Tuesday, December 1, 2020

PA Ed Policy Roundup for Dec. 1, 2020: PDE denies first of two new cyber charter applications that were submitted for 2020

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Keystone State Education Coalition

PA Ed Policy Roundup for Dec. 1, 2020

PDE denies first of two new cyber charter applications that were submitted for 2020

 

“After reviewing the Virtual Preparatory Academy of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School’s revised application, it is the decision of the Pennsylvania Department of Education to deny the application. Please review the pages that follow for more information.”

PA Dept. of Education Website November 30, 2020

https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Cyber%20Charter%20School%20Applications/Virtual%20Preparatory%20Academy%20Revised%20Application%20Decision%20and%20Ltr.pdf

 

Wolf vetoes GOP-backed bill on limiting COVID-19 liability

WITF by The Associated Press  NOVEMBER 30, 2020 | 5:11 PM

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s governor on Monday rejected a bill that would have made it harder to sue schools, health care providers and other businesses for coronavirus-related claims. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said the measure’s liability protections were so broad the legislation would have invited “the potential for carelessness and a disregard for public safety.” The bill passed both chambers with mostly Republican support and Democratic opposition. It would have applied to cases of exposure to the coronavirus during a governor-declared disaster emergency. Supporters argued the pandemic should not impose on businesses and others expensive or even ruinous litigation. The bill had been supported by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

https://www.witf.org/2020/11/30/wolf-vetoes-gop-backed-bill-on-limiting-covid-19-liability/

 

Penn’s $100 million to Philly schools is no permanent substitute for PILOTs | Opinion

Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, For the Inquirer Posted: November 30, 2020 - 2:23 PM

Ann Farnsworth-Alvear is an associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is affiliated with Penn for Pilots.

For decades, high school students, parents, teachers, community organizers, and members of Philadelphia’s City Council have called on the University of Pennsylvania to make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) to Philadelphia’s public schools. With them, and with everyone in the Penn community who has pressed the issue, I celebrate the university’s announcement last month that it will contribute $100 million, split into $10 million annual payments to be made over 10 years. This news allows us to continue and deepen our conversations about PILOTs, not end them. People across the city are newly conscious of the way racism and inequality are built into what it means to live in Philadelphia. With our elected officials and our teachers, we should redouble efforts to ensure that well before 10 more years have passed, Philadelphia’s children have access to fully funded public education. More than half of the local revenues for Philadelphia’s public schools come from property taxes. When big nonprofits do not pay a fair share, other property owners pay the difference, including small businesses and homeowners who are not wealthy.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/penn-pilots-donation-philadelphia-school-district-20201130.html

 

Philadelphia native Khalid Mumin named Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year in Reading

Philly Trib by Chanel Hill Tribune Staff Writer Nov 28, 2020

Philadelphia native Khalid Mumin, superintendent of the Reading School District, has been selected as the 2021 Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. “I was elated when I got the news,” Mumin said. “This recognition is a testament to our district, staff, and kids. This is a great opportunity for us to be able to step out on that platform and talk about issues that plague a lot of public schools in the inner cities.” In 2014, Mumin inherited a district with 19 buildings of failing infrastructure, eight bargaining units that had gone five years without contracts, and little to no transparency among its staff and constituents. Currently ranked as the third largest district in Pennsylvania with about 18,500 students, Reading at the time had one of the poorest districts with a highly transient student population and extremely low test scores. The district was also facing a financial crisis along with a looming state takeover. Within six years of Mumin being the superintendent, attendance has trended upward, test scores are increasing, the achievement gap is closing, and the high school has won the Distinguished Title I School Achievement award two consecutive years. It has also received the Silver award for Best High School Schools from U.S. News.

https://www.phillytrib.com/news/philadelphia-native-named-pennsylvania-superintendent-of-the-year-in-reading/article_fc5ec371-af16-5863-905c-c0fa6f6d8043.html

 

State: Decision to close schools to remain with local districts as coronavirus cases surge

