Article Roundup

Part of the job of being a School Director is keeping up to date with the topics that are gaining attention in the education community. Outside of reading a couple of books, I try to keep up to date by reading many of the journals, magazines, and digests that come my way. It seems that once you are a school board member you get on a special mailing list.

Here is a partial list of articles I have been reading that I found interesting:

-From the, "Hey, things could be a whole lot worse" department- at least we are not going the route of the Belmont High School in Los Angeles. The nation's most expensive high school was just built and they are talking about tearing it down. Ouch! $350 million of taxpayer money will be spent. Check out the story here. Built on an old oil field and right next to an earthquake fault, costs have skyrocketed for this project.

- The American School Board Journal ran an article in its November issue outlining the plans both Obama and McCain have for education. The article started by pointing out the fact that education seems to be on the back burner for BOTH candidates. With a war going on and an economy in free fall it has been much easier for them to put education on the second tier of issues that concern voters. The ASBJ broke down the platform for the candidates as follows:



School Choice seems to be a major difference. Additionally, Obama does have a greater focus on early childhood education. The article lists the cost of Obama's plans to be in the neighborhood of $18 billion, $10 billion of which would go to early childhood learning. The article does not list any costs for McCain as he intends to redirect existing funds to pay for his plans.

- Two Western PA School Districts have merged. The Center Area and the Monaca School Districts, just northwest of Pittsburgh, have decided to merge their two districts. This merger was not forced by the State but instead was taken on independently by the districts. See the article here. Excerpt from the article below:

With local school boards facing spiraling prices for fuel, employee health insurance and other operating costs -- and opposition to increases in property taxes that largely pay for them -- the idea of consolidating to save money is becoming an increasingly common discussion topic.

-There is a another report that hails the benefits of full-day Kindergarten. I have written before that there will be a move towards mandated full-day kindergarten in this state. Please see this article detailing a report by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children that outlines the benefits of full-day kindergarten. Excerpt below:

Schools with students attending full-day kindergarten in 2004-05 improved their third-grade reading scores on the 2007-08 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests twice as much as schools where students did not attend full-day programs, according to the report.

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading.

James

Post Gazette GCA Link

The Post-Gazette had a story that I missed. Please check out the link for more information about the status of the Graduation Competency Assessments.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08294/921253-52.stm

The article and quotes from politicians form the argument against the GCAs as not being good for the already troubled state budget. There is one paragraph in there that gets to the root of the issue and that is local control. Here is that excerpt:

The cost isn't the only concern about the proposed GCAs. Some school districts fear the state may be intruding on local officials' curriculum authority and their power to decide if seniors have learned enough to graduate.

That is what it really boils down to.

Please click on the link here to watch a video about how the GCA might impact our students.


Thanks.

James

Two video links

First, here is a video from the Tredyffrin Easttown School District explaining how statewide Graduate Competency Assessments would effect some of their students. This video is about 12 minutes long. It is very detailed in what our administrators deal with everyday so drink a cup of a coffee, sit down, and then reward yourself with the following inspirational video.

At the PSBA conference last week, our introductory breakfast was kicked off with this video of 10 year old Dalton Sherman. He gave the keynote address to the audience for the kick-off of the Dallas school year. Wow!

James

October Meeting Update

EDIT: The Construction Manager contract is now available on the District website here.

We had a busy and productive schedule in October.

On October 2nd we awarded the construction management contract to PJ Dick. I posted about that here. There were some questions from the public about the contract and why it was not available to the public. While we did agree to the terms (financial and otherwise), there were some minor details in the language of the contract that needed to get worked out. We also had to wait for our attorneys to talk to their attorneys to talk back to our attorneys. From the update we received at last nights meeting, I believe we can expect the contract to be made public sometime today.

While I understand the concern expressed about the lag time between approving the contract and making it public, it was simply not feasible from a legal perspective to make the contract public without it being signed. I am not sure if the competing contract from URS will be made public so that the public can compare the two. If someone asks to see it then I can make that request and see where it goes. PJ Dick was slightly cheaper over the projected project length and it is my belief that their knowledge of the local market will help us save even more money on the full cost of whatever project we do.

