Schools don't receive first round of state money

School districts were scheduled to get their first payment from the state for the 2009-10 school year today. The statewide payment was a total of $416 million. Like state workers, schools didn't get their money because of the budget impasse.
"Until a budget is in place, the Department of Education cannot legally authorize payments to districts, meaning the districts will have to operate without the state's share of education dollars until lawmakers approve a spending plan," Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said in a news release.
The next monthly payment is scheduled for Aug. 27 and would total more than $876 million.

U.S. Census releases public school finance figures

If you want to compare school spending in Pennsylvania with other states, the U.S. Census released the latest information this week.
What do you think of the data?

State Budget Impasse Impacting Education

You have probably been following the news on the recent impasses regarding the state budget. Dr. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, recently released a letter to district superintendents that outlines the potential impact that these budget discussions may have on education.
Our district home page (http://www.washington.k12.pa.us) has a copy of Dr. Zahorchak’s letter, as well as a letter that you may send to members of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives and Senate. Regardless of your party affiliation, this is an issue that may affect all of us as educational leaders for the foreseeable future.
The following website is an easy way to find your state congressional representatives based upon your residence: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/
Thank you for your concern and help with this matter.

PSSA scores up across the board

By Dawn Goodman
Staff Writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
An increased number of Pennsylvania students are on grade level in every grade tested in reading and math, state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak said Monday.
“When you see the continued growth, you want to jump out of your skin and celebrate,” he said during a teleconference.
It’s the first time that all grade levels have seen an increase in all subjects on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, said state Department of Education spokesman Michael Race. The smallest gain was one-tenth in 11th grade math and the largest gain was 4.9 in seventh grade math.
The state Department of Education released the test scores early in hopes of impacting the state budget battle, Zahorchak said. Some budget proposals have more education dollars than others.
Since 2002, Pennsylvania has spent an additional $3 billion on education, Race said.
“It shows the strategic investments we have are paying off,” he said.
Zahorchak, who was attending a special education conference in Bedford, Pa., said with the ongoing conversation about the budget happening now, he didn’t want to regret waiting to release the scores in August.
Individual district PSSA scores, subgroup scores and Adequate Yearly Progress results will be released in late August.
Join the Observer-Reporter’s conversation about education at our blog at http://orbehindthedesk.blogspot.com.

For the history buffs

I spent time today at the Frontier History Center in Washington Park. I admit it ... I am a history buff ... and it was fun. So if you like history, take some time to pop over there to get an idea of what life was like back in frontier time.

Story ideas, suggestions

I just wanted to post a reminder that I welcome all suggestions for the blog and for stories. Are there any issues you think need to be written about? Please let me know ...
And just an FYI ... I prefer to have local stories posted here instead of wire copy. As the school year comes back around, I'm sure more local stuff will crop up.

First Lady's mother reads to students, talks about her life in the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama’s mother summed up her life at the White House in one word: wonderful.
Marian Robinson says the mansion is “much bigger than anything I’ve ever been accustomed to” and has “lots of people to take care of you.” But the people she moved here to care for — granddaughters Malia and Sasha — are growing up so fast she’s beginning to feel “left out.”
Robinson, 71, provided a glimpse into her life at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. after she read “The Napping House” to a group of elementary school students from Montgomery County, Md., at the Education Department’s outdoor plaza on Wednesday. The story is about a grandson, a dog, a cat and a mouse who fall asleep on top of a grandmother but are awakened by the commotion after a flea bites the mouse.
Robinson appeared as part of a weekly summer reading series put on by the department.
President Barack Obama’s mother-in-law rarely speaks in public.
But she answered more than a dozen questions from the students on topics ranging from her life and the White House itself to how it feels having a daughter married to the president of the United States and whether she is rich.
“Let me say this. No, I am not rich,” Robinson told the boy who asked. “But that just lets you know that you just need to earn enough money to pay your way and you can still be happy and still be in a place where you never thought you would be.”
She said Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, don’t watch much television, but they do read and play games.
“I think they can only watch an hour a day,” Robinson said. “But they are at an age now where they’d rather read books or play games with themselves so grandma is beginning to feel left out. I spend a little time with them, but they’re growing up now.”
Robinson lived separately from the Obamas in Chicago and helped shuttle her granddaughters around when their parents were out of town during the presidential campaign. She moved to the White House to continue looking after the girls.
Overall, she said, hers is a wonderful life.
“I’m able to take care of my two grandchildren when their mother’s busy and she is pretty busy these days, and I am glad to be taking care of them,” Robinson said. “So my life is wonderful.”
Barack Obama has always been very hardworking, she said, and “he still is the hardest working person I know. I sometimes wonder how he does it, and Michelle, but then that’s what it takes to get things done, is hard work.”
Having a daughter married to the president is overwhelming, Robinson said, “especially when you come from the South Side of Chicago and your children went to public school and they just led normal everyday lives.”
“So it’s a very overwhelming feeling,” she said, adding: “mostly, it makes me very proud.”
© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Gates: Better data will lead to better schools

