From the Fayetteville Morning News. The Greenland school district continues to climb out of their hole after the state DoE took over the district.
The community there is pulling together. How many corporate contributions can Morrisville expect if they are made to a board whose president flatly tells clients not to invest in Morrisville?
Greenland Schools Still Moving Forward With Improving Finances
Cox Communications donates $600 to district's art program
Last updated Thursday, February 12, 2009 9:03 PM CST in News
By Rose Ann Pearce, THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- The Greenland School District continues to make progress toward digging itself out of its financial hole, Superintendent Roland Smith told about 50 employees and patrons Thursday.
In a 60-minute presentation in the Greenland High School cafeteria, Smith touched on a number of issues that have occurred since August, including the success of students in and out of the classroom; volunteers who have stepped up to raise more than $80,000; and school officials and local patrons who spent hours getting the school grounds in order after last month's ice storm.
There were also reports on monthly expenditures on different accounts in the district budget, which show the different is spending $125,211 less from July to January this fiscal year from last fiscal year for salaries and operation.
Smith is making monthly reports to the community since the Arkansas Department of Education took over financial control of the district last July for because of its financial difficulties.
Smith upped his estimated year end balance to $150,000 for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. His previous estimate was $137,000.
Looking ahead to the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins July 1, Smith projected Greenland should have "a very health $450,000 minimum ending balance." And, he added, by the end of the next fiscal year, by June 30, 2010, Greenland should be in the range of having a reserve fund of 7 percent to 10 percent of the total operating budget, as recommended by the state.
*
Over the past 10 years, Greenland ending year balances have fluctuated from a high of $866,302, in 1998-99 to a low of $1,994 in 2007-08. That figure includes an operating loan of $621,000.
In other reports, athletic director Lee Larkan announced a new program at the high school to encourage students to complete homework assignments in class and at night.
A team of teachers is volunteering to provide additional tutoring in math and literacy before and after school. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the additional time if they need help.
"When you don't do homework, getting a zero is no option," Larkan said. Students who are referred to the tutoring sessions have no option either. If a student misses two sessions, parents are notified. By the fourth absence, the student, parents, teacher and either Larkan or Principal Hope Dorman will have a sit-down conference at the high school.
The district also received a $600 donation from employees at the Cox Communications office in Fayetteville for the district's art program. Elementary art teach Carol Moeller said the money will be used to expand the clay and tile art program.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Maths, Sciences, and Bizness
From the Inquirer.
Maybe this year, all the Morrisville candidates for the board of education should display their edumakashunal skillz and take the PSSA themselves before saying they they can run a school district and answer the question "Is our children learning?"?
Why the stimulus needed to keep education
By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted on Fri, Feb. 13, 2009
PNC typically interviews eight job candidates to find one who can pass the math test required for certain jobs at its Eastwick operations center across from the airport.
"It's costly to any corporation when you have to interview that many people to fill one job," Bill Mills, president of PNC Financial Services Group for Philadelphia and South Jersey, said yesterday.
PNC's experience is an example of why advocates say education spending belongs in the $789 billion economic-stimulus package being negotiated in Congress: Ineffective education is a drag on productivity.
C. Kent McGuire, dean of Temple University's College of Education, welcomed the money set aside for education in the compromise between House and Senate leaders - reportedly more than $90 billion - but cautioned that much more thinking needs to go into how to make the U.S. education system meet 21st-century needs.
"It's not a strategy, but it is implicit recognition that these are areas in which we have to invest," said McGuire, referring to the education spending in the bill.
McGuire and other experts said that certain kinds of education spending, such as the support to states that could prevent teachers from losing their jobs and money for school modernization and repair fit the need for short-term economic stimulus.
Spending on infrastructure is considered by many to be a legitimate part of the stimulus package because it puts people to work quickly while generating long-term productivity gains.
Likewise, spending on education is another sort of infrastructure spending because it, if done wisely, builds a productive workforce for the future that can generate faster economic growth, said Eric Thompson, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska.
Some analysts point to U.S. history to back up this argument.