Allegheny County reports over 900 cases in 48 hours

MICK STINELLI Pittsburgh Post-Gazette NOV 30, 2020 1:02 PM

As COVID-19 spreads, and some schools struggle with the decision to keep teaching in-person or switch to remote learning into the winter months, state health and education officials say those decisions will continue to be in the hands of local authorities. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine announced Monday that the state is now encouraging students as young as 13 to download Pennsylvania's COVID-19 contact app on their cellphones to help with tracking the spread of the disease. And she said there are no plans to require students to get a COVID-19 vaccine, when it becomes available, before starting the 2021-2022 school year because its effects on children are still not well-known.  “We’ll wait and see what the science tells us in terms of the vaccine in young people. We expect it to be safe and effective, but we’re going to have to prove that.” There are also no plans now for a statewide school shutdown, but that might not be needed anyway as several more schools in Western Pennsylvania announced after Thanksgiving they are going fully remote well into December and even into January.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2020/11/30/covid-19-coronavirus-allegheny-county-pennsylvania-cases-deaths-data-pandemic-surge-hospitalizations-positivity/stories/202011300065

 

COVID vaccine won't be mandatory for Pa. schoolchildren, says secretary of health

Sam Ruland York Daily Record November 30, 2020

With many public school districts in Pennsylvania facing closures due to COVID-19 restrictions, parents are wondering whether state and health officials will mandate a potential vaccine for students in order to continue in-person learning. As Pennsylvania faces its most dangerous coronavirus surge, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said the commonwealth could have the vaccine "within the next month" if federal approval remains on track.  However, state health officials said Monday that once a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, it will be optional for the state’s K–12 public school students. "We have no plans to make the COVID-19 vaccine required for anyone, including for school children," Health Secretary Rachel Levine said.

https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2020/11/30/pa-wont-mandate-covid-19-vaccination-public-schools/6466175002/

 

Opinion: Bucks health department mismanaged COVID

Bucks County Courier Times Opinion By Kierstyn P. Zolfo November 24, 2020

Each day, news of the pandemic grows more dire and an increasing number of people in my circle are falling ill or being hospitalized. I’m spending more and more time reading the local news and asking myself this question: “Is this the unavoidable consequence of a national pandemic or the results of local mismanagement?” Here in Bucks County as I write this letter, over 650 people have died and over 15,000 people are infected with COVID. Were these deaths and infections unavoidable or due to local mismanagement? Here in Bucks County, Dr. David Damsker, the Director of the Bucks County Board of Health, made the decision early in the trajectory of this pandemic and contrary to the recommended precautions from the Centers for Disease Control, to use “modified quarantine” for people who have been exposed to the coronavirus. That means they do not need to stay home for 14 days, but instead can go out and about in the public as long as they use a mask (something we all must do). Was putting the community at risk unavoidable, or local mismanagement? Here in Bucks County, our schools were provided guidance in June from our health director that states “wearing masks will not be required of students while in school, but will be optional” and “six foot distancing is not required for classroom seating — a lesser distance is acceptable.” This advice was issued despite the state and CDC recommendations that people wear masks in any congregant setting and maintain social distancing of at least six feet.

https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/columns/your-voice/2020/11/24/bucks-county-board-health-mismanaged-covid-19/6390926002/

 

Carlisle school district moves to fully remote instruction due to rising COVID cases

The Sentinel by Joseph Cress November 30, 2020

Carlisle Area School District will move to Tier One fully remote instruction starting this Tuesday until Monday, Jan. 18, Superintendent Christina Spielbauer told families Monday afternoon. District administrators made the decision in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Health based on the results of case investigations, information from contact tracing, the level of community spread, the positivity rate and the number of students and staff members in quarantine, according to a letter posted on the district website. “Although we had hoped that our short-term closure would slow the number of positive cases, unfortunately our district cases and cases in Cumberland County continue to rise,” Spielbauer said. Previously, she announced on Nov. 15 that all schools in the district will be closed through this Monday due to increasing cases of COVID-19 in the district and the county.

