Some suggested safety tips that can protect your child from internet related danger:

• Move the computer to a populated area of the home, such as the family room, so parents can monitor their child’s activities.
• If your child minimizes the screen being viewed when a parent walks by the computer, treat it as a “red flag.”  Learn what sites the child has been visiting.
• Talk to your child to learn what he/she uses the computer for.  Be especially aware of popular kid sites, such as xanga.com and myspace.com where children often upload photos and personal information.  They can unknowingly supply information to child predators.
• Use Internet Service Provider (ISP) filters to restrict your child’s access to certain areas/items on the Web.  Some ISPs can even be set up so that when a child visits a Web page, an email is sent to the parent’s email address notifying the parent of your child’s “journey” through cyberspace.
• Teach your children the responsible use of the resources online.  There is much more to the online experience than chat rooms.
• Take the time to talk with your child to learn what they are doing.  If you have any concerns, contact your local police department, or the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.

One step for practicing safe internet usage is knowing what dangers web users face online.  The six main types of risks online include:

• Sites that allow the accessing of inappropriate information, including pornography, hate, intolerance, bigotry, gore, violence, hoaxes, and misinformation and hype.
• Sites that provide access to dangerous products and hazardous information, such as bomb-building recipes, the selling of guns, alcohol, poisons, tobacco products, and drugs, as well as online gambling.
• Sites that allow the posting of personal information, like blog sites.  If not monitored, this can lead to the child being stalked or harassed by others who may pose to be a friend or who may be rude, insulting and make threats.  Additionally, the information may be accessed to send viruses or hack into computers.
• Sites that provide forms that solicit personal information to enter contests online and, as a result, information providers are targeted by irresponsible solicitors using unfair marketing techniques.
• Sites, if not legitimate, that allow for the purchasing of products online run the risk of disclosing important financial information to others, such as credit card numbers, pin numbers and passwords.
• Dishonest “cyber-predators” may pose as adolescents in chat rooms or on networking sites.  Their goal is to lure an unknowing child into a face-to-face meeting.

If your child has been exposed to trouble on the Internet, here are some things you can do:

• Remain calm when learning of exposure to inappropriate material.
• Work with your child so that you can both learn from what happened and decide how to keep it from happening again.
• Be understanding and supportive of your child if they tell you about an uncomfortable online encounter.  It is important to protect your child, not blame them or punish them.

One additional item is webpage bullying or cellphone bullying.  Here are some things to do:

• If you know the perpetrator in these incidents, report it.
• Threats of violence should be reported to the police.
• Keep the evidence.
• Have your child block screennames.
• Consider removing messaging from child’s cellphone account.  Your child may be upset, but in the long run he/she may feel better and will be less susceptible to abuse.
• Teach your child to cope with cellphone bullying.  Remind them:
  • Never give our proprietary information (about yourself or your friends)
  • Limit your buddy list, and ask your friends not to forward your screenname to others.
  • Never respond to abusive messages.

As with most things, prevention is easier than reaction.  Just talking about these issues will help your child a lot.

These are just come suggestions that you can see about internet safety for your child, as well as potential ways to address cyberbullying.

            Even though the cooperative agreement was approved by the board, the administration from both Meadowbrook and Milton were unaware that the Co-Op would have to be approved by the District IV Committee before the students may participate in the sports programs.  There is a meeting of the District IV Committee on October 7^th.  After that meeting, if the agreement is approved by that committee, students from Meadowbrook may begin to participate in Milton programs beginning on October 8^th.

            If you review the agreement which is below, you will note that it includes not only sports but also marching band.  The goal is to allow students at all levels (K-12) to participate in the sports or activities that are listed.  This agreement will be revisited annually by both schools to determine what programs need to be included and potentially approved for the coming school year.  The agreement you see below is for this school year, 2009-10.  A similar agreement with the same areas will be brought before the school board for review in April of 2010.

