News in brief
Vallas gets new deal to stay as CEO till ‘09
Report cards and more now accessible online
Complaint: parents must have a say on school plans
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News in Brief
Vallas gets new deal to stay as CEO till ‘09
By a 3-2 vote on August 23, the School Reform Commission approved a contract extension for Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas.
Vallas’ current five-year contract was scheduled to end after the 2006-2007 school year, but he now has an extension to the end of the 2008-2009 school year. The SRC will also have the option of Vallas continuing either as CEO or as a consultant through the 2009-2010 school year.
The contract for Vallas includes an increase in his annual salary from $250,000 to $275,000 beginning this school year. He will also receive a performance bonus increase from 10 percent to 20 percent of his base salary. This bonus is awarded at the discretion of the SRC. He will also be eligible for a retention bonus for every year that he completes under his contract.
SRC Chair James Nevels and Commissioners Martin Bednarek and Sandra Dungee Glenn voted to keep Vallas, while James Gallagher and Daniel Whelan voted against renewal.
SRC members had heard from a number of public officials citing strides made under Vallas’ leadership and advocating a contract renewal. The two dissenting SRC members expressed concern that the District is not on track to meet an array of performance targets for 2008 in its “Declaration of Education.”
At the commission meeting, Vallas told the audience, “I have no illusions or delusions about how far we have to go.... I will do my best not to let you down.”
Report cards and more now accessible online
To help bridge the gap between home and school, the School District introduced FamilyNet last spring, providing parents with access to data via the Internet concerning their child’s school progress.
FamilyNet is accessible online to parents who provide a valid email address and their child’s student identification number, which appears on report cards and on the Parent Location card.
On FamilyNet, parents can access student report cards, scores and analysis for both benchmark and standardized tests, as well as information about enrollment and the child’s academic history. There are also resources for parents to help their children succeed in academia.
“While this is just the beginning, parents have already commented on the value of FamilyNet and the importance of letting other parents know about this valuable resource,” says an email from Parent Technology Manager Jay Cohen and Fran Newberg, program manager of the Instructional Management System for the School District’s Office of Educational Technology.
Cohen says the School District is working with schools, Home and School Associations, and other organizations to develop schedules to educate parents about this new program and about where to find discounted computers and Internet services.
As of June, about 8,500 parents were registered on the FamilyNet site. To register for FamilyNet, parents can log on to www.phila.k12.pa.us and click on FamilyNet to set up their account. For more information, call 215-400-5099.
Hannah Davis
Complaint: parents must have a say on school plans
The Pennsylvania Department of Education is reviewing a complaint that the School District has violated the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) by not including parents, teachers, and students in “restructuring plans” for low-performing schools. The complaint was filed last spring by the Education Law Center.
A school must develop a restructuring plan when it fails to meet its performance targets for “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) for five consecutive years or more, according to the law.
Schools must begin addressing problems during these first five years by crafting “school improvement” plans, but schools that still do not meet targets move to “Corrective Action II” status. These schools must develop a restructuring plan that year, and if they fail to meet AYP again, the law says they must implement the plan the following year.
NCLB requires Corrective Action II schools to involve parents and teachers in decisions about the restructuring plans.
ELC says about 90 city schools are in or on the verge of restructuring, and the District should be informing all parents about why these schools have been identified for restructuring and inviting them to participate in developing a plan.
The School District argues that the complaint is without merit and that District schools all adopt a school improvement plan with parent input.
ELC is gathering experiences of individuals in “Corrective Action II” schools. “If you are a student, parent, or teacher in one of these schools and have a story about your access to the local restructuring process, we would love to hear it,” says Allison Balter, a public education advocate at ELC. (To reach her, call 215-238-6970.)
To find the status of a school under NCLB, go to the Pennsylvania Department of Education website - www.paayp.com.