is the guest for the second half of the program and discusses a broad range of education funding issues, including the 2015-2016 and the 2016-2017 budgets.

25% - The increase in the likelihood that at-risk children who do not participate in high-quality early education programs will drop out of school.
Equity Starts Early: How Chiefs Will Build High-Quality Early Education
COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS March 2016

“For the remainder of the 2015-16 year, looking only at an additional $50 million for basic education funding, money was allocated to districts as follows:
  • $25 million is being allocated for the restoration of the charter school reimbursement program.
  • $20 million is being allocated to continue to restore cuts made by Governor Corbett and the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011-12.
  • $5 million is being allocated through the new basic education fair funding formula.”
Governor Wolf Announces Basic Education Funding Distribution
Governor Wolf Press Release April 05, 2016
Harrisburg, PA – Governor Tom Wolf today announced the distribution formula his administration will use to allocate basic education funding for the remainder of 2015-2016. The governor released the following statement:  “Since day one, I have been fighting for historic investments in education at all levels, including K through 12 basic education, to restore the devastating cuts that forced educator layoffs, increased class sizes, program cuts, and soaring property taxes. I have also been pushing for a fair funding formula to end Pennsylvania’s inequitable distribution of education dollars, one of the most inequitable in the country.  “We still have a long way to go to restore the damaging cuts and to implement a fair funding formula that takes into account each district’s unique needs. The new fair funding formula, which I support, cannot truly be fair unless the cuts are fully restored. Currently, only 4 percent of districts have seen their funding restored to 2010-11 levels and we are currently over $370 million short from fully restoring the cuts.
“That is why in January my administration began distributing money to schools through a restoration formula and why we will be using a similar restoration formula now. I remain hopeful Republican leaders will put politics aside and work with me to pass the 2016-17 budget in order to ensure we are adequately investing in education and finally implementing a fair funding formula.”  ust like in January, the Wolf Administration will continue the restoration of the most essential and significant components of the severe education funding cuts enacted under the previous governor and Republican-controlled legislature.

Majority Leader Reed Responds to Governor’s Inequitable School Funding Distribution
PA House GOP Caucus website 4/5/2016
HARRISBURG – Reacting to Gov. Tom Wolf’s pronouncement of his own Basic Education Funding formula to distribute funding to Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana County) issued the following statement:
“Once again, the governor has proven to have a total disregard for the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission formula that would have finally brought fairness and equity to our public schools. Sadly, it’s yet another campaign promise that has fallen to the wayside.”

Wolf outlines plans to distribute Pa. school funds
Herald Mail Media by Associated Press Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 8:00 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf disclosed Tuesday how he will split up state funding for education after deciding to let the budget take effect without his signature and vetoing a separate bill that included an education-aid distribution formula.  Wolf announced what school districts will receive, prompting complaints from legislative Republicans that his approach ignores a formula that was the product of lengthy negotiations.  Wolf said the funding formula isn't fair unless lawmakers restore the state's subsidies to the levels they were at before being cut under his Republican predecessor.  He is splitting up $50 million in new money, with most going to fund charter-school reimbursements and restore those cuts.  House Republican Leader Dave Reed said the governor is disregarding the negotiated formula, which he said was fair and equitable.

“Wolf said he is carrying through on his promise to restore funding that was cut during the Corbett years and to push for a fairer funding formula. He said the bipartisan-backed formula that lawmakers wanted to see used – and he supports – "cannot truly be fair unless the cuts are fully restored. Currently, only 4 percent of districts have seen their funding restored to 2010-11 levels and we are currently over $370 million short from fully restoring the cuts."  So instead of using the so-called fair funding formula that lawmakers wanted, he said he was using what he calls a restoration formula.”
The 2015-16 state budget battle isn't over yet; Wolf's school funding distribution has GOP threatening a lawsuit
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com  Email the author | Follow on Twitter  on April 05, 2016 at 7:18 PM, updated April 06, 2016 at 12:17 AM
If you think the battle over the 2015-16 state budget is over, think again.
Gov. Tom Wolf opened up a new front in that nearly yearlong budget battle by announcing his administration plans to distribute the $200 million in new education funding included in the budget plan that he allowed to become law without his signature on March 28.  As you might have guessed, that distribution plan isn't what the GOP lawmakers had in mind and even has the Senate GOP considering filing a lawsuit as a possible remedy.  Republicans say Wolf doesn't have the power to choose how the dollars are distributed.

