PARSS Newsletter

May 1999

"GROSSLY INADEQUATE"

Mr. Stairs and his House colleagues had worked with Senator Tomlinson to craft a bill, supported by ASAP (all of the education organizations), that would begin to take into account some of the real numbers of special education children. Although that bill passed the House easily, it was not to be. Representative Nick Colafella (D-Beaver) then went to the rostrum to ask that the budget bill be tabled to the following Monday. Mr. Colafella is the Democratic Chairman of the House Education Committee. He claimed that all members had seen the total budget only one and a half hours before the vote was to take place. His motion was defeated 105-95 with a number of reps. crossing party lines both for and against the motion.
The results of the budget vote were then a forgone conclusion. The budget passed easily in both Houses. The formula for the distribution of special education funding was not available until after the budget was passed. It was therefore impossible to tell where the funds would go and on what basis. By this time, you have seen the explanations of the formula. It appears to satisfy the needs of a few school districts and does not for the large majority. The percentage increases for school districts goes from 31.72% to 2%. Since the formula, as of this writing, still does not focus on the real number or kinds of children, it further exacerbates the special education funding problem. Some PARSS members were advantaged by this formula, while a great number will have to rely on local sources for their funding.

OTHER STATES, OTHER CASES

Abbelville County School District v. The State of South Carolina has just been concluded on April 22, 1999. The court held that the "education clause" of the South Carolina Constitution requires that each student in South Carolina be provided with a "minimally adequate education." The good news, of course, is the recognition that there is a qualitative mandate in the education clause. The unfortunate news is that the standard is low. The governor of South Carolina, Jim Hodges, said after the ruling, "However, I believe our goal in South Carolina should be to create excellent schools, not just 'minimally adequate' schools."

Perhaps even more interesting are reports from Kentucky and Tennessee. In Kentucky, during the latest round of assessment tests, "high-poverty" schools scored well. Some commentators believe that this demonstrates that all students can learn at high levels. This result is contrary to Pennsylvania's explicit position that poor schoold districts perform at lower levels because they enroll proportionately more "high poverty" students.

In Tennessee, there is a further demonstration that student/teacher ratios make a difference. The latest report of the STAR program indicates that the benefits of a lower student/teacher ratio in early grades carries foward even into college.

In New Hampshire, Governor Jeanne Sheehan threw a party for those who brought the equity suit to court in New Hampshire. The legislature crafted a bill in tedious sessions that will raise the support of public schools to 62% from the state. A statewide property tax is the main vehicle for this upgrading of education.
(Tom Schmidt, attorney for PARSS, contributed this article)

"THE NEED FOR QUALITY AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA'S SCHOOLS HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER"
   
By: Michael Pechart, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau

For over 250 years, agriculture has been the Keystone State's number one industry, supplying all Pennsylvanians with a safe, affordable food supply, quality clothing and building materials, and most importantly, and sometimes forgotten, a quality of life that cannot be matched. Our nation was built on values associated with agrarian times: constitutional government, a competitive enterprise system, property rights and individuals freedoms. Our nation and agriculture has changed substantially since our country's inception. some of those changes have been unwanted and unfortunate.

Pennsylvania has lost 50,000 famrs in the last 50 years. Just in the ten years from 1982 until 1992, PA lost over 1 million acreas of crop and pasture land. The average age of a farer in PA is 53 years. According to agricultural economist Stewart Smith of the University of Maine, the farmer's share of the food dollar decreased from 41 to 9 percent between 1910 and 1990.

Commodity prices for livestock and crops have dropped considerably over the past year, challenging the ability of many PA farmers to remain profitable (between November 1997 and November 1998, prices for 10 out of 14 key commodity items fell an average of 22 percent.)

Probably the most disheartening stiuation over the past decade to affect PA agriculture has been the lack of public interest, awareness or respect for farming and rural life. If you were to ask the typical child in PA where their food comes from, would their response be "the grocery store"? As more and more farms and farmers go out of business, PA's 12 million residents grow more distant from agricultural awareness and what farming is all about. Many people think a career in farming is what they see when driving through the country - a farmer driving a tractor or feeding animals. They do not realize that a career in agriculture can be so much more; jobs in production, agri-science, agri-science processing, veterinary medicine, product sales and distribution, horticulture, forestry, renewable natural resources, and agri-science supplies and service. Strengthening PA's agricultural education programs and making sure interested students are prepared for a future in the agricultural industry should be a primary concern of rural and urban residents within this Commonwealth. Making sure that children know what farming is all about and that there is more to agriculture than baling hay, is the key to ensuring an adequate food supply for many future generations of Pennsylvanians.