            During the course of this school year, if any addendums need to be added to this cooperative sponsorship, or any issues are encountered, adjustments will be made to this resolution that would be presented to the board in May of 2010. 

            The goal of this sponsorship was for both schools to better serve the needs of the students who reside within the Milton Area School District.  The Milton Area School District is very thankful to Meadowbrook for their positive outlook and approach in trying to get this resolution resolved in a manner that would best serve the interests of both the Milton Area School District and Meadowbrook.

Milton Area School District

Resolution of Cooperative Sponsorship of extra-curricular activities

within the School District

2009-10

WHEREAS, the Milton Area School District sponsors the sports programs sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and extracurricular activities and

WHEREAS, Meadowbrook Christian School lies within the Milton Area School District and does not sponsor the sports of Football, Wrestling, and Golf and the extracurricular activity of Marching Band and

WHEREAS, it is the desire of the Milton Area School District to provide the opportunity for all students within the Milton Area School District to participate in the sports of Football, Wrestling, and Golf and the extracurricular activity of Marching Band and

WHEREAS, it is the desire of the Milton Area School District to enter into a Cooperative Sponsorship of Football, Wrestling, and Golf and the extracurricular activity of Marching Band with Meadowbrook Christian School for the 2009-2010 school year. Future Cooperative Sponsorships for the 2010-11 school year will be presented to the Milton Area School District for consideration by April 30, 2010.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Milton Area School District agrees to assume all administrative responsibility, liability, and insurance for the Cooperative Sponsorship and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that all students will compete with the team name Milton Area School District Football, Wrestling, Golf, and Marching Band and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that all financial responsibilities pertaining to the operation of the Cooperative Sponsorship, and all staffing will be provided by the Milton Area School District and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that all facilities will be provided by the Milton Area School District and that all transportation to and from games will be provided to the Meadowbrook Christian School students in accordance with existing school district policy at the expense of the Milton Area School District.  Transportation to and from practice sessions and games shall be the responsibility of each school.

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the coaching staff in cooperation with the principal of each school shall have access to the student body for purposes of conducting clinics and informational sessions.

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that academic eligibility and student attendance criteria for the Meadowbrook Christian School students will be determined by Milton Area School District in accordance with Milton Area School District policy which meets or exceeds the standards set forth by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and that Meadowbrook Christian School will provide academic eligibility information to the principal of Milton Area School District in a timely manner.

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that during the season all participating students from Meadowbrook Christian School will be under the direct authority of the coaches, athletic department, principal, administration, and policy of the Milton Area Board of School Directors in matters pertaining to the sports of Football, Wrestling, and Golf and the extracurricular activity of Marching Band.

 After that point in time, it is our hope that the district would not have to begin to cut programs that would impact kids but instead review current purchase orders and make a determination as to what is a necessity and what is not.  The cutting of student programs would be a course of last resort in order to maintain the district operating budget.  It is, indeed, the district’s hope that the current state of affairs in Harrisburg would be resolved in a manner that would allow the district to continue to run smoothly and effectively without much of a disruption of the educational process for the students attending the Milton Area School District.

In looking at the figure that was utilized by the district, the following concepts were used:  First, the district looked at the Governor’s proposed percentage that was provided to districts across the Commonwealth in February, and then at the new number that was provided in March.  Not using these numbers alone, the district looked at a five year average of potential rates that were received for the district budget in the previous five years.  Looking at the five year average along with the proposed 2009-10 figures released by the Governor, the number 6.1% was identified by the district to develop the budget.

Once this budget was developed, it was proposed to the school board Finance Committee.  Six different budget presentations were conducted during board meetings from the month of January to May.  Prior to the final approval of the budget at the May board meeting, the index that the district was allowed to go to under Act 1 was 5.9%.   Under the direction of the school board, the district actually decided by go below the index to 5.1%.

If the state budget were to come back below the percentages that the district utilized, the budget would be reopen to determine program cuts or reallocating the assets that the district would receive.