"The new fair funding formula, which I support, cannot truly be fair unless the cuts are fully restored," said Wolf in a statement. "Currently, only 4 percent of districts have seen their funding restored to 2010-11 levels and we are currently over $370 million short from fully restoring the cuts."  …Pennsylvania has garnered national attention for having the widest spending gaps between its richest and poorest districts.  That phenomenon is explained in large part by the fact the lion's share of total school funding in the state comes from the local property tax-base.”
Gov. Wolf's blueprint for school spending nets Philadelphia 7.55 percent boost
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY APRIL 6, 2016
The School District of Philadelphia stands to see a $76.8 million boost this school year based on Gov. Tom Wolf proceeding unilaterally on how to divide state education cash.  On Tuesday, Wolf released details of his "restoration" funding formula to the protest of leading Republican state lawmakers.  Although Wolf allowed the state budget as passed by the Republican-controlled legislature to become law without his signature in late March, he vetoed the fiscal code bill which, in part, acted as a roadmap for how new education funding would be apportioned.  As passed by lawmakers, the fiscal code directed all new education money through a student-weighted funding formula as recommended by a bipartisan commission.  Wolf and other Democratic leaders argue that districts should first be made whole from cuts that occurred when the legislature agreed to Gov. Tom Corbett's 2011 austerity plan that coincided with the expiration of federal stimulus dollars. Corbett's plan was his solution to the double-whammy of a budget deficit and a gap left by dollars no longer being supplied from Washington D.C.

Blogger note: In 2011, Philadelphia had just 12% percent of the state’s students but took 35% of the cuts.
A Strong State Commitment to Public Education, A Must Have for Pennsylvania’s Children
PA Budget and Policy Center by Sharon Ward April 2014
The state’s cuts affected all school districts, but all districts were not affected equally. Instead, the reductions disproportionately affected the districts with the poorest students, the highest local tax effort, or both. In terms of per-student cuts, Philadelphia ranked first, with cuts of $1,351 per child, followed by three other districts with per-student cuts of more than $1,000: Chester-Upland ($1,194), York City ($1,096), and Southeastern Greene ($1,022). As noted earlier, Philadelphia has just 12% percent of the state’s students but took 35% of the cuts.

House, Senate load proposals to respond to Fiscal Code veto
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, April 5, 2016/Categories: News and Views
The House and Senate Tuesday took separate steps to load proposals that would respond to Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of the Fiscal Code sent to his desk in March.  Starting in the House, the House Appropriations Committee took the step of loading a bare-bones Fiscal Code to a bill that would provide relief to Pennsylvania’s horseracing industry.  According to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Adolph (R-Delaware), the proposal that will now likely be considered by the full House on Wednesday removes the five objections noted by the governor in his veto message: the basic education funding formula, the bond to provide for PlanCon reimbursements, the Ready to Learn block grants, provisions relating to the Clean Power Plan, and Chapter 78 and Chapter 78a oil and gas regulations.  Rep. Adolph told The PLS Reporter that the main reason to go with the bare-bones approach is to get the budget money out to those who need it when such ability is prohibited due to a lack of authorizing language usually found in the Fiscal Code.

“The need for compromise on school funding methods, at least, should be plainly visible from both sides of the aisle. The bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission a year ago recommended that education funding better account for the differing demographics of school districts.”
Our view: Pa. must fix school funding formula
GoErie Editorial April 6, 2016 12:08 AM
Erie School District teachers Lindsey Dahl and Erin Masolette are to be commended for their creativity, resourcefulness and commitment.  As Erica Erwin reported, the two are among teachers nationwide who have taken to crowdfunding websites such as DonorsChoose.org to ask others to help pay for activities their schools might not be able to afford.  Dahl, who heads the science, technology, engineering and math lab at Wilson Middle School, is seeking $688 to revitalize a garden at the school and give students from the cash-strapped urban district a hands-on science lesson in the life cycle of plants and, possibly, their first exposure ever to the simple joy of gardening.