https://cumberlink.com/news/local/education/carlisle-school-district-moves-to-fully-remote-instruction-due-to-rising-covid-cases/article_50b4828c-2954-5aba-add8-5b6885e600b2.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cumberlink

 

More than 580 COVID-19 cases have been reported at Lancaster County schools. Here's where they are [update]

Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer November 30, 2020

More than 580 cases of COVID-19 have been reported at Lancaster County schools so far into the 2020-21 school year. The cases come from 16 school districts, plus a brick-and-mortar charter school in Lancaster city and the county's career and technology center. And that might not be all.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/more-than-580-covid-19-cases-have-been-reported-at-lancaster-county-schools-heres-where/article_3df9f520-f90e-11ea-a2d4-cb2cf761df4e.html

 

Easton Area schools return to hybrid mode Tuesday

By Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com Updated Nov 30, 2020; Posted Nov 30, 2020

Easton Area School District will resume its hybrid program starting Tuesday, Dec. 1, according to the superintendent. Superintendent David Piperato posted this message on the school website: “All Easton Area School District schools will return to hybrid learning tomorrow, Tuesday, December 1, 2020. Students and staff should resume their normal hybrid schedule until further notice.” The district went all-online last week due to high COVID-19 numbers, but hoped to resume the hybrid program on Tuesday. The COVID-19 dashboard listed 56 cases in November, including four new ones on Nov. 22. There aren’t any news cases listed for Nov. 29 or Nov. 30.

https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2020/11/easton-area-schools-return-to-hybrid-mode-tuesday.html

 

Following 5 new COVID-19 cases, Bellefonte high school building to remain closed

Centre Daily Times BY MARLEY PARISH NOVEMBER 30, 2020 07:49 AM

School reopening plans vary across Centre County and Pennsylvania but each district must submit and have an approved plan from the Department of Education. BY ABBY DREY

With six new COVID-19 cases reported in the district, Bellefonte high schoolers are learning remotely this week. Over Thanksgiving break, the district confirmed five additional coronavirus cases at the high school — four students and one staff member. As a result, the building will remain closed to in-person instruction through Friday, Interim Superintendent Tammie Burnaford told families in a letter Sunday night. All other buildings will remain open, and high school staff and students are scheduled to return Dec. 7.

https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/bellefonte/article247496420.html#storylink=mainstage_card3

 

At least 10 York County districts plan to stay open with extra regulations

Erin Bamer York Dispatch November 27, 2020 Updated November 30, 2020

At least 10 York County school districts have signed  forms agreeing to comply with state safety regulations in order to keep their schools open, officials said.  School districts in counties with substantial COVID-19 spread face a 5 p.m. Monday deadline to either sign an attestation form or agree to transition to fully remote learning, in accordance with an order announced Nov. 23 by Gov. Tom Wolf. Failure to sign the form means the district must go fully remote.  The safety regulations  in the form include complying with a mask requirement for all students, staff and visitors, as well as complying with recommendations to temporarily close schools for cleaning based on the number of positive COVID-19 cases identified over a 14-day period. 

https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/2020/11/27/west-shore-hanover-districts-add-list-schools-intending-stay-open/6436744002/

 

Senate Republicans silent as another lawmaker tests positive for COVID-19

PA Capital Star By  John L. Micek December 1, 2020

Republicans who control the state Senate ignored requests for comment from the Capital-Star and other news organizations on Monday, even as another lawmaker who attended a hearing in Gettysburg last week tested positive for COVID-19. State Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, announced on Facebook Monday that she had tested positive for the virus, PennLive reported. She is the second lawmaker to test positive, after it was revealed that the Nov. 25 event’s organizer, Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Adams, had to leave a West Wing meeting with President Donald Trump after being told he had tested positive hours after that hearing concluded. “I am grateful that my symptoms are minor,” Ward’s post stated, according to PennLive. “I am adhering to the Senate’s COVID-19 Mitigation Policy and my last interaction with the public was on Wednesday, November 25, during which time I wore a mask. I felt it was appropriate to share this information publicly.”