The district and school board closely scrutinize the budget on an annual basis to make the appropriate determination for programs as well as staffing issues.  The district has utilized a five year budget model that was developed by a Dr. William Hartman from Penn State University.  The budget model has allowed the district to look at a variety of funding scenarios looking at previous data as well as future data and the potential impact on the budget.  The model has been utilized for board budget retreats to allow for a better understanding of the financial picture that the district operates within.

One interesting aspect that was pointed out to the team was that Mount Carmel was visited by 15 different schools to have discussions about the Mount Carmel dress code policy, but only 4 had returned to their district and actually implemented a similar policy.

As for the positive things that were pointed out in the visit, they were as follows:

• The district saw a decrease in student discipline on the days where the dress code was implemented within the district.
• The district saw a balancing of the students between those of high economic status and those of low economic status within the school due to the commonality of attire during the course of the school day.

Some pitfalls that they identified:

• The policy needs to be under constant revision as times and fashions change.
• The policy needs to be clear in the arenas of extra-curricular events, such as trips and dances.

Upon returning to the district, the committee met together to debrief on what was noticed during the visit.  Several members of the committee commented that the policy in Mount Carmel was developed due to concerns brought about by a single board member.  Within the Milton Area School District, it has been a common concern from community members voicing problems to board members, to teachers talking about this issue with principals during the past several school years.

The committee decided to take the following approach with the coming of the 2009-2010 school year.  The approach will be three-fold:

1. The district will revisit the current district dress code at the first in-service for teachers and strongly encourage teachers to enforce this policy in the coming school year.  If there are any student discipline referrals surrounding this policy, they will be closely monitored during the next school year.
2. There will be an announcement made on a daily basis for teachers to take a moment to determine if there are any dress code violations that need to be reported to the office.  This will allow for accountability. The committee had noted in the previous blog that several community members, as well as students, said that if the district just enforced the current policy, there would not be a need for a dress code.  This would be the first approach to that endeavor.
3. The committee will repost our findings on the Superintendent’s Blog so that the community is aware of the process that the committee is moving forward with in the investigation of a dress code policy by further blog postings.

For your information, a brief section of the Milton Area School District Dress Code Policy is below.

An individual’s habits of dress and personal grooming are an important part of his/her total personality and they often determine not only his/her attitude toward himself/herself, but also the way others look at him/her.  These regulations will be enforced to ensure the health and safety of all students and to minimize the disruption of education within the classroom due to the potentially distracting nature of certain styles of dress.

Safe and appropriate footwear is required.

1. Bare midriffs, see through blouses, low cut tops, tops that expose one shoulder, undershirts, tube tops, halter tops, and tank top style shirts with less than two-inch straps over the shoulders,  are inappropriate attire and not permitted.
2. No short shorts, skirts, or dresses are permitted.  The length of these garments must be no higher than fingertip length with arms extended alongside of the body.
3. Clothing, buttons, accessories, or other insignias deemed inappropriate are not permitted in school.  These include items that are sexually suggestive, or that mock, ridicule, or demean a race, religion, or culture.  Clothing items that display references to drugs, tobacco products, vulgarity, or alcoholic beverages may not be worn in school.
4. Hats, headbands, and headwear are not to be worn during school hours.
5. Extremely tattered or excessively long clothing is prohibited.  Also prohibited are extremely baggy pants.  All pants are to be worn at waist level.
6. Any items worn as jewelry or clothing that could present a safety problem or are a distraction to the educational process are not allowed.
7. Any item, material, jewelry, clothing, make-up, etc. that is deemed as being excessive because of its potential to create a safety problem or to be a distraction to the educational process is not permitted.

Individual classroom teachers may impose additional dress regulations as they relate to their curriculum.  These regulations may be imposed to ensure health and/or safety and must have the prior approval of the principal.  Such additional regulations are to be posted in the classroom and students are to be informed of these regulations.