They say that periods of fast U.S. economic growth, measured by increases in per capita gross domestic product, are usually preceded by substantial gains in the overall education level of the populace.
For example, within a generation of the widespread development of the public school system in the second half of the 19th century, the country had the largest literate workforce in the world, said Abby Joseph Cohen, senior U.S. investment strategist at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Subsequently, between roughly 1890 and the start of World War I, the United States became the most productive nation in the world, Cohen said.
After World War II, the initial GI bill diverted nearly eight million veterans into higher education, sparing them from the dismal job market.
"It got them off the streets, so they weren't competing for the few available jobs, and it increased their skill levels," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington and former governor of West Virginia. The nation had "30 years of unprecedented economic growth afterward," Wise said.
But in the last decade or so, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who completed high school has stagnated to about 86 percent, and the college completion rate has risen only modestly, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
McGuire, of Temple, said what really matters is that the pace of educational advancement in the United States is falling behind that of other nations, particularly India and China.
It is not enough to simply make sure more students make it through college, which is the goal of the proposed $500 increase in the maximum Pell grant and the effort by Gov. Rendell to legalize video poker to raise money for tuition grants, one expert said.
"I think that there is this sort of default belief in this country that going to college means you are going to be better off no matter what you do. The reality is that colleges were not set up for a post-industrial age," said Julian Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center, a nonprofit in New York. "We have a lot of people with college degrees who are not prepared to step into the workforce."
Some economists counter McGuire's view that modernizing schools is an important part of improving performance.
"I don't think there is much evidence that if you spruce up our buildings, our kids will learn more and be better prepared for the job market," said Gerhard Glomm, an economics professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. "You might get more bang for the buck if you hire smart teachers."
That is where PNC is putting some of its money, in teachers, funding a professorship in early-childhood education at Temple as part of a $100 million, 10-year commitment to boost education for children from birth to age 5.
"I think it's so important," Mills, of PNC, said, "but also the real challenge is that it doesn't have a pay back for a very, very long time."
Maybe this year, all the Morrisville candidates for the board of education should display their edumakashunal skillz and take the PSSA themselves before saying they they can run a school district and answer the question "Is our children learning?"?
Why the stimulus needed to keep education
By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted on Fri, Feb. 13, 2009
PNC typically interviews eight job candidates to find one who can pass the math test required for certain jobs at its Eastwick operations center across from the airport.
"It's costly to any corporation when you have to interview that many people to fill one job," Bill Mills, president of PNC Financial Services Group for Philadelphia and South Jersey, said yesterday.
PNC's experience is an example of why advocates say education spending belongs in the $789 billion economic-stimulus package being negotiated in Congress: Ineffective education is a drag on productivity.
C. Kent McGuire, dean of Temple University's College of Education, welcomed the money set aside for education in the compromise between House and Senate leaders - reportedly more than $90 billion - but cautioned that much more thinking needs to go into how to make the U.S. education system meet 21st-century needs.
"It's not a strategy, but it is implicit recognition that these are areas in which we have to invest," said McGuire, referring to the education spending in the bill.
McGuire and other experts said that certain kinds of education spending, such as the support to states that could prevent teachers from losing their jobs and money for school modernization and repair fit the need for short-term economic stimulus.
Spending on infrastructure is considered by many to be a legitimate part of the stimulus package because it puts people to work quickly while generating long-term productivity gains.
Likewise, spending on education is another sort of infrastructure spending because it, if done wisely, builds a productive workforce for the future that can generate faster economic growth, said Eric Thompson, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska.
Some analysts point to U.S. history to back up this argument.
They say that periods of fast U.S. economic growth, measured by increases in per capita gross domestic product, are usually preceded by substantial gains in the overall education level of the populace.
For example, within a generation of the widespread development of the public school system in the second half of the 19th century, the country had the largest literate workforce in the world, said Abby Joseph Cohen, senior U.S. investment strategist at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Subsequently, between roughly 1890 and the start of World War I, the United States became the most productive nation in the world, Cohen said.
