PSBoE President Resigns

From the Inquirer.

Chairman of Pa. education board resigns

MARTHA RAFFAELE The Associated Press Posted on Wed, Jul. 23, 2008

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The chairman of the State Board of Education said Wednesday he is leaving the board after being asked by Gov. Ed Rendell to give up his leadership post.

Karl Girton's resignation, effective Aug. 1, follows months of criticism of a board proposal that Pennsylvania students pass a series of tests before they can graduate high school. The 22-member board sets state education policy and regulations for K-12 public schools and higher education.

But Girton and a Rendell spokesman said the resignation was unrelated to controversy over the testing proposal, an initiative championed by Girton and the administration.

Girton, who has served on the board since 1992, said he spoke Friday by telephone with Rendell, who asked him to step down as chairman but stay on the board until the governor leaves office in 2011. After taking the weekend to think it over, Girton decided to leave the board altogether.

"There are no hard feelings," Girton said. "I just think it's in the best interest of the board that I decline his invitation to remain on the board. ... I don't think I would have been effective."

The governor felt the time was right to appoint a new chairman, given the recent turnover on the board, Rendell's spokesman Chuck Ardo said Wednesday.

"I don't think anybody is disappointed with his performance," Ardo said.

Seventeen of the board's members are nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. Eight new board members were confirmed to fill vacancies in April , the largest number of new members since Rendell took office, Ardo said.

Rendell waited to raise the issue of new board leadership with Girton because the administration was focused on completing the 2008-09 state budget and didn't have time to consider other issues, Ardo said.

Girton, a partner with a management services company in Millville, said in a letter he sent Tuesday to Rendell that his resignation "will clear the board for another nominee and the opportunity for the entire board to more effectively coalesce around the new chair."

The board's plan to adopt new graduation requirements stalled this year amid opposition from many lawmakers, school board members and educators who said the proposed rules would undermine the policymaking authority of local school boards.

The board envisioned creating 10 subject-specific final high school exams, and students would have to pass six in order to graduate, starting with the class of 2014. Failing students could be retested.

Among the most vocal opponents of the plan was the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union. Association spokesman Wythe Keever said the union did not put any pressure on Rendell to remove Girton from his leadership post.

In an effort to win broader support for the idea, the state Education Department is planning to develop tests that school districts can administer voluntarily, starting in the 2009-10 school year.

Girton served as chairman of the board's council of basic education, which oversees K-12 regulations and policy, from 1999 until he was appointed chairman of the full board by then-Gov. Mark S. Schweiker in 2002.

During his tenure, Girton presided over updates of the state's academic standards and the adoption of new early-childhood education standards, among other policy changes.

Girton is a former Millville Area School Board member and former director of the Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, a regional education agency, in Snyder County.