Although the number of children involved in agricultural education programs in Pa is on the upswing, the number of schools offering such programs is on the decline. There were over 200 schools offering agricultural education programs, or vo-ag classes as they were once referred to, 10 years ago. Today there are only 167 schools that administer agricultural education. The biggest barrier to getting more schools interested in agricultural education is the misconception of what agricultural education is. It is not just farming, but rather should encompass a broad spectrum of agriculture. During the 80 years since the Smith-Hughes Act, education in agriculture has evolved from preparing youth and adults to produce food and fiber to a technical, science-oriented study of production and its realted occupations. The agricultural industry offers the fastest growing sector of employment opportunities, causing increased need for post-secondary education programs in the agricultural field.

Logically, this demonstrates the importance of having agricultural education programs in our state's public school system. However, a major roadblock to creating new and improved agricultural education programs in our public schools is a lack of funds and a shortage of agricultural education teachers. Because of the increased need for a workforce who have the skills necessary to succeed in an agriculturally related job field, we must provide, promote and encourage agricultural education from the primary level through post-secondary institutions.

Agricultural education needs to start in the primary years of a child's education. These are the years when the curriculum should stress a positive agricultural awareness, or "where my food comes from". Before the student is able to attain such awareness, the educator must first be knowledgeable and understanding of agriculture. Ag in the Classroom programs, such as yearly workshops held at Penn State University, are an excellent way to develop understanding of agricultural issues in our elementary schools. Ag in the Classroom is a program that seeks to place hands-on experiences into classrooms. These experiences add to the students' understandings of the importanceof agriculture in their daily lives. The Ag in the Classroom Workshop is an instructional tool developed and administered by educators for teachers of elementary and secondary schools It is for these reasons that each school district in Pa should have a resource person who is able and competent to implement and encourage Ag in the Classroom. as we have witnessed an evolution from farmers' education to agricultural education, it is important that all children have the chance to develop an awareness and knowledge of rural and agricultural issues at an early age.

Agricultural education in the secondary years should focus on agricultural literacy and workforce development. It is important that the teaching of agricultural sciences occurs at all three levels of education. It is also important to make children aware of all the career opportunities that exist in agriculture and tis related industries. There needs to be increased support for agricultural education and consumer/family science programs with a concern for both the college-bound and non-college-bound student. These programs should also be available as electives. Agriculture need to be incorporated as a subject in the general science education of secondary students and should be credited the same way as biology, chemistry, physics and earth science. In order for PA to have a seamless system of food, fiber and natural resources, the primary, secondary, and post-secondary educational programs must be linked together to educate and develop our future generations of agricultural professionals.

We must take a hard look at where our agricultural education programs are going. We are losing more farmers and farmland each and every day. What are the implcations of not teaching our children about agriculture? We must work to recapture the vision and mission of agricultural education in order for PA's rural backbone to remain intact. Agriculture has made this state the wondrous entity that it is. We must guarantee future generations will be offered the same rural values associated with agriculture that our forefathers had. The future of agriculture depends in a large measure upon our educators of today.

A COMMONWEALTH ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
    
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is required, pursuant to Article III section 14 of our Constitution to provide for a thorough and efficient system of public education for all students. The General Assembly finds disturbing evidence that, while most schools and school districts are providing quality education services, there are some schools and school districts that are not . . . The reasons for such academically distressed schools and districts are complex. Further we recognize that many of the severe academic difficulties encountered by some students are attributable to deplorable living conditions outside of school, that providers of such services must be the primary targets of our intervention. Our purpose is not to punish; it is to provide support and technical assistance and, only as a last resort, supplant duly elected school board directors and duly appointed school employees."

This is the beginning of a rough draft of a positive view of how the legislature can help local school districts that find themselves in the kind of trouble that goes further than local resources can take them. The legislation would focus on math and reading and schools and school districts that are below the state standards. The ten school districts having the highest percentage of students below the standard would be declared Academically-at-risk. An intervention team would be appointed (IE: specific kinds of members) to prepare an Academic Recovery Plan. The team might also use outside expertise to help them. The local school board would be presented with the plan 90 days after the intervention team is appointed.