Ward was seated two seats away from Mastriano, separated only by incoming Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, during a four hour-plus session on alleged voting irregularities on Election Day.

https://www.penncapital-star.com/covid-19/senate-republicans-silent-as-another-lawmaker-tests-positive-for-covid-19/

 

Republicans silent on report of Pa. senator’s positive COVID-19 test

Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com and Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Updated Nov 30, 2020; Posted Nov 30, 2020

One day after news broke that Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano tested positive for COVID-19 while at the White House Wednesday, the Senate Republican Caucus had nothing to say about it or about any efforts to trace the senator’s close contacts. Numerous attempts on Monday to get comment about Sunday’s report about the senator’s positive test results from caucus spokeswomen and Mastriano himself, including a visit to his Franklin County home, were unsuccessful. Mastriano, who has shunned masks and been an ardent opponent of Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts, abruptly exited a West Wing meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening after being told he had tested positive, according to the Associated Press, which said its source was a person with direct knowledge of the meeting.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/11/republicans-silent-on-report-of-pa-senators-positive-covid-19-test.html

 

Second Pa. Republican senator tests positive for the coronavirus

Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Updated Nov 30, 2020; Posted Nov 30, 2020

Sen. Judy Ward, a Blair County Republican, announced on Facebook on Monday evening that she tested positive for the coronavirus. She is the second senator who was in attendance at a Nov. 25 Senate GOP committee meeting with President Donald Trump’s lawyers concerning issues related to the conduct of the state’s presidential election that has been reported as receiving positive test results. The other is Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin County, who was told he tested positive during a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump that followed the Senate committee meeting on Thanksgiving Eve., according to a report by The Associated Press.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/11/second-pa-republican-senator-tests-positive-for-the-coronavirus.html

 

Advocates call on NEPA school board member to resign over call to remove LGBTQ pride display

By Tim Cwiek  Special to the Capital-Star December 1, 2020

Dismissing what they’re calling a half-hearted apology, LGBTQ rights advocates are are calling for the resignation of a Pennsylvania school board member who requested the removal of an LGBT-pride exhibit, comparing it to a pride exhibit for white supremacy or the Klu Klux Klan. On Nov. 10, Timothy S. Nitcznski, a member of the Sullivan County School Board,  blasted the exhibit — which is displayed in the Sullivan County High School’s library. Sullivan County is located in northeastern Pennsylvania ,about 165 miles north of Philadelphia. Its public high school, located in Laporte, Pa., has about 300 students in grades 7-12.

https://www.penncapital-star.com/civil-rights-social-justice/advocates-call-on-nepa-school-board-member-to-resign-over-call-to-remove-lgbtq-pride-display/

 

Baltimore County schools suffered a ransomware attack. Here’s what you need to know.

By MCKENNA OXENDEN BALTIMORE SUN | NOV 30, 2020 AT 6:00 AM

The day before Thanksgiving, the Baltimore County Public Schools system was shut down by a ransomware attack that hit all its network systems. The cyberattack brought classes to a halt for the 115,000 students attending classes entirely online due to the coronavirus pandemic. School officials have described it as a “catastrophic attack on our technology system.” Here’s what you need to know:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-co-what-to-know-schools-ransomware-attack-20201130-2j3ws6yffzcrrkfzzf3m43zxma-story.html

 

