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Rural and Small Schools
June 2001 |
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Page Index:
Rhoads
Recipient of Rural Educator Award
Annual
Meeting Sets Records
Joe
Says
President
Holds Equity Hearings in Centre County
Legislation
and More Legislation
The Kids,
and Who Cares
PARSS
Focus Groups |
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| Rhoads
Recipient of Rural Educator Award... |
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Senator Rhoades receives “Rural Educator of the Year” Award from Executive Director Joe Bard.
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The PARSS Annual Meeting was highlighted by the announcement of Senator James J. Rhoades of Schuylkill County as the Rural Educator of the Year. Senator Rhoades has maintained the fight in the State Senate for an equitable school funding formula and taxation system. On May 30, 2001 Senator Rhoades convened an Equity
Summit that included all educational, business and legislative leaders, as
well as the academic community in an effort to solidify support for the
Rhoades proposal, to modify it so that everyone would be on board. |
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picture at left was taken on the night of April 26, 2001 showing Joe Bard,
Executive Director of PARSS presenting the award to Senator Rhoades. |
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| Annual
Meeting Sets Records... |
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Rebecca King, Tim Potts and Sandy Zelno of PSRN ask Marty Strange about Senator
Jeffords.
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There were more people and more
sponsors at the PARSS Annual Meeting than ever before. Over 200 people
reacquainted themselves in informal sessions and joined in hearing some
stirring words from the presenters at the conference. Dave Hornbeck,
former Superintendent of the Philadelphia School District spoke about the
moral imperative of school funding as a civil rights issue. His discussion
of accountability stirred some emotions within the crowd.
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Jan Bissett, former Executive Director of the House Education Committee reviewed the monograph that she was commissioned to do for PARSS ”A History of School Funding; 1689-2001.“ There were many questions about how far we have come and the
commitment that our forefathers made to public education over those years. She cautioned us to be on guard about going backward to a time when all children were not receiving a quality education in our Commonwealth and our country — when only those with the means to do so got a quality education.
At lunchtime, the assembled throng was treated to the choral wizardry of “The Cobblestones”, a show choir from the Troy Area School District. Each year PARSS invites a group of youngsters from one of its member schools to perform at the Annual Meeting.
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| Linda Withrow, Deb Ward and Ginny
Lays played ”Who Wants to be a Millionaire?“ The game was used to
demonstrate how to integrate the grant process in school district
programs, how to use the funds wisely and how to go after funds. They
dispensed prizes to those who got the answers to their questions and
sometimes to those who did not.
In the evening, Marty
Strange, Director of Policy for the Rural and Community Trust of the
Annenberg Foundation, told us about how rural folks have to continue to
fight even after having won the battle. In Vermont, where he now lives,
the school equity case was won by the plaintiffs, and the test scores are
rising in the poor areas.
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Dave Hornbeck exhorts the crowd. |
However, the powerful are not content to let
things be and they want to turn things around as they were before. That
occurs in many different parts of our country. Marty suggested that
accountability and adequacy are secondary to first gaining equity.
Measuring success and holding folks responsible before there is a level
playing field is punishment. He said that when his father, who was a
worker in wood said that what he had made was adequate, he knew that he
had to take it apart and start anew.
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| On the second day, Dave Dumeyer, Executive Director of the House Education Committee, Dave
Broderic, Executive Director of the Senate Education Committee, Chris
Wakely, Democratic Director of the House Education Committee and Al Ferguson, Assistant Executive Director of the House Appropriations Committee (Democrat) reviewed the possible legislation coming up, the nature of the state testing system, the standards and the chance of having a new funding scheme passed within the next few years. |
Ken Kane, board member from Kane Area School District explains boardsmanship in a rural school district to Dave
Hornbeck
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Terry Madonna says “the 2002 gubernatorial
race is too close to call”. |
Dr. Terry Madonna, always a welcome attraction at PARSS and the Director of the Center for Political Affairs at Millersville University reviewed
all of the possible candidates for the Gubernatorial race in 2002. His insights can be found on the PARSS website when any of his pungent reports are distributed.