State Rep. Roae defends comments, position on state budget
By Kevin Flowers  814-870-1693 Erie Times-News April 6, 2016 06:06 AM
ERIE, Pa. -- State Rep. Brad Roae claims that the tone of an e-mail he sent to other Republican legislators was misrepresented in an article that appeared in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the GOP's ongoing battle with Gov. Tom Wolf over the state budget.  The story focused on a series of e-mails Republican legislators sent to their colleagues this past week. Legislators mentioned in the story included Roae, of Crawford County, R-6th Dist., and House Majority Leader Dave Reed, of Indiana County, R-62nd Dist.

How much time do Lancaster County schools devote to art and music classes?
Lancaster Online by KARA NEWHOUSE | Staff Writer  Apr 4, 2016
For almost four years, some parents in Manheim Township have decried the scant time elementary students in the school district get in art, music, physical education and library classes.  They've raised their frustrations through a protestan online petition, meetings with the former superintendent and frequent comments at school board meetings.  Now there may be some hope on the horizon.  In March, Acting Superintendent Martin Hudacs announced a 2016-17 staffing proposal that would add two art teachers and two music teachers at the elementary level.

After tax hikes and school cuts, Manheim Twp. School District has $25M surplus
Lancaster Online by SUSAN BALDRIGE | KARA NEWHOUSE Staff Writers  Apr 4, 2016
Things looked bleak for the Manheim Township School District in 2011.  The school board warned of a looming $4 million-plus budget deficit, then voted to cut spending on programs, freeze teacher pay, and raise property taxes.  The moves were drastic but necessary because of the weak economy and federal and state funding cuts, school board members said at the time.  “It’s going to affect programs, it’s going to affect staffing, it’s going to affect everything, pretty much,” one board member said before the decision. “We’re trimming down to the basics, but we’re also reducing some of the things we offer that make kids want to come to school, and that’s going to affect achievement.”  After all the talk of doom and gloom, the district ended the year with money to spare — $3 million to spare, to be exact.  The pattern has repeated itself in Manheim Township every year since: Officials project substantial deficits, raise taxes on property owners, and hold off on restoring program and staffing cuts.  The result: The district has been building up its reserves.  It had $7 million in total reserves in 2011. By the end of 2015, the district had more than tripled its reserves and was holding on to $25 million — one of the largest balances among the 16 school districts in the county, records show.

“Wythe Keever, a PSEA spokesman, said of the union’s 180,000 members, about 7,000 teachers pay a fair share fee in lieu of union dues, and of those, 300 have stated a religious objection. Four of those 300 have not been able to reach an agreement with the union on a charity, though he said the PSEA has provided them a list of others.   “This is a nuisance suit being brought by the same right-wing legal counsel whose intent appears to be to attack and weaken unions,” he said. “We’ve made a good faith effort to reach an agreement with these fee-payers and will continue to do so.”
Apollo-Ridge teacher, PSEA face off over use of nonmember fees
By Molly Born / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 6, 2016 12:00 AM
A U.S. district court judge has stayed an Armstrong County teacher's challenge to the way Pennsylvania State Education Association uses fees collected in lieu of union dues, pending the outcome of a similar case across the state.  The court ruling last week was the latest development in the debate over how the state’s largest teachers union handles fees deducted from a handful of teachers, who object to union membership on religious grounds, including teachers in Lancaster and Chester counties.   Linda Misja, a French teacher at Apollo-Ridge High School, sued the PSEA in federal court in June, saying the union is withholding her funds indefinitely without access to "an independent decision-making process" to resolve the conflict. The PSEA sought to dismiss the case.  By statute, religious objectors like Ms. Misja can send those “fair share” fees — what nonmembers pay to cover day-to-day union activities — to a nonreligious charity agreed on by both parties. She wanted her money to be donated to People Concerned for the Unborn Child, a Dormont anti-abortion organization, with her second choice being the NRA Foundation, a charity affiliated with the National Rifle Association that raises money for educational purposes.

After SRC loses again in court, Neff says charter funding reform a must
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY APRIL 5, 2016
The Pennsylvania Supreme court has delivered another blow to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission.  The SRC had hoped the court would reconsider a February ruling that blunted the commission's power. On Monday, the court denied that appeal.  The prior ruling found that the state legislature acted unconstitutionally by delegating power to the SRC too broadly when it created the body to oversee Philadelphia public schools nearly 15 years ago.  The decision has wide-reaching implications for two sectors that are typically at odds.  Charter schools with unsigned agreements are now within the law to expand enrollment without district permission.  If increased significantly, that could have catastrophic fiscal consequences for the district.  And teachers union members who've seen seniority protections ignored by the SRC in recent years have recourse to challenge those decisions.