The district is considering looking at the next step being the enforcement and the potential development of a committee of community members, parents, teachers and students, as well as the current committee, to discuss the potential development of a new dress code policy in the Milton Area School District.  If you are interested in serving on that committee, please feel free to notify me, or any district administrator.

According to our District Policy, each member of the Board shall meet the following qualifications:

1.       Be of good moral character, be eighteen (18) years of age, shall have been a resident of the district for at least one (1) year prior to the date of his/her election or appointment, and shall not be a holder of any office or position as specified in Section 322 of the School Code; not shall the individual be a member of the municipal council.

2.      Shall not have been removed from any office of trust under federal, state or local laws for any malfeasance in such office.

3.      Shall not be engaged in a business transaction with the school district, be employed by the school district, or receive pay for services from the school district, except as provided by law.

4.      Shall take and subscribe to the oath or affirmation prescribed by statute before entering the duties of the office.

5.      Shall file a statement of financial interests with the State Ethics Commission before taking the oath of office or entering upon his/her duties.

            If an individual decides to run with a write-in campaign, the above qualifications need to be met.

 
At other points in time during the school year, if a board member leaves and area or is unable to fulfill the position, there is a procedure that must be followed by the board to fill vacancies.  “A vacancy shall occur by reason of death, resignation, removal from a district or region, or otherwise. Such vacancy shall be filled in accordance with the Sunshine Act and by appointment by a majority vote of the remaining members of the Board within thirty (30) days of the occurrence of the vacancy. The Board member so appointed shall serve until the first Monday in December after the first municipal election occurring more than sixty (60) days following his/her appointment. When a majority of the memberships are vacant, such vacancies shall be filled by the Court of Common Pleas of Northumberland County.”

            One thing that the district has done over the last couple of years to help members get oriented to the school, if they are first-time board members, is provide a board member orientation.  Here the district demographics are reviewed with board candidates so that they can get an understanding of the interworking of the school system prior to their arrival as a sitting board member.  Once an individual is placed on the board, they need to be immediately involved in decision making.  They cannot abstain from voting just because they are not aware of the situation.  They need to become voting members and do their best to stay appraised of where the district is with certain issues.  Individuals who serve on the board do not receive compensation for their service, and may require hours of tireless dedication to review district information in order to make decisions that are in the best interest of the community, school and students.

            All board members who donate their time are much appreciated by the district administration, students, teachers, staff and community as they put themselves out there in a manner that allows them to work as a collective group to make the decisions that will impact the Milton Area School District in a positive manner.

                The district has been in constant contact, through the internet and phone conferences, with the Department of Health and the local Emergency Management Center.  Phone conferences have been conducted daily to provide updates to districts regarding information surrounding this issue across the Commonwealth and the nation as a whole. If a district is not able to attend a phone conference, the local emergency management is sending out the notes from the meeting to all superintendents in the area.   

In order to prepare students and staff in this issue, the following items are important to be utilized to prevent the spread of respiratory infections in the school setting.  A list of these items was sent home with students within the last couple of days.

Cough Etiquette

Always remind children to:

·         Cover their nose and mouth with a tissue when they cough or sneeze – have them throw the tissue away after they use it.

·         Wash their hands often with soap and water, especially after they sneeze or cough.  If water is not near, us an alcohol-based hand cleaner.

·         Remind them to not touch their eyes, nose or mouth.  Germs often spread this way.

Hand Washing

Remind children, staff members and care providers in child care settings to wash their hands or use alcohol-based hand cleaners, and make sure that supplies are available to prevent the spread of germs.

·         Encourage children and staff members to use soap and water to wash hands when hands are visibly soiled, or an alcohol-based hand cleaner when soap and water are not available and hands are not visibly soiled.

·         Encourage staff members and care providers to wash their hands to the extent possible when engaged in certain activities, such as after wiping the child’s nose or mouth, after touching objects such as tissues or surfaces soiled with saliva or nose drainage.

·         Encourage staff members and care providers to wash the hands of infants and toddlers when the hands become soiled.

·         Encourage children to wash hands when their hands have become soiled.  Teach children to wash hands for 15-20 seconds (long enough for children to sign the “Happy Birthday” song twice).

·         Oversee the use of alcohol-based hand cleaner by the children and avoid using these on the sensitive skin of infants and toddlers.

·         Rub hands thoroughly until the alcohol has dried, when using alcohol-based hand cleaner.

·         Keep alcohol-based hand cleaner out of the reach of children to prevent unsupervised use.

·         Ensure that sink locations and restrooms are stocked with soap, paper towels or working hand dryers.

·         Ensure that each room is supplied with alcohol-based hand cleaner when sinks for washing hands are not readily accessible.  Alcohol-based hand cleaners are not recommended when hands are visibly soiled.

Exclusion of ill children and staff members

Observe all students for symptoms of respiratory illness.

·         Observe closely all children for symptoms of respiratory illness.  Notify the parent if a child develops a fever (100° F. or higher under the arm, 101° F. orally, or 102° F. rectally) or chills, cough, sore throat, headache or muscle aches.

·         Notify the local health department so that appropriate guidance can be given, send the child home, if possible, and advise the parent to contact the child’s doctor.

·         Infants and young children can become quite ill with influenza very quickly and might require urgent medical attention and possible hospitalization.

·         If a child has difficulty breathing, is lethargic, or appears to be worsening rapidly, consider calling a physician or 911 in addition to notifying a parent.

·         Encourage parents of sick children to keep their children home.

·         Encourage sick staff members to stay home.

·         Encourage parents of sick children to keep the children home and away from the school setting, until they have been without fever for 24 hours, to prevent spreading illness to others.  Similarly, encourage sick staff members or care providers to stay home until they have been without fever for 24 hours.

Environmental sanitation

Keep the environment clean and make sure supplies are available.

·         Clean frequently touched surfaces, toys and commonly shared items at least daily and when visibly soiled.

·         Use an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered household disinfectant labeled for activity against bacteria and viruses, an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant, or EPA-registered chlorine bleach/hypochlorite solution.  Always follow label instructions when using any EPA-registered disinfectant.  If EPA-registered chlorine bleach is not available and a generic (i.e., store brand) chlorine bleach is used, mix ¼ cup chlorine bleach with 1 gallon cool water.

·         Keep disinfectants out of the reach of children.

                This information is also posted on the district web page and provides an opportunity for parents to review it to see what they can do to prevent an outbreak not only at home but in the community as well.  Hand sanitizers are provided in lunch lines for students to use prior to purchasing their lunch.

                All district administrators are receiving daily updates from the Department of Health.  One current concern is field trips into areas where there are confirmed cases of the swine flu.  In the updates, the comment on field trips is for the district to contact the regional Department of Health about potential travel to that area.

As any new information comes into the district on additional measures that could be taken other than the items listed above, it would be released to teachers, parents and students.

    As part of the new Safe Schools Initiative during the past school year, a Risk Assessment was conducted of all five (5) district buildings.  During this risk assessment, a variety of suggestions were provided back to the district on things that could be implemented to improve the overall safety of the buildings.  Some of the suggestions were easy to implement and others were extremely costly to the district.

                Even though the district buildings are safe, there is always an opportunity to analyze and look for continued improvements for the safety of the students, teachers, support staff and administration.  Safety is always discussed with parents in a variety of areas.  One is during the dinner meetings with the school board and parents that are held yearly at each elementary building.  Parents have responded that they feel their elementary child is safe within the school during the school day.  Middle and High School students are asked a similar question when they have breakfast with the board.  Students have often commented on how difficult it is to enter the district building.  Overall students and parents feel safe within the buildings that their sons or daughters are sent to on a daily basis.

