From the BCCT.
Plenty of ways to spend your Labor Day
Three communities are marking the unofficial end of the summer on Labor Day with some partying.
Morrisville, Lower Makefield and the Venice Ashby section of Bristol Township have events planned for the entire day Monday.
Morrisville’s festivities jumpstart with the Morrisville Fire Co.’s 10K run in the morning.
The rest of the day will feature a car show on East Bridge Street, plenty of food vendors, games, live entertainment, arts and more.
The 10K Labor Day Run begins at 9 a.m. at Williamson Park on North Delmorr Avenue. Entry fees for the race are $25 in advance, or $30 on race day when registration will be held between 7 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Registration forms can be obtained on the Web at www.morrisville98.com.
The car show begins at 10 a.m., and other planned events will be held throughout the day at Williamson Park on Delmorr Avenue. There will be a large inflatable slide and castle for the kids, face painting, a scavenger hunt, a visual arts program, bingo, live entertainment from the Daisy Jug Band and more. These events are free and open to the public. Food vendors will set up a food tent at Hogs and Rice motorcycle shop at Bridge Street and Delmorr Avenue.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Find other ways to run school
From the Standard Speaker, Hazleton, PA.
Teachers need licensing. Drivers do too. Elected positions? Not so much. Other than an age or residency requirement, just about anyone can be elected to anything. We can debate if John McCain is more experienced than Barack Obama, but what experience truly prepares anyone to sit in the Oval Office?
Are school board members qualified to be school board members? Should professional educators be running the schools, or is "civilian" control and oversight required? What would be the basic requirements to qualify someone to be an effective school board member? Are the "hard" skills like facilities management and effective budgeting the required core competencies, or is it the "soft" skills of negotiation and finesse that are required?
Find other ways to run school
Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:22 AM EDT
There is no question that under the current system, school board members in Pennsylvania need education. School districts are complex entities, with budgets running into the tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. School operations include specialties in many different aspects of education, labor relations, law, construction management, logistics, business management, transportation and so on. Conscientious school board members often are overwhelmed not just by the workload, but by the complexity of the task. Those who are not so conscientious focus on the more readily understandable political elements of the position.
In Pennsylvania the qualifications to sit on a school board do not address the complexity of the job. The law requires candidates to be 18 or older, and a resident of the district for at least a year.
Moreover, the duties of school board members also are ill-defined. That’s why some members attempt to meddle in day-to-day district operations rather than to set the broad policies to be implemented by district professionals.
The school board structure itself is a vestige of the earliest days of public education, when each local school district truly was a distinct entity, often in an isolated community. Society has changed dramatically but the school board structure has not adapted.
School board competence is an issue across the nation, and there has been some experimentation. In a few jurisdictions, each school in a district operates as a charter school with an individual board. The function of the districtwide board is to approve and regulate the charters. In a few others, local jurisdictions establish qualifications and board members are appointed by mayors in accordance with those standards, usually through a screening commission.
Pennsylvania has a particular issue due to another vestige of an earlier era — vast, counterproductive fragmentation of local government. Pennsylvania has 501 school districts — most of them tiny. That ensures costly, redundant administration and small pools of potential school board candidates with a limited range of experiences.
Reform possibilities abound
Many reforms are possible:
--Consolidate small districts: Pennsylvanians elect multiple school boards in areas where one would be adequate. In addition to economies that would be realized, effective consolidation would create greater competition for school board seats and force candidates to rely on more than their local political base.
--Eliminate cross-filing: School board candidates are allowed to run on both major-party ballots under the amusing theory that doing so will eliminate politics as the driving force in school administration. In reality, it eliminates competition for school board seats, especially in jurisdictions where one party is dominant.
--Pay school directors: Conscientious school board service is time-consuming and demanding. Paying board members might produce more candidates with a wider range of experience and expertise.
--Set minimum standards: Magisterial district judges are not required to be lawyers, but they are required to take a course and to pass a test between their election and their service. School board members should be required to meet some basic requirements for service.
