I am thrilled and honored to announce an exciting new opportunity for both me personally and for my role as one of East Penn's School Board Directors. Last week, I was invited to participate as one of a select group of national advisors to the Future Ready School Boards Strand.

Future Ready Schools (FRS) is a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit, bipartisan, educational organization whose mission is to expand opportunities for all students, especially those from underserved or marginalized communities nationwide.

FRS-School Boards joins FRS program strands already underway for district leaders, principals, instructional coaches, librarians, and technology leaders.

​FRS-School Boards will provide a suite of helpful tools and free resources for school board members to connect with their communities, support a culture of innovation within their schools, and promote a vision for teaching and learning that is student-centered, forward-thinking, and designed to meet the vast needs of today’s learners. The goal of the strand will be to support Superintendents and School Boards in working together to ultimately support our learners and creating the types of learning experiences today’s modern learners need. 

A key component of the program is the FRS-School Boards Framework which will help school board members forge a visionary and systemic path to support long-term academic, financial, and political sustainability. Included in the framework are eight “gears” focused on personalized instruction for students; ongoing and job-embedded learning; robust infrastructure; strategic fiscal planning; community partnerships; the use of data to transform instruction and support students; support for anywhere, anytime learning; and collaborative leadership.

FRS prides themselves in ensuring that their work is extremely relevant for today’s leaders. I will be serving nationally as one of a group of advisors who will weigh in on the organization's work in the new School Boards Strand, and provide insight and guidance into what tools and resources are needed. Advisors will be comprised of select Superintendents and School Directors from across the country, from California, New York, Ohio, North Carolina -- and now Pennsylvania!

As an educator, this is an amazing opportunity to connect my life's work to the work already done by giants in the field of education. To be able to make an even bigger connection to the work we do as a Board here in East Penn makes this new opportunity even more meaningful.

My colleagues on the board currently serve as liaisons to several committees with regular reports at board meetings -- Lehigh County Technical Institute, the Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit, and Legislative Affairs. In addition to these reports, I will be sharing the work I do in my new advisory role and will seek input from my colleagues in that process. Our work as a Board will now have a direct line to the work being done in support of school districts nationally!
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As part of that "direct line," the East Penn School Board will now have access to helpful tools and resources embedded in the School Boards Framework to

• support and communicate a learner-centric vision that provides personal and authentic learning experiences and supports
• social-emotional development for all students;
• adopt curriculum, aligned to state standards, that ensures deeper learning outcomes connected to real-world applications, promotes positive digital citizenship, and prepares learners for future success;
• ensure equity in access to high-quality devices and the bandwidth needed to support student learning at school and at home;
• adopt budgets that align with strategic and tactical plans while working to eliminate expenses that no longer support the district’s vision; and
• adopt clear policies and support practices on the use of student data that ensure high levels of data privacy and security and that adhere to state and federal laws.

FRS has already had a direct, positive impact on the work done within our schools.  Several of our administrative team members have participated in the Future Ready learning sessions over the past two years. The learning in these sessions has helped us as we continue to improve teaching and learning in East Penn.

FRS is one of the largest networks of school districts in the country. More than 3,400 school districts’ superintendents—representing more than 20 million students—have signed the Future Ready District Pledge, committing to personalize learning by tailoring instruction to students’ strengths and needs while engaging them in challenging, standards-based academic content, with the help of effective digital learning strategies.

From their recent press release:

​Tomorrow is Election Day. Have you made your decision yet?

When selecting a school director there are five things I like to remember:

1. Candidates are your neighbors. They live here, they serve here, and volunteer their time and energy to do so. There’s no “big money” or “fat cat” donors. Candidates are people of good will – just like you.
   
   
2. Team Blue or Team Red? Does it matter?
   No! Focus on the candidate. Where do they stand on issues? How will they help shape the path our district follows? Good, caring, decent people come from all corners of our district. Their “team” affiliation doesn’t matter when identifying supporters of public education. I will be voting for pro-public education candidates from BOTH "teams".
   
   Pennsylvania permits school board candidates to appear on as many party's ballots as they’d like as long as they have ten signatures for each party. A candidate who has not made the effort to reach out to TEN people from another party in order to reach out to other folks is a red flag for me.
   
   
3. Similarly, a well-run board thrives on bipartisanship and diversity of opinion. Variety is an absolute asset in a board’s makeup. With nine members on a board, having nine people with the same opinions and backgrounds would make for a pretty boring discussion. I rely on my fellow board members to challenge my thinking.
   
   Experience counts. So do new ideas. Young families count and so do those families living on fixed incomes. Private sector workers should be represented, but so should public educators. Our students come from every walk of life. Some come from families that are struggling financially. Some come from historically marginalized communities. Our board should be comprised of members who recognize that these are very real, very challenging, circumstances and want East Penn to be a place where those students realize their fullest potential regardless of those circumstances.
   
   We have such a spread of diverse opinions and life experiences, that it’s hard to fathom a point of view that isn’t considered before making a decision. The people you choose tomorrow should reflect that.
   
   
4. Beware of snake oil. I don’t have all the answers and any school director or candidate who says they do is being disingenuous. Carefully consider whether someone touting the newest fad in education has actually done their homework and reviewed the research behind it. In the same vein, carefully consider whether those advocating for draconian tax cuts have reflected on the impact that would have on our schools – one of the pillars of what defines this great community we live in.
   
   
5. Finally, remember the importance of servant leadership. This may be the most important factor to consider. I, and other members of the board, cannot, and should not, take credit for the important work done every day in our schools. Nor should any one candidate express an opinion that they, and only they, have the answers. We may give our opinions, but each of us is only 1/9th of every decision that is made.
   