“Hackney, whose title is chief education officer, is the point man for the Kenney administration’s priority to turn Philadelphia’s neighborhood schools into “community schools” that network with neighborhood groups and institutional partners to offer social, health, recreational and other services to students and their families.”
Community Schools: Otis Hackney: The man at the heart of city’s strategy
As the mayor’s chief education officer, the former principal will help build “community schools” around Philadelphia.
The notebook by Bill Hangley Jr. April 5, 2016 — 5:46pm
Otis Hackney knows that it’s one thing to find success as a leader and quite another to create a system that helps other leaders succeed.  But that’s one of his tasks as Mayor Kenney’s top education aide: to assist neighborhood school leaders in getting the same results he got at South Philadelphia High School, where graduation rates rose by double digits in his five years as principal.  For others to replicate that success is no small task, Hackney said. It will require creativity, discipline, and the sensitivity needed to create not just a set of rules, but a true school culture.  “I was walking through the courtyard in City Hall and I saw about 20 of my former students, coming from the Flower Show,” Hackney said. “And they said, ‘We miss you! We miss you for Town Halls.’ I said, ‘Y’all miss me yelling at you and telling you to come to school on time?’ They said, ‘It’s not the same. They still kind of do it, but we miss when you do it.’”

To narrow 'homework gap,' FCC approves subsidy to help needy students access internet
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY APRIL 4, 2016
The Federal Communications Commission passed a landmark resolution last week making low-income families eligible for a new federal subsidy for high-speed internet access.  One of the commissioners visited a Philadelphia public school Monday to emphasize the need for such a measure in an era of digital learning.  According to the Pew Research Center, about seven in 10 teachers across the country assign homework that requires access to the internet, but more than 17 percent of families with school-aged children lack access to broadband in their homes.  "That problem, where those numbers overlap, is what I call the 'homework gap,'" said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel before an audience of students and educators at String Theory Charter's dazzling Center City campus.  Rosenworcel has been a leading advocate in pushing the federal government to help ease this digital divide — which especially affects low-income, black and Hispanic families.  "If you want a fair shot at a 21st century success, you're going to need to know how to use digital resources, you're going to need to be able to use them at home and at school," she said.

FRIENDS TO THE RESCUE?
A coalition of schools “Friends Groups” want to change the city
The Philadelphia Citizen BY ROXANNE PATEL SHEPELAVY APR. 05, 2016
Jennifer Motsney, of South Philly, is a second grade teacher in a public school in the Northeast. But it wasn’t until she had children that she started thinking hard about her own local school, Vare-Washington Elementary at 5th and Washington. More than most young parents in Philly, Motsney understood the dire straits of neighborhood public schools. She’d also heard of the galvanizing effects of local “Friends Of” school groups, particularly in the neighborhoods surrounding Vare-Washington, like East Passyunk and Pennsport. Unfortunately, as Motsney discovered, Vare-Washington wasn’t one of those lucky schools.  So Motsney did what dozens of residents—parents to be, new neighbors, local business owners—have done in so many neighborhoods around Center City: She stepped up. She posted a note on a local community listserv and recruited a handful of interested neighbors. And then Motsney started making calls.  “I reached out to the leaders of a bunch of Friends of groups,” Motsney said on Saturday, at a gathering of Philadelphians looking to help their local schools. “All of them met with me, and gave me advice, and were really helpful. You don’t have to figure this out on your own.”

Philly’s W. B. Saul High School presents Ewe Tube
W. B. Saul students launch online stream to share lambing season with the public... Please click here to read the full story.


Why Finnish school students lead the world
ABC.net Monday 4 April 2016 9:05AM
Finland, a country of 5.4 million people, has a remarkable edge on the world when it comes to education.  Finnish 15-year olds routinely make it to the highest achieving academic groups in the world in surveys testing maths, reading and science.  Yet with little standardised testing, and an emphasis on individualised teaching, their system runs counter to many other OECD countries.
So what are the Finns doing that's so right?