--Better define roles: School boards regularly hire superintendents at six-figure salaries and then prevent the superintendent from effectively using the knowledge and experience for which he was hired. The law should be rewritten to expressly preclude directors’ interference in day-to-day operations. That includes hiring of professional personnel other than the superintendent, which should be left to professionals.
The ultimate answer probably is a new school board structure that reflects modern circumstances. The Legislature should establish an independent commission to study that question, even as it tackles reforms to make the current system more effective.
Teachers need licensing. Drivers do too. Elected positions? Not so much. Other than an age or residency requirement, just about anyone can be elected to anything. We can debate if John McCain is more experienced than Barack Obama, but what experience truly prepares anyone to sit in the Oval Office?
Are school board members qualified to be school board members? Should professional educators be running the schools, or is "civilian" control and oversight required? What would be the basic requirements to qualify someone to be an effective school board member? Are the "hard" skills like facilities management and effective budgeting the required core competencies, or is it the "soft" skills of negotiation and finesse that are required?
Find other ways to run school
Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:22 AM EDT
There is no question that under the current system, school board members in Pennsylvania need education. School districts are complex entities, with budgets running into the tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. School operations include specialties in many different aspects of education, labor relations, law, construction management, logistics, business management, transportation and so on. Conscientious school board members often are overwhelmed not just by the workload, but by the complexity of the task. Those who are not so conscientious focus on the more readily understandable political elements of the position.
In Pennsylvania the qualifications to sit on a school board do not address the complexity of the job. The law requires candidates to be 18 or older, and a resident of the district for at least a year.
Moreover, the duties of school board members also are ill-defined. That’s why some members attempt to meddle in day-to-day district operations rather than to set the broad policies to be implemented by district professionals.
The school board structure itself is a vestige of the earliest days of public education, when each local school district truly was a distinct entity, often in an isolated community. Society has changed dramatically but the school board structure has not adapted.
School board competence is an issue across the nation, and there has been some experimentation. In a few jurisdictions, each school in a district operates as a charter school with an individual board. The function of the districtwide board is to approve and regulate the charters. In a few others, local jurisdictions establish qualifications and board members are appointed by mayors in accordance with those standards, usually through a screening commission.
Pennsylvania has a particular issue due to another vestige of an earlier era — vast, counterproductive fragmentation of local government. Pennsylvania has 501 school districts — most of them tiny. That ensures costly, redundant administration and small pools of potential school board candidates with a limited range of experiences.
Reform possibilities abound
Many reforms are possible:
--Consolidate small districts: Pennsylvanians elect multiple school boards in areas where one would be adequate. In addition to economies that would be realized, effective consolidation would create greater competition for school board seats and force candidates to rely on more than their local political base.
--Eliminate cross-filing: School board candidates are allowed to run on both major-party ballots under the amusing theory that doing so will eliminate politics as the driving force in school administration. In reality, it eliminates competition for school board seats, especially in jurisdictions where one party is dominant.
--Pay school directors: Conscientious school board service is time-consuming and demanding. Paying board members might produce more candidates with a wider range of experience and expertise.
--Set minimum standards: Magisterial district judges are not required to be lawyers, but they are required to take a course and to pass a test between their election and their service. School board members should be required to meet some basic requirements for service.
--Better define roles: School boards regularly hire superintendents at six-figure salaries and then prevent the superintendent from effectively using the knowledge and experience for which he was hired. The law should be rewritten to expressly preclude directors’ interference in day-to-day operations. That includes hiring of professional personnel other than the superintendent, which should be left to professionals.
The ultimate answer probably is a new school board structure that reflects modern circumstances. The Legislature should establish an independent commission to study that question, even as it tackles reforms to make the current system more effective.
Test Revolt?
Central Bucks school district news, from the Intelligencer
Directors talk of state test revolt
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer
Everything about Tuesday night's school board meeting was pretty routine, including the school board's vote to approve the state testing schedule.
But the discussion school board members had before they approved the schedule was anything but routine.
