Gov. Wolf’s Education Spending Deception

The Octorara Area Board of Directors and Finance Committee met on Monday, February 20, 2017. All nine Board members were in attendance.

Issues Influencing Octorara’s 2017-2018 Budget

Currently, there are no changes to Octorara’s Draft 2017-2018 Budget. We are still looking at a tax increase, once again, up to the legal limit. Despite this, a revenue shortfall will cause a deficit of $1.2 Million and a use of Fund Balance of $652,775. That said, Mr. Jeff Curtis provided the Board with new information that may affect the budget.

⇒ Governor Wolf’s Proposed State Budget

Governor Wolf has been getting some positive media coverage for proposing a “reasonable” new state budget while increasing Education spending. Well, the devil is in the details. First, here is what the Governor’s friends in the media are saying:

“In this third budget proposal, Wolf once again prioritized education spending, which was a campaign promise he made after his predecessor Gov. Tom Corbett slashed it amid the Great Recession.

Wolf’s planned $32.3 billion budget for 2017-18 calls for a $100 million increase in basic education. It also calls for  $75 million more in early childhood education, $25 million more for special education and $8.9 million more for the 14 state-owned universities.” – The Morning Call

Sounds good so far, right? In other reporting, it is explained that the increase in Education spending is not coming from tax increases, but by improved efficiencies and eliminating waste. Let us talk about reality. 

What Is Your Vision of Octorara’s Future?

The Octorara Board of Directors held their Facilities and Policy Committee Meetings and the Work Session Meeting on Monday, October 10, 2016. Eight of the nine members were in attendance, Anthony Falgiatore was absent.

2016 Annual Academic Report

Elena Wilson, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, provided the Octorara Area School Board of Directors with her analysis of the District’s academic achievement and growth. I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds with this because the PA Department of Education has yet to release the complete School Performance Profile scores and reports, and I do plan to perform my annual comparison with other local districts. Nonetheless, we do have the scores from PSSA and Keystone tests and the PVAAS data.

The information provided is what one would expect. The Octorara Area School District finds it difficult to meet the state minimum standard of 70 percent of students testing at Proficient or Advanced. However, compared to overall state performance, the District scores about average across all PSSA tests, give or take. However, there is extreme difficulty with the Keystones, especially in Biology. Now think about that for a moment… The District has plans to continue to develop an Agriculture Career and Technical program, but struggles to teach students how plants and animals work. Does that make sense?

The frustrating thing is averages inform Harrisburg how well the state is doing as a whole, but it does not really tell us where we stand compared to the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania. Averages are skewed either up or down based on the best and worst performers. Seriously, if you get a chance, take a look at the report on the PDE website. There are schools in the City of Philadelphia receiving scores of 10 percent on some of these tests.

Better indicators would be the median score (the number separating the higher half of districts from the lower half) and a percentile score. Pennsylvania does not provide this information, but it would give us a clearer picture. Take for example (as a hypothetical) scoring above the state average of 61 but scoring below a state median score of 75 with a majority of districts actually meeting or exceeding the minimum. Regardless, this is me just talking to myself because there are just not enough politicians (at all levels) that really care about education. It is all politics and self-interest. 

Octorara’s Playbook for Academic Success

Before we get into the meat of Monday’s Education Committee Meeting, let me first welcome students and parents back. Yesterday was the first day of school for the Octorara Area School District. I hope everyone survived. 😉

Education Committee Meetings tend to be very informative and interesting to attend but, when written about, typically will create essays and posts that can cause people to glaze over. Therefore, I want to present an example of how Learning Focused Schools and the iPad program combine, and try to avoid things like explaining “intentionality,” which is more a philosophical concept than a get‘er done way of doing. I want to stay away from abstract concepts, and focus on meat and potatoes.

Below is a youtube video created by Mr. Anthony (RAnthonyOctorara) that provides a small example of what can be done. It is an example of a “flipped classroom.”

The way many of us were taught, the teacher would lecture during class, and then send work home. Some teachers would review homework, and some wouldn’t, but  either way that next day’s lecture had to be done.

Pa. denies all applications for cyber-charter schools in 2014

Reblogged from NewsWorks:

There will be no new cyber-charter schools opening this year in Pennsylvania.

The state Department of Education rejected proposals from each of the six operators that applied last November.

The state’s 14 existing cyber-charter schools – which educate students via computers in students’ homes – have thus far produced dismal academic results for their 35,000 students statewide.

Judging by the state’s new school performance profile scores, the 11 cyber-charters for which information is available scored well below state averages.

Pennsylvania’s cyber-charters have also drawn criticism from academics and the state auditor general regarding their use of public funds.

After hearing testimony from the six new organizations hoping to create cyber-charters, education department officials said in December they would review their applications with “a laser focus” while “increasing the rigor of the review process.”

Read more…

Octorara January 13, 2014 Work Session Downloadable Agenda

Download your copy of the Work Session Meeting Agenda. The meeting is scheduled for January 13th, at 7:00pm, in the Jr./Sr. High School Multi-Purpose Room.

View this document on Scribd

Please note the Facility Committee and the Finance/Policy Committee meetings have been changed for the month of January. The Finance Committee meeting will be held at 5:30pm on Monday, January 13, 2014. The Policy Committee meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, January 13, 2014. The Facility Committee meeting will be held at 6:00pm on Monday, January 20, 2014.