Last night we had our regular Board meeting. We kicked it off with a new tradition of having students from one of our schools leading us in the Pledge of Allegience and then we heard the same students speak a little bit about a character education trait they are learning in school. Last nights character education trait was "Respect". Many thanks to the following Lincoln Elementary students for setting a high standard which all future students will try to match: Jake Posti, Noah Donald, Ally Hatton, Elena Rose, and Megan Gibbons, and Teacher, Carol Berklich

A couple of other items of interest that took place last night:
1) The Board President's report focused on the state of this economy and the need for ALL people to vote in the November elections. Regardless of party, this most basic democratic right should not be taken for granted and all people of appropriate age should excercise their right to be included in the democratic process.
2) Audit & Finance Committee has continued to meet to set the tone for future budget discussions. Last Thursday the committee received a list of all revenue for the District. The next meeting in Novemeber is scheduled to be about expenses.
3) The Facilities Committee reported that the PJ Dick contract should be made available today on the District website. Additionally, it is the expectation of the committee that PJ Dick have some information about each of the high school project options to the Board sometime in mid to late Novemeber.
4) The Board approved the establishment of the OPEB (Retiree Healthcare) Trustfund. I have posted about this here , here, and here. During last weeks discussion meeting it was revealed that we expect to have the actuarial study completed for our OPEB liabilities late this month or next month. While I had suggested that the Board fund a full three years of the fund with our $2.7 million 2007-2008 surplus, it was decided to fund only 1 year worth of expenses ($525,000) until this actuarial study is released. My expectation is that once the full liability is known, the Board will fund more of the OPEB Trust Fund than the one year. Once we get that number, I will report it here.
5) The Board approved an expense not to exceed $5,000 for improvements at the Jefferson Softball Field. State Representative Matt Smith had secured a $10,000 grant for this project and there was an additional $5,000 put into the pot by the Mt Lebanon Baseball Association (I believe it was them. If not, someone correct me). This means that of the total $19,629 cost, the District will be responsible for approximately $5,000. While this project was NOT part of our original capital projects list for this year and the process to get to this point was much different than normal, I felt that we should not penalize the hard work of the people who had secured the two grants for the field improvements. In the future we would like all projects like this to be discussed with the Board or the Administration as early as possible so that we do not get blindsided by an unexpected expense. That being said, I would like to thank the parents involved in securing the funding for more than 75% of the cost of this improvement. Good work.
6) I spoke for a moment about Governor Rendell's office and the Pennsylvania Department of Education pursuing statewide graduation competency exams. These exams would replace local school board graduation requirements. There was a press release from the Governor's office just yesterday touting his proposal. While the State Senate voted 48-2 to require the Governor to get legislative approval of any new statewide graduation requirement, the PDE and the Governor continue to move forward with plans to implement this program as early as next school year. Please take a moment to review this video put together by the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District.

Upcoming Board Meetings are as follows:

November 10, 2008 – 6:30 p.m. Architect Updates
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

November 10, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. Discussion Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

November 12, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. Policy Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

November 13, 2008 – 7:00 p.m. Audit & Finance Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

November 17, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. Regular Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

Thanks for reading.

James

PSBA Leadership Forum, Day 3 and Wrapup

Friday morning was the final session for the conference. This session was essentially a presentation from Sam 'the Chalk Man' Glenn. Sam is a motivational speaker with a humorous and universal message about giving your best everyday and seeing the humor in adversity. You can see a demo of his work here.

Besides the seminars, working sessions, and motivational speeches, conferences like this are good for a few other things. First, there was a Vendor Expo where we had over 100 companies available to answer questions and demonstrate some of the services they offered. Secondly, since this was a PSBA conference, I was surrounded by other school board members at all times. I will talk a bit in detail about these other aspects of the conference.

In my full-time position I have been fortunate to attend expos much like the one at the Hershey Lodge. Before going to the expo I made sure to identify 10 vendors that I HAD to see. These were companies that I thought the District might benefit from talking to or vendors that we already do business with. The rest of the time I wanted to have the opportunity to let something catch my eye. Chevron had a booth there. Now, one might start to wonder why the heck Chevron would be at an event like this. I know I did. It turns out they have an energy consulting division that has a written guarantee of 30% energy savings if you go with one of their energy solutions. I talked with the sales guy for 15-20 minutes and came away with some good ideas. I talked to two different roofing companies. They both sell and install materials that can be laid on top of existing roofs that would be far less expensive than a full roof replacement. These materials can be guaranteed for up to 15 years. That sort of product might come in handy some day. I talked with a company that makes a boiler system that runs on alternative fuels like switchgrass patties. These patties pack more energy in them than do traditional energy sources and run about 30% less in cost than typical energy sources. There were obviously a number of other vendors I spoke with but I won't bore you with the details.

The other beneficial part of this conference is the constant interaction with other school board members across the state. You can learn a lot by watching. No matter how well we think our board might operate, there are ways to improve. It was great to be able to sit next to a past president of the PSBA and pick her brain for a while. There were people here with far more experience than I and I made sure to use the opportunity to learn everything I could from their experiences.

All in all I hope to share much of the information I gained from this conference with the rest of the Board over time and I will encourage each of them to try to attend next year. It was well worth the time.

Thanks for reading.

James

PSBA Leadership Forum, Day 2

Day 2 of the conference had a lot more to do with the business of the PSBA than Day 1.