Covid-19 Live Updates: School Policies Shift to Bring Back Younger Children

New York Times December 1, 2020

In the U.S., more districts have begun to prioritize elementary students for in-person learning, a policy already in place in much of Europe. And even with vaccines on the horizon, the nation is bracing for a dark winter. After a summer of uncertainty and fear about how schools across the globe would operate in a pandemic, a consensus has emerged in recent months that is becoming policy in more and more districts: In-person teaching with young children is safer than with older ones, and particularly crucial for their development. On Sunday, New York City, home to the country’s largest school system, became the most high-profile example of that trend, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that only elementary schools and some schools for children with complex disabilities would reopen after all city classrooms were briefly shuttered in November. There is no plan yet to bring middle and high school students back into city school buildings. It was an abrupt about-face for the mayor, who had for months promised to welcome all of the city’s 1.1 million children — from 3-year-olds to high school seniors — back into classrooms this fall. But the decision put New York in line with other cities around America and across the world, which have reopened classrooms first, and often exclusively, for young children, and in some cases kept them open even as they have confronted second waves of the virus. In-person learning is particularly crucial for young children, who often need intensive parental supervision to even log on for the day, education experts say. And mounting evidence has shown that elementary school students in particular can be safe as long as districts adopt strict safety measures, though it’s an unsettled question for older students.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/01/world/covid-19-coronavirus

 

Getting New School Board Members Up to Speed

One way to train newly elected school board members for the job ahead is to start before they even run for office.

Education Week By Corey Mitchell November 17, 2020

When Julie Cole decided to run for school board, she did her homework.

For a year, Cole attended every Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Tex., school board meeting—and reviewed meeting agendas beforehand. During meetings, she sat near district administrators so she could lean over and ask questions about discussions and proposals she had trouble understanding. “I just made it my mission to learn everything that I could learn,” said Cole, who is now the school board president for the 24,000-student north Texas school district. Cole, a senior manager with a financial investment firm, had spent the year prior to her election enrolled in Hurst-Euless-Bedford’s Ambassador Academy, a program that offers residents an in-depth look at district operations and what it takes to serve as a school board member. The year of independent study was the culmination of a years-long effort to better understand the school board and district, one that left her prepared to win a school board seat in 2013 and hit the ground running. Each year across the nation, thousands of people are elected or appointed to serve on school boards for the first time. Few of them benefit from the same kind of intense and intentional preparation that the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school board provides.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/11/18/getting-new-school-board-members-up-to.html

 

Trump’s Longest-Serving Cabinet Official May Start a Revolution

Betsy DeVos’s assault on public education has provided a chance for major policy renewal.

New York Times Opinion By Jack Schneider and Jennifer C. Berkshire Dec. 1, 2020, 5:00 a.m.

Measured solely by policy accomplishments, Donald Trump’s longest-serving cabinet official, Betsy DeVos, was a flop in her four years as secretary of education. Early on, her efforts to move a federal voucher program through a Republican-controlled Congress more concerned with taxes and deregulation repeatedly fell short. This year, she was forced to abandon a directive ordering states to redirect coronavirus funds to private schools after three federal judges ruled against her. And significant pieces of Obama-era civil rights guidance that she rescinded — moves meant to protect transgender students, for instance, or address racially disproportionate school discipline — will be immediately restored by the incoming Biden administration. Though Ms. DeVos has been mostly stymied, both by Trumpism’s policy indifference and progressive opposition, her legacy will still be far-reaching and long-lasting. This is not a result of what she made, but of what she broke: a bipartisan federal consensus around testing and charters that extended from the George H.W. Bush administration through the end of the Obama era.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/opinion/betsy-devos-education.html

 

 

State of Education report survey opens today

POSTED ON NOVEMBER 30, 2020 IN PSBA NEWS

The annual State of Education report (2020 report available here) is a comprehensive compilation and evaluation of timely data related to public education in the commonwealth. Superintendents, you should have received a link to the 2020 State of Education survey in your email inbox today. Please complete the survey and help us show legislators, education leaders and the communities at-large all that public schools are doing to provide a quality education despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact Andrew Christ at andrew.christ@psba.org or (800) 932-0588, ext. 3368 with questions about the survey or the report.

https://www.psba.org/2020/11/state-of-education-report-survey-opens-today/

 

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

The school boards from the following districts have adopted resolutions calling for charter funding reform. 

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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