   Instead, remember that is our teachers who inspire our students and lead them to greatness. It is our budget office who has recommended reduced tax rates each year, when surrounding districts are moving in the opposing direction. It is our curriculum office who has recommended best practices and new initiatives that do more for our students than ever before and it is our facilities department who recommend proactive measures to keep our buildings a wonderful place to learn.
   
   We as a board can set some direction and share some opinions, but the strength of our community schools begins and ends with the people who work here. Choose candidates who understand their role in this process and lead through serving others.

To that end, I’d like to thank each of the candidates who have expressed an interest in serving on the board. They are all fine people who understand the importance of civic engagement.
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However, with only a limited number of seats, not everyone can win. So, I would like to take a moment to recommend the people who I feel check each of those five boxes for me. On Tuesday, please consider voting for five of the following for the four-year terms:

- Jeff Jankowski
- Ken Bacher
- Paul Champagne
- Joshua Levinson
- Allan Byrd
- Bart Bailey

and Naomi Winch for the two-year term.

Our only April board meeting was held this past Monday. The largest portion of the meeting was devoted to a presentation by Communities in Schools, updating us on their work in the district over the past two years. You can watch the report here and their presentation here.

While it is too early to draw any conclusions from the data, it was still a very informative presentation. Even though it was the bulk of the meeting, it is not receiving nearly as much attention as other shorter portions of the meeting because...

This was a question I asked of our administration last year. While I certainly didn't feel this would be a prudent course of action, I felt this was something that we should see on paper for context. I requested that the administration include in their presentation a series of scenarios that would represent the impact of no tax increase.

Below is page 27 of the Long Range Fiscal and Capital Plan. In the plan, several scenarios were presented representing the impact of various tax increases. Here is the result of three 0% tax increase scenarios and none of them are any good.

Scenario 1a
This scenario applies a blanket 0% increase in each year. In only three years, we will have exhausted the Fund Balance.

Scenario 1b
This scenario applies a 0% increase for one year only, but notice the rebound effect. Subsequent years would require an increase of 2.85% to achieve a 5% fund balance. A fund balance of this size is one large indicator that reflects a "healthy" financial environment and attractive to lenders when financing future projects. Since this is above the projected Act 1 index, an increase of this magnitude would need to go to a voter referendum before its approval.

Scenario 1c
This is the same as Scenario 1b, but caps the increase at the allowable 2.8% increase. Notice how despite a huge increase, we are still losing money each year.

As you can see, a 0% increase would be incredibly damaging to taxpayers in the long term and doesn't represent sound fiscal planning. I would one day love to see a 0% increase, but could never support such an increase if the resulting impact to taxpayers, students, and programs looked like this.

Like you, I long for the day when my school tax bill remains the same from one year to the next. With one simple change, that could have happened this year, but it is not a change we can make at the local level.

At the bottom of page 15 of the fiscal plan, you'll notice a line item that is new to this year's presentation that had been requested by a fellow board member. It reads:​

That's a $1.6 million line item in the budget allocated to cyber charter schools, for-profit institutions that strain on public school district resources across the state, and provide an education that is empirically worse than similar programs provided by the districts themselves.

​Like my namesake, I appreciate the free-market economy and recognize its impact on various aspects of our society. School districts are not immune to a free-market economy and have directly benefited from it. Many districts, East Penn included, have developed their own cyber school options in house, largely due to outside competition. Now, these districts are doing it better, and cheaper, than the alternatives. So why do taxpayers need to shoulder the burden twice when one option is head and shoulders above the other?

In an attempt to draw Harrisburg's attention to the matter, the board took up two resolutions, passing both unanimously, pleading with legislatures to reform our state's cyber charter laws. You can view that portion of the meeting here and copies of the resolutions themselves are available here.

Had these reforms already been in place, East Penn would have recouped those funds, reducing our expenditures to a level that would have allowed us to keep our tax rate the same as the previous year!

Zero. A zero-percent increase in East Penn IS possible. Through fiscal responsibility and thoughtful planning, East Penn has done their part, but we need Harrisburg's help to make it a reality.
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For more information on the problem, I'd highly recommend reading my colleague and fellow board member, Dr. Munson's, informative posts:

• How to Make $1.5 Million of Your Money Disappear
• How One Charter School Spends Your Money

After a series of presentations from the administration dating back to January that delineated in detail their priorities for the budget, no member of the community has come to speak before the board prior to the last two meetings with regard to the Proposed Final Budget. The administration has done an admirable job communicating in detail about the budget, but we'd still like to hear from you! I encourage you to read the report, along with the administration's detailed presentations on their budget priorities and share your thoughts with us at our next meeting on May 13th.

If you're also concerned about PA's failing cyber charter schools and it's broken funding formula, contact your legislators and share your concerns about the impact on local districts.

Budgeting is not an easy process. There are many priorities that must be balanced, but currently, that balance is being borne unfairly by the taxpayers in our community. It will require Harrisburg's help before it improves. 

Last month, the board unanimously approved a motion to "direct district administration to provide the board with a report on the obstacles and potential solutions to implementing later start times for the school day at the high school and middle schools."

While we await the administration's report, I continue to come across items that provide current insight into how similar initiatives have progressed in other districts in the area. Last week, WHYY interviewed John Sanville, Superintendent at Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, who pushed back their high school start times 25 minutes later last year and now start after 8 am.

It was an interesting conversation and well worth a listen!

​You can listen to the interview portion of the broadcast below.

You can also download the full broadcast here or on their  iTunes  page.
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Source:
Regional Roundup – 3/18/19. (2019, March 18). Philadelphia, PA: WHYY Public Radio.