                As part of the Risk Assessment, one area that the district will begin to address that will need cooperation and collaboration from community members will be visitors in the coming school year.  Starting in August of 2009, the district will be requiring any visitors entering district buildings to produce a photo identification to enter the building (such as driver’s license, work ID badge, etc. – items of this nature would suffice).  The secretaries will ask to see this particular item before granting entrance to the building to that individual.  Once the photo ID is shown, the individual will still need to sign in and log the time they entered the building and who they are visiting, as has been done traditionally within the district.

                This additional layer in the process will allow the district to continue to be vigilant in providing a safe environment for students, faculty, and staff during the course of their instructional time in the school year.

                In order to prepare secretaries for this process, there will be an orientation for them this summer to review the new procedures and protocol, and signs will be placed at the doors to notify visitors to have this information available in order to enter the buildings.

                Again, this is just one step of many which can be taken to improve the overall safety of the district buildings.

                The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which President Obama signed into law on February 17^th includes funding going to the U.S. Department of Education for states.  States will be allowed to use their portion of nearly $100 billion in stimulus aid for education with a focus on pumping out money quickly to spur economic recovery and save jobs. 

                Within the state of Pennsylvania, the state will receive $2.7 billion in the new Education for Aid.  Stimulus funds for education in the state of Pennsylvania will include $1.6 billion from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF), $399 million for Title I aid and $456 million for IDEA aid for Special Education.  The Department of Education is working closely with school districts to maximize their use of taxpayers’ dollars provided through the Federal Stimulus law. 

                The Milton Area School District’s share of the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) will be $808,837.00.  Under the Title I for SFSF it is $223,500.00, under Title I for education of the disadvantaged it is $264,500.00, under Special Education IDEA it will be $425,700.00, and under Title II D for technology upgrades it is $11,600.00. 

o   SFSF – this money can be used as specified in the existing state law.  Amounts up to the rate of inflation can be used to pay ongoing costs of existing programs.  The remainder must be used for early childhood education, longer school days, more days in the school year, and to expand other proven academic programs. 

o   Title I formula for the SFSF – this can be used for modernization, renovation and repair of facilities, basic education, special education, career & technical education, and adult & family literacy. 

o   Title I, Education for the Disadvantaged – this can be used for improving math and reading instruction in high poverty schools. 

o   Special Education IDEA Aid – districts may provide special education programs and services to students with disabilities. 

o   Title II D, technology upgrades – can be used for integrating technology into the school and curriculum and providing related professional development. 

                Even though these funds have been received from the federal level to the state and are being dispersed and monitored by the state, school districts are reminded to be very careful and not supplant local funds but to supplement current programs.  These definitions need to be very clear with the district as they submit paperwork to receive these additional funds. 

                The nice thing of the funding stream is that some of the funds allow you to utilize them in other categories.  For example, under the category of academic investments, the state identifies Classrooms for the Future (CFF) as a possible use of funds.  In the past, CFF was targeted as a high school program only.  Under this new funding stream, CFF can now be extended to the middle school.  Funds from Title I SFSF, Title II D, and IDEA can all be used to support this particular program if the district would so choose. 

                The Milton Area School District is currently looking at all programs to make the best determination for utilization of these funds for academic investment, school safety and professional development. 

                After listening to several Senators and Representatives in Harrisburg, districts around the Commonwealth have been cautioned about planning to expend these funds until the General Assembly gets an opportunity to decide how these funds will be distributed.  School districts will hopefully receive that information from the General Assembly as budgets are being developed and reviewed by the school boards during the month of April, and then take this to the board for preliminary approval in May.  Therefore, the determination from the General Assembly on how these funds would be utilized is timely information that the districts need in order to move forward with applying these funds at the local level.

 On the day that Governor Rendell unveiled the 2009-10 education budget, I received several phone calls from the newspapers and TV stations.  The basic question was “what are my thoughts of the governor’s proposal to move from 500 school districts to 100?” Since I was not watching the governor’s presentation, I was caught off guard with the concept of District Consolidation of this scale.  

