PARSS November Newsletter

During the equity suit, PARSS v. Casey (then Ridge), Bill Miller was one of the few school superintendents who actually attended the court proceedings. He followed the daily happenings by calling and tuning in on the net. His sense of fairness to rural kids goes back to his youth, his family, and his desire to see that all children get a fair shot. Even during the dark times of the Devon fraud case, Bill still talked about how this would impact on the children in his school district. His concerns were for them and not for himself.

Bill Miller was one of the first school administrators in his area to support the equity suit.

His philosophy is to give kids a chance to go to college, go on to other post-secondary schools or to go on to a good job. He has taught at the graduate level and has an extensive background in school finance and school construction. His interests range from the political - he has served as the President of CENPAC (Central Pennsylvania Caucus of School Districts) to gifted education - he is a former board member of PAGE).

State Board members agreed to begin a discussion on public school funding and financing. Board members Francis Michelini and Wally Nunn proposed that the non-partisan board began to look at school funding because it represents the Commonwealth as a community. �. . . If over 50% of the state budget is spent on education and this is the State Board, which is really a nonpartisan citizen board, what better group can be objective in trying to examine the total impact of education, both in its fund raising and its fund distribution, than this board.�

Secretary of Education, Eugene Hickok said, �Perhaps we can contribute something of significance that might create a conversation across the street (at the Capitol) and across Pennsylvania. But I would not want us to think this will be easy nor will it be one that a lot of people take great pleasure in.� Board member Nunn said that, �There�s a possibility we could strike a match here . . . My sense is we have to try, even if we fail.�

In an editorial about school funding litigation across the United States, the New York Times traced the history of equity issues from Brown vs. The Board of Education to the latest cases. It looked at the suits in the states that have had their funding

systems challenged and then said, �State responses to these legal challenges have occasionally ranged from the flip to the reprehensible. In Pennsylvania for example, state lawyers argued that the state government could interpret the State constitution�s education clause anyway it wished, up to or including defining basic education as teaching students to tie their shoes. New York State was similarly appalling in arguing recently that it could fulfill its constitutional duty by teaching students to read at the eigth-grade level.�

The title refers to the oft quoted, but frequently inaccurate aphorism, �A rising tide lifts all boats�. I�m using it for the purposes of this brief exercise in self-expression because it creates a mental picture, but it might be more accurate to say, �A rising tide lifts most boats�.

In this case, the tide is the growing interest in significant school funding reform, around the state and in the General Assembly. The focal points of this interest are the Rhoades bill in the Senate, and the Colafella bill in the House. The boats we want lifted are those of equity and tax reform.

Because so many of you have labored in the cause of equitable school funding for so long, to so little avail, I want to give you a larger picture of this �tide� of interest than you may be able to have from where you are sitting. I do this for the purposes of encouragement and exhortation. Because we are finally getting somewhere, we have to work harder than ever and make more people aware of the problems, and the possibilities.

The hearings that Senator Rhoades and Representative Colafella have been holding all over Pennsylvania have brought in many testifiers with compelling stories. Judging from the evidence of media coverage, both news and editorial, they are having a very positive impact on taxpayers, parents and elected officials.

The Public School Reform Network is creating networks of citizens in a number of counties. The support for these groups is coming from people not directly connected by employment or children, to the schools. We are seeing faith-based organizations around the state take up equity as the moral and ethical issue that it is.

There is a convergence of interest among those who want the state to pay a much larger share of education�s costs, and those who believe their schools cost local taxpayers more than they can afford. The idea that better school funding could result in substantial reductions in local taxes (unlike Act 50) is starting to take hold in areas like the suburban strongholds of Delaware County, the rapidly growing districts of Monroe County and the economically hurting communities of Washington County. I would like to note that the Rhoades bill recently received the endorsement of the Association of Growing Districts.

Arnie Hillman and I increasingly see the light come on in the heads of elected officials at both the local and state levels. Pursuit of the path that will cause the least damage and pain is a legitimate part of these folks raison d�etre. Allowing ever increasing property taxes will probably do more harm to one�s political career, than supporting increased state taxes. Neither is desirable, but there is no realistic alternative to one or the other.