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says the U.S. needs better ways to measure performance by students and teachers in order to improve its schools.
He says the country has fallen behind other nations in terms of education because of old beliefs and bad habits.
Gates is speaking Tuesday to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Philadelphia. He is telling state lawmakers how they can use federal stimulus money to improve teaching and learning.
Gates, who is one of the world’s richest men, has used philanthropy to advocate for better schools to help Americans compete globally.
The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given away nearly $20 billion in the past decade to fund programs in world health, global development and U.S. education.
© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
So the question of the day is: Do you think Gates is right?

Summer break

Summer break is halfway over, if not more. What have you been doing over summer break? What fun have you had? If you are a parent, what have you done to make sure your child continues learning over the summer? If you are student, what fun stuff have you learned this summer?

Should high schools bar average students from rigorous college level courses and tests?

Jay Mathews has a column about this in the Washington Post this week.
I know it's an issue that has come up in a number of districts I've covered over the years. When I was in Maryland, the district I covered opened Advanced Placement courses to everyone. The thought was it would be good exposure for students to be in rigorous courses. Even if they didn't get the best grades in other classes, it would help expand their thinking and prepare them for education after high school.
When I was in Altoona, the district had specific requirements for students who wanted to take AP classes. They weren't open to everyone.
How does your district handle AP and IB courses? How do you think they should handle them?

District votes to renovate Carroll

The Ringgold School Board decided Wednesday night to move forward with plans to renovate Carroll Middle School and convert it to an elementary center. The board pushed back a decision on a middle school site until the end of the next school year.
What do you think of those ideas?

Rendell can't exclude four colleges from stimulus

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell can’t exclude four state-related universities from an application for $42 million in federal stimulus funds.
That’s according to the U.S. Department of Education. Glenn Thompson, a Republican congressman from central Pennsylvania, said Tuesday that education officials told him Rendell must reapply for the money and include the schools.
Rendell’s application included 14 state colleges but not Temple, Penn State, Pitt or Lincoln universities. Those four are considered “state-related.”
Fourteen of the state’s 19 members of Congress wrote to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week protesting Rendell’s application.
The presidents of the four schools also sent letters of objection.
© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FBI probes cyber fraud at Western Pennsylvania District

The FBI is investigating whether cyber thieves electronically stole $705,000 from Western Beaver County School District.

Pensions could cost districts millions of dollars

By 2013, school districts could face a sixfold increase in pension costs. That equals millions of dollars. Area school business managers predict substantial tax increases if the state doesn't do something to resolve the problem.
What do you think should be done?

Where Learning Takes Place

Learning is a vital part of everyone's life. While most believe that learning only takes place only in school through the use of books, tests and lectures, I propose that much learning also takes place outside the classroom. While in the classroom a lot is discovered, it is outside that environment that it becomes all the more applicable.

Case in point: Participating in a REACH Work Camp mission trip in Niagara, NY., I had the task of repairing the home of a single mother family in need. It was there that I was put with a team of students and leaders from six states. Beginning as strangers, we became part of a close working team with common goals and developed an unbreakable relationship by the end of the week. It was here that much of the knowledge learned in school as well as construction labor skills became applicable, especially social skills and a strong work ethic.

The vital learning that is done in the classroom is not fully developed until it is utilized and developed outside the classroom. While people constantly speak of education as so valuable, I wonder why they stop there. It is only truly valuable when it is taken beyond the walls of the classroom and used for the benefit of others.

-Benjamin Marasco

Millions of dollars that you will have to pay

Watch for a story in Sunday's Observer-Reporter about the state public school system retirement system. The amount districts have to pay into it is projected to jump substantially in the next few years and it's going to cost taxpayers big bucks unless the stock market rebounds sharply or the state changes the system.
I will link to it here after it's on the Web site Sunday.

New exams could replace 11th grade PSSAs

The state Board of Education chairman announced Thursday that he would like to scrap 11th grade PSSAs and replace them with end of course exams in high school. The state approved tests would be taken after students completed their courses instead of arbitrarily in the 11th grade. He said they could replace existing final exams and would cut down on testing time. Districts could still use a local exam as long as it was validated and proven to align with state standards.
What do you think of the idea?

IU1 is creating a cyber school

IUI is creating a cyber school in the hopes that it saves districts money and gives them more control over what students are learning.
Do you think that is a good idea?

Feds: District indifferent over sex assaults

The Justice Department wants to join a lawsuit filed on behalf of three eastern Pennsylvania boys who say they were raped as first graders.
The Justice Department says in court papers that the Allentown School District showed “deliberate indifference” to school safety.
The $15 million suit alleges that school district employees failed to investigate or remove the 12-year-old boy who committed assaults on a total of four boys in 2003 and 2004. The perpetrator was found guilty in juvenile court of raping one of the boys.
The Justice Department says it is seeking “institutional changes” to ensure that “students are protected from such dangerous and discriminatory conditions in the future.”
The district’s lawyer said in a statement that the government’s motion does “not indicate any enhanced culpability” on the part of the district.
© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Federal money coming earlier than expected

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced that $2.7 million of the federal stimulus dollars for education will be released earlier than originally scheduled. Pennsylvania received $114,451,594 early.
Think any of that will make it's way to southwestern Pennsylvania?

Clock ticking on teacher contracts

Several area districts still have ongoing teacher contract negotiations. IU1 Executive Director Charles Mahoney said the IU has completed its negotiations and had a contract. However, eight districts still haven't completed them. If they don't settle, the unions will decide whether to strike within the next six to eight weeks.

School budgets in place; funding in doubt

Associated Press

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania's state government began July mired in a partisan budget standoff, but its 500 school districts did not have the luxury of waiting out lawmakers - even though they don't know how much state support they will receive this year.

Districts had to guess whether what finally passes will be closer to what was proposed in a budget bill passed by Senate Republicans, or Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's budget, which calls for $418 million more in basic education subsidies.


Some went with the Senate GOP numbers, some Rendell's, and others made their own estimates. Once a state budget passes they will be able to adjust their spending, but not the all-important local property tax rates they have established for 2009-10.

"In most years you can have a reasonable assurance that at least you're in the ballpark," Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, said Thursday. "This year, you've got a $418 million disparity, and that's a very uncomfortable position."

Districts were asked to send their budgets to the Senate Education Committee, and the 150 or so districts that have done so already are all over the map, said Aaron Shenck, a Republican committee aide.

"It's been disappointing that many districts have chosen the higher end - the governor's numbers - and even worse, some have gone above the governor's numbers," he said.

Districts typically make tax decisions in mid-May so they can coordinate sending out bills with their local tax bureaus. That gives them some revenue coming in during the start of July, said Tim Allwein of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

Allwein said the lack of firm state numbers is making it harder for districts to decide how many teachers to hire and which new programs and classes to offer.


"A lot of times local revenue alone isn't enough to pay for those things, so they're dependent in some way, shape or form on state revenues," Allwein said.

If the state provides less than a district assumed, it will have to limit spending to make up the difference, and may well end up raising property taxes a year from now.

Senate Republican spokesman Erik Arneson said state education funding has been increasing far more quickly than the inflation rate for the past 15 years. He noted that combined state and federal funding for 2009-10 is likely to result in "very generous increases" no matter what the overall state budget total is.

"Just as we believe the state should match its spending level to the available revenues, school districts should do the same," Arneson said. "If some other factor outweighs those increases, school districts should look to reduce spending rather than increase taxes on already overburdened taxpayers."

If the state budget is not resolved by Aug. 27, when a key payment is due to school districts, it could cause significant problems, particularly for the poorer districts that rely heavily on state support. Himes said if that payment is missed, cash-strapped districts will have to issue tax-anticipation notes or find other sources of short-term loans.

"We believe the deadline was on June 30th," when the state's fiscal year ended, said Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo. "And if they have concerns about missing payments, they should contact their local legislator."

The House and Senate adjourned for the holiday weekend on Thursday, and high-level budget talks were set to resume Monday.

Wash High Provides Excellent Opportunities

As a new graduate of Washington High School, I have had the blessed opportunity to see the school's positive aspects. I have met and have relationships with numerous students across the country; most of these have come through leadership programs. After speaking with these top-level students, I have learned that Washington High School is one of the best high schools available. The school not only succeeds academically (many areas), athletically (too many sports to mention), and socially (friendship is not based on race or social status), but students within the school are also non-judgmental. This is incredibly atypical. Students at Wash High accept each other for who they are, not for what they can offer. Jealousy is not a huge issue here, but students instead encourage one another. This school is not a cookie-cutter environment; everyone looks different. And that's perfectly fine.

That's Prexie Pride at its finest.

Thanks Wash High for Four Great Years,
Brendan Marasco