Upon approval, an oversight committee would be established at the state level to approve the plan. Then it would be funded by the Department of Education from a fund established for this purpose. This fund will be called the Academic Recovery Fund.
This legislation outlines a number of possibilities for achieving academic recovery, including expanded kindergarten, class size reductions, pre-school programs, summer and weekend programs, etc.

After a five year period of time, with a three year review, the district may be removed from the at-risk list or may be declared academically distressed. At that time the district would be put into the kind of receivership that presently exists for financially distressed districts. There are further discussions about the mechanics of the program, charter schools and collective bargaining agreements. Since this is a rough draft, PARSS thought that you might want to give some input. If you have any ideas, please send them to arnold@parss.org. 

SAFETY CONCERNS
  
We in PARSS are very aware of the problems that have occurred in many of your schools in recent weeks insofar as safety and security are concerned: bomb threats, terroristic threats, computer system sabotage, and harassment by telephone being the main manifestations we have seen here in Pennsylvania.
Because PARSS would like to offer something positive to this situation, we are working with Molloy and Associates, an emergency/crisis management firm. They are willing to offer PARSS member districts their services at a discount of at least 25%.
This includes safety audits (on and off site), review of your emergency management program and its revision, or help in developing one and providing the necessary training.
Kevin Molloy and Tom Blosser have more than 60 years of experience in the field from their years in state and federal government, as well as the private sector. You can contact them through the PARSS office, or you can contact them directly at: 717-545-5353 - voice, 717-545-511 - fax or e-mail at: kevmol@aol.com.

  

WEBSITE RENEWAL

Due to the untimely March death of our webmaster, we have contracted with a firm to update our website and make it even more user friendly. Please take a look at the new WWW.EZONLINE.COM/PARSS  It's a beauty. Let us know what you think.

  

DON'T FORGET

The Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools offers a convenient Credit Line for Pennsylvania school districts.

This line of credit offers several unique benefits:
No cost of issuance
Fast, efficient approval process (24 hours)
Simple application and documentation
An attractive interest rate
Flexible terms & conditions (unsecured line)
Prepay without penalty (at any time)

With this line of credit financing you can:
Purchase equipment or real property
Finance new constructions
Renovate existing facilites

PARSS

Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools
(717) 234-7964

(financing provided by)

ZIONS BANK
Public Financial Services Department

1-800-555-3263
www.zionsbankpfs.com

  
PARSS CONFERENCE

It was a bittersweet conference this year. While attendance records and sponsor participation soared, one of our most esteemed members has retired. Dr. Woodrow Sites, Woody (or other names) has retired from his position as Superintendent of the Donegal School District in Lancaster County. Woody had been at Donegal since 1972 as both man and boy. The PARSS annual award for service to the children of Pennsylvania was given to Woody after 6 years as President of PARSS.
The featured speaker, Bruce Hunter of AASA, told us about how the political arena works in Washington. He spurred us to make contacts with members of Congress. He believes that our organization is on the right track when it hooks up with other small and rural school organizations across the country to lobby for what we believe is correct. He said that we have already had some affect on Chapter I, IDEA and other stand alone legislation.

We were fortunate to have David Andrews of Andrews and Wagner with us to give us a legal update about personnel issues. Arnold Hillman took over for the legislative aides who were busily getting on with the budget and gave a concise view of what each of those people had reported to him. Tom Schmidt updated the group with happenings in PARSS v. Ridge, while Dave Sallack described how Act 50 might impact on school districts and a model to see how this would work.
B. Allen Schoonover, Superintendent of the Penns Valley School District in Centre County was re-elected President; David Monsour, Superintendent of the Brookville Area School District in Jefferson County, Vice President; Walter Curfman, Superintendent of the Tussey Mountain School District in Bedford County, Secretary; and Jon Rednak, Superintendent of the Blue Mountain School District in Schuylkill County, Treasurer.

 
E-MAIL SERVICE FOR RURAL SCHOOLS

This new list for school district leaders in small and rural schools and communities will electronically forward legislative alerts and briefs, grant and fund opportunities, and other helpful information to assist educators. Not only will you hear from the American Association of School Administrators, the host of the server, once a week with a legislative wrap up, it will also let you know when a united rural voice must be heard on Capitol Hill in order to influence education legislation.

To join this free list service, send a message to Keri Arfstrom and ask to be added to the rural education e-mail service. You can reach her at karfstrom@aasa.org. Please include your complete contact information in the message of the e-mail; mailing address, preferred e-mail address, organization/district and size (number of pupils).

 
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