We are sad to report that our very good friend, Tom Gluck, Executive Director of the Senate Education Committee (Democrat) will be leaving us in the middle of this month to accept a position at the Hershey School. We wish him well.
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| PARSS continues to evaluate its programming at the Annual Meeting. We welcome suggestions from our members and friends for future planning. We all thank David
Monsour, Superintendent of the Brookville Area School District for his diligence as Chair of the event. |
Marty Strange giving PARSS an emotional “get up and go.” |
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 Joe
Says... |
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Farewell 2000-2001: So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish |
Apologies to the recently deceased Douglas Adams for my appropriation of the title of one of his books. Although it has little to do with the words to follow, I just like saying it, and thought it could be addressed, symbolically, to the Governor and General Assembly as thanks for the
net full of education legislation they made into law this last month. Tax credits for industry, mentoring money, teacher testing and the possibility of a budget with no small district assistance puts me in mind of a fish stew that wasn’t cooked properly which we had to eat anyway.
By the time many of you read this, the 2000-2001 school year will be over. Of course, the continuous, never-ending nature of public education is demonstrated by the fact that one of the most important, and perhaps most difficult, tasks of the cycle is the preparation and passage of the budget for the next school year.
Education is a profession chock full of old challenges and new opportunities. The work of educating children presents us with a conundrum: the job at hand is always the same, but it takes place in environments of constant change.
Between the end of this school year and the start of the next we will see ample evidence of that change. The passage of the retirement legislation means that many familiar faces will be gone. We can only hope that there will be lots of new faces to replace them. New people in teaching, support and administrative positions are usually a healthy and normal way for institutions to change. My hope is that we don‘t lose more of many school‘s experience base than can be organizationally sustained.
Supply and demand is a marketplace concept that we in education are coming to know on intimate terms. The demand for principals is high, but the supply is very low. The same is true of superintendents. It will become increasingly true for teachers.
Educators richly deserve the opportunity to retire with a decent income, but in the short run it will take thousands of our most experienced people out of the schools. Add to this the phasing in of requirements for education majors to maintain higher G.P.A.s in their areas of certification, and we have the developing picture of a potential shortage of teachers.
One of my primary concerns about this possible scenario is that it will present the enemies of public education a wonderful opportunity to further dilute the quality of people being brought to the field. They have done this already, with “alternative certification” programs, and the allowance for charter schools to be staffed up to 25% by uncertified teachers, thereby encroaching on the integrity of our profession, and the effectiveness of instruction. All done, of course, in the name of school reform and improvement. You believe that, Mortimer, and you truly are a dummy.
What counters this is the fact that a career in education can still be rich and challenging, and satisfying. Those rewards remain an inducement to the kinds of people who, over many generations, have done the job, and done it with skill, dedication and a love for their students. I believe that these are still more powerful forces than the baleful, gray and frequently malevolent ones
exercised by those who claim knowledge of ways to “save” public education, but really only desire its eradication.
I’m not naming names of the people so negatively described above, because issues become muddled when they are personalized, but by this time we should know who they are, or it is shame on us. This is important because those folks will still be there in school year 2001-2002, and in the years to come.
