What Can You Do With 1.4 Million Dollars?

So, what could you do with 1.4 million dollars? Better yet, how could you come up with that amount of money?  Many of us are playing the Powerball this weekend in hopes of striking it rich.  You also might be able to invest your money and grow your money to that figure. You can also be very frugal and save that amount of money over your lifetime. For parents at Penn-Trafford, they can save that amount by sending their children to our high school.

Recently I was talking with some superintendent friends of mine about how we can better “market” public schools.  One idea was to calculate how much money the school district saves parents of our students who take Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment courses.  The amount saved in our district is really staggering.  To calculate the savings, we took the total number of A.P. (Advanced Placement) and Dual Enrollment courses taken by students.  This number is large because we have students taking multiple courses.  For Dual Enrollment, the school district has 269 students, or seats taken, in these courses through Pitt and 225 taken through LaRoche.  This is a total of 494 courses taken for Dual Enrollment.  The cost for our students is $55.00 per credit for Pitt classes.  Pitt classes are 4 credits a piece. Our student cost for LaRoche credits is $46.50 per credit.  LaRoche classes are 3 credits a piece.  The school district has 337 students (again, one student may take multiple courses) taking AP courses.  AP classes are worth 3 credits and cost $27.00 a credit.  If you calculate the actual tuition rate for a regular college student at LaRoche and Pitt and compare it to what our students pay, the school district saves parents $981,000.000 in Dual Enrollment classes.  If you take the average cost per credit for LaRoche and Pitt and compare it to what students pay for an AP class, the school district saves parents $495,390.00 on AP classes.  So, for this academic year, the school district has saved parents $1,477,283.50 on tuition!  That, my friends, is an amazing number! 

Budget and Goal Presentation

Yesterday afternoon I met with over 60 staff members to review the Board goals and explain the school district budget process.  The talk took place at Penn Middle School at 4:00.  The budget part of the presentation was an overview about where the money for the school district comes from and how it is spent.  I also discussed the challenges facing the district because the funding situation from the State and the increase in pension costs. The second part of the presentation centered on the school board goals and how the staff can have input into how they are implemented.  We have started an online "jam" for the staff.  A "jam" is an idea that IBM started a few years ago that offered its employees a chance to collaborate on big ideas for the company.  We have created our won smaller jam to gain the insight an the expertise of the staff about how the school district can incorporate the goals into our schools.  A copy of the presentation can be found here.

The Smartest Person In The Room...is The Room

I have just started to read Too Big To Know. Although I am only 20 pages into the book, it has already had a profound impact on me.  The book discusses how people and society make sense of all of the data that we have in the world.  Humans have spent our entire existence making sense of data and attempting to turn that data into useful and practical information.  For thousands of years data came to us through experience and the environment.  Writing (either on cave walls or using the printing press) changed the dynamic of data gathering somewhat.  When data is written down, there is a filter placed between the person getting the data and people receiving the data.  A good question for the person receiving the information is "what am I not getting?" because they are only exposed to the written word.  Think about our recent history.  Newspapers, publishing houses and other media drove the data that we use to create information.  The author contends that the use of the internet and social media makes data more accessible and creates more information available to more people.  With so much information and data humans must now rely on each other more than ever to gather the data and turn that data into useful information.  Thus the author's comment that the room is the smartest "person".  The collective knowledge and intelligence of everyone in the room allows connections to be made across disciplines and expertise that cannot occur with just one person trying to make sense of the data.

I believe this has incredible implications for education.  I am very happy the Board intuitively recognized the power of human networks and connectivity by stressing the importance of virtual learning in their non-negotiable goals.  Schools must prepare students to collaborate with colleagues, friends and adversaries so they can gather as much data about an issue as possible, but more importantly, help each other in "sense making" for that data.  The days of textbook driven curriculum's (where the textbook companies are the final arbiter of what needs to be known by our students) are gone.  Moving forward, schools will help students construct knowledge with the help of each other and with the assistance of the teachers in the school.

Student Parking at the High School

The high school has instituted a pilot project that will allow more students to park at the high school.  Starting yesterday morning students are allowed to park in the Warrior Center parking lot.  Students must have a parking pass to be allowed to park at the Warrior Center.  Currently athletes of Spring sports have been allowed to get passes under the pilot program.  If there are still open parking spaces available at the end of the week then parking passes for seniors will be offered on a first come first served basis.  The pilot project is the result of a lot of work done by the high school administration, Dr. Harris and Mr. Lago.  I want to thank Mr. Hetrick (who is in charge of the parking for the school district) for taking the initiative to make sure the pilot program got off the ground. The pilot program is designed to determine if the school can open the Warrior Center parking lot for the entire school year. 

There are a few issues that the school district needs to work through before making an overall commitment to opening up more parking spaces.  The first consideration is monitoring the parking lot.  The school district’s own security team will monitor the parking lot before and after school.  They will make sure that students park in the correct spaces (the school district reserved 15 spaces for the public near the track so they can have easy access to the track during the day), watch for any problems, and make sure the students get on the shuttle bus that takes them to the high school.  Yes, the district has arranged for a shuttle to take the students from the parking lot to the school.  This service is being offered to the school district by First Student at no charge to the school district.  First Student is the school district’s transportation contractor.  I want to thank Mark Gunkle, the supervisor for First Student, for making the arrangements for free shuttle service for our students.  The second issue is how well received it is by the students.  In other words, will students take advantage of the parking privilege?  The answer seems to be “Yes”.  I spent the first morning in the parking lot so I could watch as the students arrived.  The students were great, there were no major glitches and I am happy with the result.  I did note, however, that there is a lot of traffic through the parking lot in the mornings.  I worry a little bit about cars traveling too fast through the parking lot as they cut through to get to the main high school driveway or to get to route 993.  We are going to monitor that situation more closely. A press release can be found here.

School Board 2 Year Goals, Vision and Beliefs

The School Directors of the Penn-Trafford School District announced their vision for what education will look like in the coming years in our school district.  The School Board participated in a Board retreat in February which gave them a chance to concentrate on important educational issues and how they believe the district should respond. The School Board carefully considered these important educational issues in relation to the school district community.  The result was a vision statement, a belief statement and a set of non-negotiable goals for student achievement and instruction.   The ensuing document articulates the vision for education in the school district over the next two years.  The School Board worked very hard on the night of the retreat to fashion a vision for educating the students in our school district  I am proud of the Board because they focused so intensely on crafting a vision and creating non-negotiable goals that directly impact students in the district and focuses on customizing student learning.  The non-negotiable goals for student achievement and instruction will help drive the school district into the 21^st Century and beyond.