During the morning session the PSBA adopted its Legislative Platform for 2009. One of the things the PSBA is good at is lobbying. Each year the organization adopts a number of platforms that it will try to advance through its lobbying efforts. Day 2 of the conference involved discussion surrounding the inclusion or exclusion of certain topics to this platform.

Here are some highlights of the adopted 2009 PSBA Platform:

1) Under Buildings and Construction- The PSBA support legislation that provides school districts with the same options for school construction and/or renovation projects that are available to te private sector. This includes relief from the Prevailing Wage Act and Separations Act ... and the opportunity for school districts to contract with a single firm to design and build school facilities.

2) Under Educational Programs and Assessment- The PSBA opposes any effort to reduce or remove the authority of local school districts to establish graduation requirements

3) Under School Governance- The PSBA supports legislation calling for the nonpartisan election of school directors.

4) Under Federal Issues- The PSBA support efforts that allow local decision making and flexibility to better serve students in implementation of the No Childe Left Vehind Act and the IDEA.

Sounds boring, right? Actually, this platform is probably the most important part of what PSBA does in my opinion. The PSBA's opposition to the statewide Graduation Assessment was instrumental in getting that program blocked this year. The PSBA was also instrumental in securing higher minimum State school funding in this past budget. That effort resulted in MTLSD receiving a 3% minimum increase in State funding as opposed to the orignally proposed 1.5%.

After that part of the conference I was ready for some real fun. I decided it was time to dig deeper into Pennsylvania's Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for Educators. This session was dedicated to reviewing how school district employees are responsible for behaving within some ethical guidelines set by this organization. The Professional Standards and Practices Commission put this seminar on and it was interesting to learn how they operate and what they do. Mt. Lebanon had a recent, very public case that was before the commission. Under certain circumstances the PSPC has the ability to revoke the certificate of those that violate the standards of the organization.

The lunch break came and I attended the vendor showcase in the Great American Hall. I will share the information gleaned from this part of the conference at another time.

After lunch I attended a session that reviewed recent case law that will have an effect on how all school districts operate in Pennsylvania. We reviewed the effect that even some local cases will have on our District. You may remember a case in northern Allegheny County where a student decided to put up a web page that was insulting to an employee in the school district. There was a similar case in Central PA where a student started a Facebook page mocking a school principal. The outcome of each case was very different. School Districts need to find out how to operate in an environment with laws that seem to contradict. There was another case where a student reported to a teacher that another student had drugs on her. The teacher reported to the vice-principal this information and the vice-principal then found the suspected student on campus. He brought the student to the office, had her empty her pockets and sure enough, the evidence was found. The case against this student was later deemed to be inappropriate search and seizure and there was no action that the District could take under these circumstances. We learned how to protect our rights in this instance so that if we are faced with a similar case we would be able to properly move forward without violating the Constitution.

Later in the afternoon there was a PSBA business meeting that dealt with the election of new officers to their positions.

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading.

James

PSBA Leadership Forum, Day 1

I am spending a few days this week out in Hershey, PA at the Pennsylvania School Leadership Conference. This conference is held each year and is presented by the Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA).

Before I head out for Day 2, I wanted to put some highlights down from Day 1.

We kicked off the day with a welcome speech. One of the videos that is making the rounds on the internet today is this one. This is what education is all about. The belief in people to achieve. Do YOU believe. You will after watching that video. The introduction was followed by a terrific speech from Dr. Rudy Crew. Crew has been there and done that. From New York to Miami to Sacramento, the man is at his best when schools are at their worst. His message, while focused on his experience in inner-city schools, is a universal one. His morning greeting boiled down to a few terrific points:

1) Aim low, get low- The education system as constructed today is fundamentally flawed. We have schools across this country that aim at the No Child Left Behind scores for Adequate Yearly Progress. Crew says this is a false sense of success. When schools aim to get their students to show AYP progress they forget the important things. If you aim to get AYP progress, you will get AYP progress and not much else. We must aim high to achieve high goals. In the world of globalization that we will be entering it is not about who has the best AYP score. It is about who can do the jobs in a globalized world.
2) Civic Literacy in America has been killed- When you have Jay Leno, Howard Stern and others out on the streets interviewing average Americans about simple facts on civics and they literally have no clue, what does that say about our education system? What does it say about our education systems that you could ask the same questions of people in France, Germany, Australia, Latvia, etc. and they would KNOW the answers to American civics. Why is it that other countries put more emphasis on the American way than Americans do? Crew suggests that our educators must begin to re-emphasize the importance of civic literacy lest we lose sight of what this country is supposed to be all about.
3) Wear your best everyday- Dr. Crew emphasized the importance of doing our best everyday. Kids come to school to learn. In the places where Crew has worked, sometimes school is all these kids have to get shelter, to get food, to get love, and to get support. It is important for educators to understand this dynamic and to put their "best dress" on everyday.

Dr. Crew is an accomplished speaker and educator. You can view one of his presentations here.