Groups to U.S. Ed. Department: Don't Go Too Far in Regulating Spending Requirements
Education Week Politics K-12 By Alyson Klein on April 4, 2016 2:45 PM
Attention U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. and company: Don't go overboard in attaching a bunch of new federal definitions and requirements to regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act, including when it comes to supplement-not-supplant.  That's the message from a group of associations representing teachers, state chiefs, principals, school boards members, superintendents and more in a letter sent to the King Monday.  Some background: ESSA makes a change to supplement-not-supplant aimed at giving districts more flexibility to show that federal funds are an extra, not a replacement. Under the new law, local officials can come up with their own methodology for showing how they allocate state and local funding and therefore that federal money is indeed, a supplement. The department can fill in the blanks on that rule.  Right now, a panel of educators, experts, and advocates are currently hashing out regulations on supplement-not-supplant and assessment, through a process known as "negotiated rulemaking" or neg reg for short. If that process, which is supposed to conclude by the end of the month, fails, the department can write its own rules on those issues. The department put out draft regulations for supplement-not-supplant late week, for a team of negotiators to consider. (More on that below.)  The letter, which seems designed to influence the negotiators as much as the secretary, warns the department not to create any new definitions for supplement-not-supplant as it regulates on ESSA.

“Alaska’s decision comes amid a national debate about standardized testing fueled by parents and teachers who say that tests and test prep have warped public schools and siphoned too much time away from instruction.”
Alaska cancels all K-12 standardized tests for the year, citing technical problems
Washington Post By Emma Brown April 5 at 2:59 PM  
Students across the Last Frontier are off the hook when it comes to testing — at least this year. Pictured is the Dalton Highway heading up to Atigun Pass in Alaska’s Brooks Range. (Julia Duin/For The Washington Post)  Alaska officials have canceled the state’s computer-based standardized testing for the year, citing repeated technical problems that were interrupting students’ exams, throwing schools into chaos and threatening the validity of results.  “I don’t believe under the circumstances that the assessment we were administering was a valid assessment,” Susan McCauley, interim commissioner of the state education department, said in an interview Tuesday. “Validity relies on a standardized assessment condition, and things were anything but standardized in Alaska last week.”  The cancellation means that tens of thousands of Alaska’s public school students in grades 3 through 10 won’t sit for math and reading exams that are mandated under federal law, leaving a hole in annual data on student performance statewide, and in each district and individual school. Science tests for students in grades 4, 8 and 10 also were canceled.

How many students are refusing to take Common Core tests this year?
Washington Post Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss April 6 at 4:00 AM  
Students across New York began taking state-mandated standardized Common Core tests on Tuesday, and a big question in the education world was how many students will decide not to take the test. Last year, some 20 percent of students in New York opted out of the exams, the largest number of any state. Here’s a look at what’s going on in New York, by  Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who is now executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education, introduces you to the new chancellor and analyzes the legacy of the one who is soon departing. Burris was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the same organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year. She has been chronicling botched school reform efforts in her state for years on this blog, and this is her newest piece.

Big Question on New York State Tests: How Many Will Opt Out?
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and KATE TAYLORAPRIL 5, 2016
The state tests for New York’s third- through eighth-grade students that began on Tuesday are shorter this year. Students will now be able to take them without the strain of a time limit. And the results will no longer affect the job ratings of teachers.  But those changes were not enough for Ilana Greenberg, a parent at Public School 261 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Her fourth-grade daughter is not taking the tests this year, her second year of sitting them out.  “What was done, some of the things were very good,” Ms. Greenberg said. “But there is so much more to go.”  As the testing got underway at schools around the state, education officials and activists on both sides of the testing issue were waiting to see how many parents felt the same way. Last year, 20 percent of students declined to take the exams statewide, though the number in New York City was just 1.4 percent.

Testing Resistance & Reform News: March 16 - 22, 2016
FairTest Submitted by fairtest on April 5, 2016 - 1:52pm 
Two big stories as testing season gets underway in many states -- the surging opt-out movement and the collapse of many states' computerized exam delivery systems -- both demonstrating the ongoing failure of politically driven test-and-punish policies.


Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) 2016 Education Congress April 6-7, 2016
professional development program for school administrators
Focus: "The Myths of Creativity: The Truth about How Innovative Companies Generate Great Ideas"  Featured Presenter: Dr. David Burkus
April 6-7, 2016 Radisson Hotel Harrisburg in Camp Hill
The program will focus on how school leaders can develop and utilize creativity in education management, operations, curriculum and leadership goals. The second day will allow participants to select from multiple discussion/work sessions focusing on concepts presented by Dr. Burkus and facilitated by school leaders who have demonstrated success in creative thinking and leadership in schools across the commonwealth.
Deadline for hotel accommodations: March 15
See the PASA website for more information at: www.pasa-net.org/2016edcongress.