School board members discussed protesting No Child Left Behind and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment by refusing to administer the test to Central Bucks students. The discussion came soon after the state Department of Education decided to make schools administer the PSSA in May. School district administrators objected and the Department of Education retracted its order.
“What happens if we opt out of No Child Left Behind?” board Vice President Stephen Corr asked.
No one knew the answer.
Superintendent N. Robert Laws said the district would probably lose the $4 million in federal funding it gets each year, which adds up to only about 1.5 percent of the district's total budget.
“We can't do that,” Corr said. “But this is a total waste of our time. It seems more and more ridiculous.”
School board member Chris Asplen asked if Central Bucks students who are applying to colleges would suffer from not taking the PSSA.
Laws said he doesn't think colleges consider PSSA scores when they look at a student's application.
The PSSA is the state's tool for determining whether school districts are meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Laws said. It's also the way the state measures Pennsylvania's 501 school districts against each other.
“Just for our own public relations, where we stand in the state appears good for us,” school board member Thomas Baldwin said. “If you don't have something else the state uses as a benchmark, where does that put us?”
Several school board members suggested getting other school districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which typically score well on the PSSA but get little state and federal funding, to join them in a protest of the state assessment test.
School board President Geryl McMullin said, “The people at the Department of Education are not in touch with reality.”
“We have to get serious,” she said. “I think what matters here is what we're doing to kids. We're taking away valuable instruction time ... it's absurd.”
Asplen said he thought a protest would mean a lot coming from Central Bucks.
“I think we'd be able to get other districts,” Corr said. “But we're too late in the cycle to stop that now.”
Corr suggested looking at the issue again next year.
Laws said he would study No Child Left Behind, the PSSA and the consequences for school districts that do not participate.
“Public education is a function of the state. I'm an officer of the state. I'm commissioned by the state. You're commissioned by the state. I don't know what the result of a mutiny is,” he said.
“The state takes over your school district,” Corr answered.
“But I thought they already did.”
Directors talk of state test revolt
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer
Everything about Tuesday night's school board meeting was pretty routine, including the school board's vote to approve the state testing schedule.
But the discussion school board members had before they approved the schedule was anything but routine.
School board members discussed protesting No Child Left Behind and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment by refusing to administer the test to Central Bucks students. The discussion came soon after the state Department of Education decided to make schools administer the PSSA in May. School district administrators objected and the Department of Education retracted its order.
“What happens if we opt out of No Child Left Behind?” board Vice President Stephen Corr asked.
No one knew the answer.
Superintendent N. Robert Laws said the district would probably lose the $4 million in federal funding it gets each year, which adds up to only about 1.5 percent of the district's total budget.
“We can't do that,” Corr said. “But this is a total waste of our time. It seems more and more ridiculous.”
School board member Chris Asplen asked if Central Bucks students who are applying to colleges would suffer from not taking the PSSA.
Laws said he doesn't think colleges consider PSSA scores when they look at a student's application.
The PSSA is the state's tool for determining whether school districts are meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Laws said. It's also the way the state measures Pennsylvania's 501 school districts against each other.
“Just for our own public relations, where we stand in the state appears good for us,” school board member Thomas Baldwin said. “If you don't have something else the state uses as a benchmark, where does that put us?”
Several school board members suggested getting other school districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which typically score well on the PSSA but get little state and federal funding, to join them in a protest of the state assessment test.
School board President Geryl McMullin said, “The people at the Department of Education are not in touch with reality.”
“We have to get serious,” she said. “I think what matters here is what we're doing to kids. We're taking away valuable instruction time ... it's absurd.”
Asplen said he thought a protest would mean a lot coming from Central Bucks.
“I think we'd be able to get other districts,” Corr said. “But we're too late in the cycle to stop that now.”
Corr suggested looking at the issue again next year.
Laws said he would study No Child Left Behind, the PSSA and the consequences for school districts that do not participate.
“Public education is a function of the state. I'm an officer of the state. I'm commissioned by the state. You're commissioned by the state. I don't know what the result of a mutiny is,” he said.
“The state takes over your school district,” Corr answered.
“But I thought they already did.”
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