After World War II, the initial GI bill diverted nearly eight million veterans into higher education, sparing them from the dismal job market.
"It got them off the streets, so they weren't competing for the few available jobs, and it increased their skill levels," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington and former governor of West Virginia. The nation had "30 years of unprecedented economic growth afterward," Wise said.
But in the last decade or so, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who completed high school has stagnated to about 86 percent, and the college completion rate has risen only modestly, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
McGuire, of Temple, said what really matters is that the pace of educational advancement in the United States is falling behind that of other nations, particularly India and China.
It is not enough to simply make sure more students make it through college, which is the goal of the proposed $500 increase in the maximum Pell grant and the effort by Gov. Rendell to legalize video poker to raise money for tuition grants, one expert said.
"I think that there is this sort of default belief in this country that going to college means you are going to be better off no matter what you do. The reality is that colleges were not set up for a post-industrial age," said Julian Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center, a nonprofit in New York. "We have a lot of people with college degrees who are not prepared to step into the workforce."
Some economists counter McGuire's view that modernizing schools is an important part of improving performance.
"I don't think there is much evidence that if you spruce up our buildings, our kids will learn more and be better prepared for the job market," said Gerhard Glomm, an economics professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. "You might get more bang for the buck if you hire smart teachers."
That is where PNC is putting some of its money, in teachers, funding a professorship in early-childhood education at Temple as part of a $100 million, 10-year commitment to boost education for children from birth to age 5.
"I think it's so important," Mills, of PNC, said, "but also the real challenge is that it doesn't have a pay back for a very, very long time."
Superintendent on medical leave
From the BCCT.
Best wishes to Dr. Yonson for a speedy recovery.
This also means that Mr. Ferrara will get to experience those 3:00 A.M. calls telling us another school has another problem.
Superintendent to be on medical leave
Posted in News on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 2:59 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Morrisville Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson will be on medical leave for four to six weeks starting Tuesday. She said she will undergo a surgical procedure. High school Principal William Ferrara will assume some of her responsibilities and interact with parents while she is gone.
“There’s a great team here. That’s really what’s going to make the district run smoothly. I’m just the point person here. We will be in weekly if not daily contact with Dr. Yonson,” he said Friday.
Best wishes to Dr. Yonson for a speedy recovery.
This also means that Mr. Ferrara will get to experience those 3:00 A.M. calls telling us another school has another problem.
Superintendent to be on medical leave
Posted in News on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 2:59 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Morrisville Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson will be on medical leave for four to six weeks starting Tuesday. She said she will undergo a surgical procedure. High school Principal William Ferrara will assume some of her responsibilities and interact with parents while she is gone.
“There’s a great team here. That’s really what’s going to make the district run smoothly. I’m just the point person here. We will be in weekly if not daily contact with Dr. Yonson,” he said Friday.
What's In a Name?
Merged W.Pa. school district selects name
The Associated Press
Posted: 02/13/2009 01:41:52 PM EST
MONACA, Pa.—A merged school district in western Pennsylvania has settled on a name.
The former Center Area and Monaca school districts in Beaver County will be known as Central Valley. Officials from the schools chose the name Thursday evening.
More than 760 suggestions had been made. Many were humorous or even possible criticisms of the merger including District X, United Ninjas, Candyland or the I Don't Care School District.
The merger, which creates Pennsylvania's first new school district in 25 year, becomes official July 1.
Central Valley will combine elementary classes next school year, and middle school and high school classes will follow in the fall of 2010.
The Associated Press
Posted: 02/13/2009 01:41:52 PM EST
MONACA, Pa.—A merged school district in western Pennsylvania has settled on a name.
The former Center Area and Monaca school districts in Beaver County will be known as Central Valley. Officials from the schools chose the name Thursday evening.
More than 760 suggestions had been made. Many were humorous or even possible criticisms of the merger including District X, United Ninjas, Candyland or the I Don't Care School District.
The merger, which creates Pennsylvania's first new school district in 25 year, becomes official July 1.
Central Valley will combine elementary classes next school year, and middle school and high school classes will follow in the fall of 2010.
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