In other words, we must persevere. In the meantime, lets thank them for all the fish. |
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| President
Holds Equity Hearings in Centre County... |
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| PARSS President,
Allan Schoonover, Superintendent of the Penns Valley School District in Centre County, held an equity hearing at the high school on April 24th, 2001. The various presenters spoke from different points of view about school funding and its problems. Tim Potts of the Pennsylvania School Reform Network laid out the general problems. Dr. Patricia Best, Superintendent of the State College School District, Dr. Joseph Bonita, Superintendent of the Bellefonte School District and Allan Schoonover spoke of the mandates, special education, unpredictability and lack of stability of the current system. Dr. Arnold Hillman, advisor to
PARSS, wrapped up the meeting with a statewide discussion of real estate taxes, a dichotomous state in terms of wealth and the possibility of a new funding scheme. |
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| Legislation
and More Legislation... |
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For the many people who are positively affected by the 25% increase in pensions and a chance to retire, this was a good legislative session. State workers, legislators (20% increase), teachers, administrators, support staff and many others this was what many of them had been hoping for. However, the silver cloud may also have a dark lining. In the passage of the other portions of the Governor‘s package, there are such things as tax credits, independent schools, tutoring for students (who will do it?), and teacher testing. The devil will be in the details.
There has been little talk among leaders about the possibility of a new funding or taxation scheme. PARSS believes that will be the purview of the next administration. PARSS has begun to arrange to meet with all of the possible candidates within the next few months. We will ask them about their views of school funding and taxation and whether they would call for a “special session” to repair the system.
Although small district assistance and growing school district funding is still on the table in the legislature, there is no guarantee that it will be there at the end. Interestingly enough, there are PARSS members in both of those categories. Whatever comes through at the end, will not mitigate against PARSS pursuing a new way of funding. While the legislature is voting on the final budget, Senator Rhoades has been having his equity forum. He invited business leaders, school leaders and legislative leaders to a meeting on May 30th to see if they could come to consensus on the issues of school funding and taxation. More on that on the web.
This issue of Cyber schools gained front and center status with Senate bill 891 passing the Senate Education Committee 9-1. There will be opposition from the administration on this one.
The Science in Motion program, pioneered by Don Mitchell at Juniata College, is making a run for a statewide presence at other colleges and universities. There may be some more dough in the budget to expand the program. See our website
www.parss.org for further information. |
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| The
Kids, and Who Cares... |
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“The Cobblestones” from Troy Area School District entertain at PARSS Annual Meeting.
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Sometimes we get so caught up in the political and financial end of education that we forget what we are in business for. The other day we had a chance to visit a school district in the South Central part of PA. They are rural and like many rural schools they hide their light under a basket. There were so many kid-centered things going on in the district, that the six hours that were spent there seemed to go by in a few minutes. |
Being out of the direct running of schools for over 10 years, it was refreshing to see that despite all of the many things that could impact negatively, there was a sense that these folks were going to succeed anyway. The environmental center on the school campus (built by teachers, kids and community members), the anchor period in the morning so that kids could get their work explained to them if they did not get it at home, the looping going on in the middle school, the book and discussion groups among teachers, administrators, board members and others, the number of community people involved in programs and so many, many other things are a part of this positive climate.
You can just walk through the buildings and feel the learning going on. We have felt that in many places in rural Pennsylvania in our lifetime. It goes on in Clarion,
Venango, Tioga, Schuylkill, Bradford, Warren, McKean, Potter, Armstrong, Susquehanna, Monroe, Clearfield, Jefferson, Elk, Cambria, and all the rest.
We have taken it upon ourselves to revisit our friends and colleagues in the wonderful rural areas of our Commonwealth. We are needy, but we will survive and flourish. |
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| PARSS
Focus Groups... |
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Over the past two years, PARSS has invited members of the school communities in the rural portions of PA to tell the organization what it can do for them. This Spring, Carol Hillman of Bright Futures Unlimited has run these focus groups in the
I.U. 10, I.U. 11 and I.U. 19 service areas. There will be two more focus groups within the next few months at
I.U. 14 and I.U. 28.
This year’s groups centered their remarks on additional lobbying, special education, lack of qualified candidates for administrative jobs, lack of candidates for special education, resources to meet the standards, school funding in general and a suggestion that the education community be the ones to select a Secretary of Education.
These were the general suggestions that we heard. The PARSS board will meet in June to go over the list to see in which way they want to head. Thanks to all of those folks who helped set up the meetings. |
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