IU1 News for Superintendents and Board Members : January 24, 2008

General Operational Budget

Mr. Musiolowski presented an overview of the General Operational Budget (GOB) to the IU1 Board of Directors and the Superintendents Advisory Council. The General Operational Budget is unique among all the IU1 budgets. It is the one budget that annually must go before all of the twenty-five member school districts for adoption. It is the budget that supports the administration of all IU1 programs and provides for delivery of basic services to local school districts in accordance with Act 102 of 1970. This budget is always presented in January and is not necessitated by Act 1.

The 2008-09 General Operating Budget will support 18.25 full time equivalent employees, no change from the prior year. The term full time equivalent is used because some staff expenses are budgeted in more than one budget on a prorated basis.

Total GOB for 2008-09 is $2,167,021, a 1% increase from the prior year. The withholding amount from IU1 member district's for the GOB will remain constant for the 11th consecutive year at $549,552; that is, there will be no increase in the total member districts' contribution for this budget. Although, we must caution that eventually there will be an increase. Expectations from PDE have increased for IUs (e.g., implementation of the School Improvement Planning, professional development for district staff on PVAAS, PSSA, etc.); therefore, we are being asked to provide more services to school districts without a proportionate increase in state funding to the IU.

The budget consists of seven (7) components, the administrative budget and six service area budgets:

  1. Continuing Professional Education
  2. Curriculum Development and Instructional Improvement
  3. Educational Planning
  4. Instructional Materials
  5. Management/Data Processing
  6. State and Federal Liaison

Intermediate Unit 1 Convention

The annual IU1 Convention is scheduled for Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at the Natali Performance Center on the campus of California University of Pennsylvania. We will be seeking to fill the board seats for four regular three-year terms of office, two from Fayette and two from Washington Counties. In addition, we will be seeking to fill the board seats for three unexpired terms of office, two from Fayette and one from Washington Counties. Districts will receive the convention guidelines and nomination information. Boards are encouraged to nominate a member of their board to serve, particularly if their district has not had an IU Board member for some time.

The following is a list of former Intermediate Unit 1 Board members who left the Board following the November elections and were elected to terms of office due to expire on June 30, 2008 (regular terms) and those of members whose terms are unexpired terms:

  1. William J. Vargo, Frazier School District (Regular Term)
  2. Edward Yorke, Jr., Canon-McMillan School District (Regular Term)
  3. Nancy L. Herring, Uniontown Area School District (Two-year Term)
  4. Richard Galand, Connellsville Area School District (One-year Term)
  5. Dr. Wm. Adams, Jr., Washington School District (One-year Term)

In addition, the terms of office for two current Board members expire on June 30, 2008:

  1. Thomas McMurray, Peters Township School District (Regular Term)
  2. Francine Pavone, Brownsville Area School District (Regular Term)

PSBA/IU1 Workshop

IU1 partnered with PSBA to present a workshop for Board members on January 17, 2008. This is the first of what we hope will be a series of workshops on school board leadership. We hosted 25 school board directors and three superintendents from 8 school districts (i.e., Avella, Beth-Center, Burgettstown, Central Greene, Peters Township, Southeastern Greene, Uniontown, and Washington). The workshop covered issues pertaining to policy-guided management, role delineation between school board directors and superintendents, provisions of the sunshine law, and the authorities provided to Boards by the PA School Code.

High School Graduation Requirements

The State Board of Education passed a revised version of its plan to implement new high-stakes high school graduation requirements. It includes provisions to create 10 Graduation Competency Assessments (GCAs), allows the use of validated local assessments and allows the use certain Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams. The plan calls for these tests or a combination of them to be used to demonstrate proficiency. In addition, the revised plan allows students with disabilities who complete their program as developed by the IEP team to receive a regular diploma.

STEM Grant

IU1 was awarded a $256,200, three-year grant by the Benedum Foundation to implement a STEM Center. Nancy Tsupros and Jarol DeVoge had received a planning grant last year to develop a framework for the center. This companion grant will enable IU1 to provide professional development pathways composed of a suggested clusters of IU1 courses designed to enhance teachers' knowledge and skills in their selected STEM area, extend and enhance existing IU1 STEM programs such as Science Matters, Robotics, and Engineering by Design, and to promote STEM education through summer camps for students and promotional activities such as a STEM website.

Nominations for School Finance Commission (HR 460)

At the December SAC meeting, council members discussed the passage of HR 460, a concurrent resolution establishing the joint Legislative Commission on Public School Finance. The commission would be charged with reviewing the recently released costing-out report and making recommendations for legislative action. The resolution calls for the appointment to the commission representatives from the State's basic education community including:

The PA Senate is considering a similar resolution, according to the Education Law Center. Once a joint resolution is passed, the Superintendents Advisory Council agreed to submit nominations for local representatives to the commission. Nominations will be forwarded to the appropriate groups for consideration.

State Health Insurance Plan

The legislation has not been voted out of committee as of Friday, January 18, 2008. The House has adjourned until January 28, 2008. According to representative Roebuck's staff, the legislation has not been scheduled on the legislative docket, yet. We are still planning a meeting with local legislators.

HB 466 Cyber School Legislation Letters

Dr. O'Shea emailed a template for a letter to legislators from the superintendents along with a list containing the names and addresses of local Pennsylvania legislators. Superintendents are encouraged to use the template to express their support for the legislation.

KITS RWAN Upgrade

Sometime between July 1 and September 1, 2008 the KITS RWAN will be connected to a new statewide virtual private network, PAIUnet. KITS school districts and Career and Technology Centers (CTCs) will have a high-speed, secure network connection to nearly all of the 501 school districts in Pennsylvania. This connection will exponentially increase KITS school districts' ability to access peers throughout the state via large group and desktop video conferencing. In the near future they will also be able to take advantage of discounted statewide purchasing of transport services, hardware and software. There will be no additional costs to KITS school districts over the next three years for this value-added capability.

New Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) Application Procedures

PDE has proposed new procedures for fingerprint submission that eliminate the issuance of hard copies of an individual's Criminal History Record Information (CHRI). Such issuance of hard copies violates federal regulations. The new procedures also fully place the burden on school districts to verify that all employees and independent contractors have CHRI clearances.

The department asked that this information be shared at the IU advisory council meetings. The proposed procedures are as follows:

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