PenSPRA's Annual Symposium, Friday April 8th in Shippensburg, PA
PenSPRA, or the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association, has developed a powerhouse line-up of speakers and topics for a captivating day of professional development in Shippensburg on April 8th. Learn to master data to defeat your critics, use stories to clarify your district's brand and take your social media efforts to the next level with a better understanding of metrics and the newest trends.  Join us the evening before the Symposium for a “Conversation with Colleagues” from 5 – 6 pm followed by a Networking Social Cocktail Hour from 6 – 8 pm.  Both the Symposium Friday and the social events on Thursday evening will be held at the Shippensburg University Conference Center. Snacks at the social hour, and Friday’s breakfast and lunch is included in your registration cost. $125 for PenSPRA members and $150 for non-members. Learn more about our speakers and topics and register today at this link:

Briefing: Public Education Funding in Pennsylvania
TUE, APR 12 AT 8:30 AM, PHILADELPHIA, PA
Join attorneys Michael Churchill, Jennifer Clarke and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg for a briefing on:
  • the current budget impasse
  • the basics of education funding
  • the school funding lawsuit
  • the 2016-2017 proposed budget
 1.5 CLE credits available to PA licensed attorneys.  Light breakfast provided.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 2016 from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT)
WHERE: United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey - 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway 1st Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103

The Network for Public Education 3rd Annual National Conference April 16-17, 2016 Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Network for Public Education is thrilled to announce the location for our 3rd Annual National Conference. On April 16 and 17, 2016 public education advocates from across the country will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina.  We chose Raleigh to highlight the tremendous activist movement that is flourishing in North Carolina. No one exemplifies that movement better than the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who will be the conference keynote speaker. Rev. Barber is the current president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the National NAACP chair of the Legislative Political Action Committee, and the founder of Moral Mondays.

Electing PSBA Officers – Applications Due by April 30th
All persons seeking nomination for elected positions of the Association shall send applications to the attention of the chair of the Leadership Development Committee during the month of April, an Application for Nomination to be provided by the Association expressing interest in the office sought. “The Application for nomination shall be marked received at PSBA Headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked by April 30 to be considered and timely filed. If said date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, then the Application for Nomination shall be considered timely filed if marked received at PSBA headquarters or mailed and postmarked on the next business day.” (PSBA Bylaws, Article IV, Section 5.E.).
Open positions are:
In addition to the application form, PSBA Governing Board Policy 302 asks that all candidates furnish with their application a recent, print quality photograph and letters of application. The application form specifies no less than two and no more than four letters of recommendation, some or all of which preferably should be from school districts in different PSBA regions as well as from community groups and other sources that can provide a description of the candidate’s involvement with and effectiveness in leadership positions. PSBA Governing Board Policy 108 also outlines the campaign procedures of candidates.
All terms of office commence January 1 following election.

Join the Pennsylvania Principals Association at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at The Capitol in Harrisburg, PA, for its second annual Principals' Lobby Day.
Pennsylvania Principals Association Monday, March 21, 2016 9:31 AM
 To register, contact Dr. Joseph Clapper at clapper@paprincipals.org by Tuesday, June 14, 2016. If you need assistance, we will provide information about how to contact your legislators to schedule meetings.
Click here for the informational flyer, which includes important issues to discuss with your legislators.

2016 PA Educational Leadership Summit July 24-26 State College
Summit Sponsors: PA Principals Association - PA Association of School Administrators - PA Association of Middle Level Educators - PA Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development 
The 2016 Educational Leadership Summit, co-sponsored by four leading Pennsylvania education associations, provides an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together at a quality venue in "Happy Valley." 
Featuring Grant Lichtman, author of EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera (invited), and Dana Lightman, author of POWER Optimism: Enjoy the Life You Have... Create the Success You Want, keynote speakers, high quality breakout sessions, table talks on hot topics and district team planning and job alike sessions provides practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and discussed at the summit before returning back to your district.   Register and pay by April 30, 2016 for the discounted "early bird" registration rate:

Interested in letting our elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax, property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf, (717) 787-2500

Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377

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