Over the past several years, there have been various attempts to move districts towards sharing of services.  Currently, the Intermediate Units (IU’s) provide a wide variety of services to districts throughout the Commonwealth.  Here is a list of some available services: Administrative and Cooperative Business Services, Center for Schools and Community, Educational Initiatives, Employee and Community Relations, Outreach Programs and Corrections Education, Professional Development and School Improvement, Special Education and Early Childhood, and Technology.  Each district within the IU is afforded the opportunity to take advantage of the services provided as is sees fit for their district.

 Another approach by the governor’s office was the Common Sense Initiative (CSI).   Through the CSI, school boards would have to vote in the affirmative to take part in the project.  Once in CSI, the Department of Education would send a team to evaluate the school district and determine where cuts could be made.  One major issue with CSI was whatever suggestions were made by PDE would have to be implemented by the district. 

Below I have outlined the Pennsylvania School District Consolidation Facts for you review:       

 o   Governor Rendell proposed to create a legislative commission to study how best to right-size Pennsylvania’s local school districts.  His goal is to have no more than 100 school districts.

o   Full-scale school consolidation provides a very effective way to relieve the local property tax burden all across Pennsylvania.  There is no need to maintain 500 separate school districts across the state – each with its own staggering, and growing, administrative costs.

 o   Reducing the number of school districts would not necessitate the closure of individual schools, but could instead improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public education through other means.

o   Only 10 states in the nation have more school districts than Pennsylvania, while many of the highest-achieving states are organized into far fewer school districts in order to achieve greater efficiencies and improve the delivery of quality educational services. 

o   More than 40 percent of Pennsylvania’s school districts currently educate fewer than 2,000 students and over 80 percent of the school districts educate fewer than 5,000 students, requiring significant bureaucracy while raising questions about the diversity of courses offered to students. 

o   Consolidation is not a new idea in Pennsylvania:  in 1955, there were 2,700 separate school districts before the General Assembly authorized consolidations statewide.  Within two years, the number of separate districts fell to 1,900.  By 1962, the number of separate school districts fell to 600, and as of July there will be 500 school districts statewide. 

o   The proposed commission would have 12 voting members appointed by the General Assembly:

·         Three members of the Senate of Pennsylvania appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate;

·         Three members of the Senate of Pennsylvania appointed by the minority leader of the Senate;

·         Three members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives appointed by the speaker of the House; and

·         Three members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives appointed by the minority leader of the House. 

o   It would also have two non-voting members who serve ex-officio:

·         The Secretary of Education; and

·         The chairman of the State Board of Education. 

o   The proposed commission would have one year to develop a plan for the reorganization of school districts.  It would be responsible for determining the optimal enrollment size, new statewide boundaries, and an implementation plan. 

o   To ensure progress is made, the Governor proposed that the commission adopt up to two merger plans.  After a period of public comment, the General Assembly would be required to give an “up or down” vote to each commission consolidation plan within six months. 

o   If the General Assembly rejects both plans, the law would vest authority for consolidating school districts with the State Board of Education. 

Some comments on the information listed from the Consolidation Facts.  The committee has no representation from Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Pennsylvania System Educators Association, and Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. 

Several studies have been conducted looking at district consolidation.  One was conducted by Standards and Poor which outlined that the optimal district size for efficiency was 3,500 students.   A second study by Andrew Coulson found similar number at 3,000 students.  With the number of students in public education currently at 170,000 in Pennsylvania, if the 500 districts went to 100 the districts that would allow an average size of 17,000 students per district. 

A couple of questions that consolidation would raise: what would happen to the taxes in the larger districts?  Districts that have lower milage rates consolidate with a district of larger milage rates; one would see a decrease in taxes and the other an increase.  How can the teacher and support contracts be consolidated?  What is the academic benefit of consolidation? 

If you have feelings about this issue contact your local legislator or let me know so I can respond to them.