I was moved by his morning speech and attended his break-out group on the topic of Educating in a Globalized world. This section dug much deeper into the topics mentioned above. He also talked a bit about the disparities in funding from one school district to another and the effect this has on students.

The afternoon session I attended was a legislative update. There are a number of worrisome bills out that that I will call more attention to later. Here is a short list:
1) Statewide Graduation Competency Assessments- While this issue was supposed to have been put to rest last year, the Board of Education is moving forward with plans to re-introduce GCA requirements when the moratorium expires next July. PDE has submitted an RFP for the formation of the actual tests. This RFP will be awarded in January. I have posted about the GCAs before and will do so again. That discussion will be its own post.
2) Allegheny County Assessment Appeal- This is another topic I posted about before. Allegheny County appealed a decision to the PA Supreme Court regarding using base-years to calculate real estate taxes. The PSBA does not think this decision will come down for at least another six months. If the court agress with Judge Wettick's decision then it will have a profound effect on property tax procedures in Pennsylvania.

This post went a little long and I have to get ready for Day 2.

Thanks for reading.

James

Solar Technology Today

I came across a couple of links that I thought I would share.

CH2M Hill is a global company that is involved in engineering, construction, and operations. They have embarked on a project to identify the potential of using solar energy in 25 cities across the country.

There was an article on Marketwatch over the weekend explaining what CH2M Hill was doing and how they were doing it. Here is a quick excerpt from that article:

Punching an address into the city's search engine pulls up data on the estimated amount of solar photovoltaic energy that could be installed on a specific roof, potential electricity cost reduction, and potential carbon dioxide/greenhouse gas reduction.

Imagine being able to do that for every city in the Country and then specifically for your own home. That is where this is going. San Francisco, CA already has employed the technology. Check out this link http://sf.solarmap.org . I brought up my old address 2375 35th Ave and it pulled up a ton of information on the potential for using solar energy.

Another excerpt from the article:

"Right now, to get a solar assessment on a roof, you have to call up the solar installer, they bring their ladder, a guy wonders around on your roof, and two or three weeks later you get a report," Herrmann said. "With this technology, you could do it accurately and quickly without having to roll a truck."

Here is CH2M Hill's factsheet on the S.A.F.E technology

Think about how much money is going to be saved with this initiative. No longer will it require man-hours to do a site survey for study of the viability of solar energy at every site. For the first time in a long time I am excited about the possibility of large numbers of energy neutral homes coming on line in the next five years.

CH2M Hill has offices out by the airport. Here's hoping Pittsburgh is one of the next cities to be evaluated.

Thanks for reading.

James

Economic Woes Getting Closer to Home

There was an interesting article in the Tribune Review yesterday. The State now has to trim $2.5 billion from its budget that was just passed in July.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/search/s_592198.html

It will be interesting to see from where they cut.

Thanks for reading.

James

Construction Manager Selected

Last night the Board held a special meeting to select a construction manager for the project. Our construction manager will be PJ Dick. You can visit their website here.

My reasoning for voting for awarding the contract to PJ Dick are as follows:
1) Very positive references from other Western Pennsylvania school districts
2) Willingness to listen to the District and be helpful in completing a project that meets a certain, specified budget number
3) Willingness to evaluate ALL options on the table with regards to the project
4) Very experienced team of local professionals that have worked on local school projects

The final companies that were up for selection were both well qualified and capable. The costs for each CM were also very similar. In the end I voted for the team that I think can bring the best value to the District.

Email questions and concerns to james.fraasch@gmail.com

James

Special Meeting Tonight

The Board has called a special meeting for tonight at 7pm in the high school library to vote on the construction manager for the high school project.

Please see the agenda here.

I look forward to reviewing the proposals in executive session prior to the meeting.

James

Pennsylvania Department of Education Pre-K Findings

Pennsylvania Department of Education has released a report that shows the "Positive Impact in Children's Lives Made By Pre-K Counts". Excerpt below:

According to the report:
• 94 percent of Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts children finished the school year with age-appropriate skills and behavior or emerging age-appropriate skills and behavior.
• 95 percent of children in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts are affected by at least one risk factor for school failure; 75 percent are affected by two or more risk factors.
• 63 percent of lead teachers have obtained, or are working towards, teacher certification in early childhood education.
• Average class size of 16 children per lead teacher and teacher aides surpasses best practices in the field.
• Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is serving three- and four-year-olds in every region of the state in school- and community-based programs.
• When compared to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s benchmarks for quality early education program, Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts meets or exceeds nearly every quality benchmark.

This information goes to what I said in a previous post about the strong possibility that PDE mandates full-day kindergarten for all school districts in the State. They are continually pushing this information out there in hopes of finding broad-based support for the change. I have no idea on the time-frame but I would guess it would happen before Rendell leaves office.

James