I believe that what we are seeing take place is a paradigm shift. As educators know, once your paradigm has shifted, you can�t go back. It is a slow process, but when viewed in terms of where we were a short while ago, I�m going to change my metaphor from glacial, to an inexorable flow of water.

Taking advantage of the new �Empowerment� legislation, the Altoona School District (not one of the empowerment school districts) applied for and was denied their request to waive the state standard for class size in special education. This standard, found in section 342 of the state standards, is not a part of the Chapter 14 special education regulations. Those regulations cannot be waived according to the law.

Secretary Eugene Hickok sent a letter to the Altoona School Board President saying that the request for a waiver should be passed at a regular school board meeting. The district had passed the resolution at a special board meeting. The district said that the request that finding new special education teachers and places to put the children within their school district was the basis for the request. The district believes that the rejection of their request may signal that the Department of Education may not be willing to consider these requests.

As of this writing, there were two more requests in the hopper. West Perry School District requested relief from providing the educational program for inmates in their local prison, which they say costs them $5,000 and East Pennsboro School District which requested relief from having to bid out custodial services.

During the spring of 1999, the East Penn School District surveyed 700 staff members soliciting their opinions about bullying, intimidation and harassment involving students throughout the district. A significant number of teachers, support staff, clerical workers, bus drivers and cafeteria staff reported bullying and other intimidating activities between students in a variety of settings. The staff also reported that they and the victims really didn�t know what to do about the incidents.

In September of 1999, over 4,500 elementary and middle school students were surveyed about bullying in their schools. Again, a significant number of students reported that they had been hit/picked on, did not generally report the incidents and many further stated that they were afraid to come to school.

In October of 1999, this suburban school district of 6,700 located in Lehigh County, instituted a No-Bullying Program throughout their eight elementary and two middle schools. The program focused less on burdening our already ambitious curriculum and more on changing the culture of the school. All professional and support staff, as well as students and their families, were in-serviced on the following principles:

Utilizing a decentralized intervention model, each building was given autonomy to develop their unique intervention efforts. Resources support went to buildings through the efforts of a centralized Safety and Security Steering Committee. After seven months, the following results were realized:

Pupil Personnel Services Director, Dr. George A. Ziolkowski, states �We are extremely pleased with our results. We have almost 4 times the number of students reporting incidents after our No-Bullying Program has been put into place. The program has been very effective and we have expended a minimal amount of dollars to make it happen.�

For further information, contact: George A. Ziolkowski, Ph.D., 610-966-8320 or email him at ziolkgeo@eastpenn.k12.pa.us.

Senate Education Committee Hears About SB 1283...

Senator James J. Rhoades, Chairman of t he Senate Education Committee has been holding hearings across the state to get input on school funding and his proposed SB 1283. Hearings have taken place in Harrisburg, Schuylkill County, Pittsburgh, Erie County, Williamsport on July 18th and Wilkes Barre on July 19th. Additional hearings will also take place in Lehigh County and Delaware County at the beginning of September. A summary of all of the testimony will appear on the PARSS website shortly.

In testimony before the Senate Education, Tom Peifer, Superintendent� of� the Wallenpaupak Area School district and a member of the Growing Schools Association said, �We have examined Senate Bill 1283 and find that it is an advocate for a positive and comprehensive approach to equitably address the multitude of equity issues in public school funding. The Growing Schools Association supports Senate Bill 1283.� The major issue in many of the school districts who have grown dramatically over the past ten years is that there is no component in any funding scheme that counts actual number of students in the district. In some school districts with huge increases, this creates a deadly scenario for funding.

After a meeting in the Pocono Mountain School District at which 200 community residents, members of school boards, administrators, county commissioners and other school staff members attended.� The school boards of the Pocono Mountain, Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, and Pleasant Valley school districts identify these as their most critical issues and legislative priorities: