Education category, Page 66
Gov. Wolf defends funding plan for public education
Gov. Tom Wolf doubled down on his proposal for major funding increases for public education, joining others on Thursday to lay out additional details for improving equity across Pennsylvania. “Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unfair to students, teachers and communities,” Wolf said during a virtual press briefing. Wolf on Wednesday...
Norwin to train potential substitute teachers
Norwin School District is planning a two-day training session in March aimed at qualifying people to become emergency-certified substitutes who can work immediately in the school district. The substitute teacher academy for those who do not hold a teaching certification is planned for 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 10...
Duquesne names Jennifer Padden Elliott to inaugural holistic health care position
Jennifer Padden Elliott, a pioneer in health equity and director of Duquesne University’s Center for Integrative Health, has been named the inaugural Ed and Karen Fritzky Family Chair in Integrative Medicine and Wellbeing. Created by a gift from the Fritzkys, the role is designed for a medical practitioner and member...
Greater Latrobe to welcome secondary students back to full-time classroom instructionVideo
Greater Latrobe School District will expand in-person instruction on Monday , opening classrooms five days per week to secondary students as well as to elementary students, who already have that option. The school board approved the move 7-2 Tuesday after administrators cited declining covid-19 cases locally and the fact that...
Justice Department drops its Yale discrimination lawsuit
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday dropped its discrimination lawsuit against Yale University that had alleged the university was illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants. The Justice Department noted in its filing that it was voluntarily dismissing the action, filed in October under the Trump administration. A...
Pittsburgh School Board postpones discussion of building closures
Pittsburgh Public School Board members voted on Tuesday to table discussions on closing or reconfiguring several district buildings. Officials had proposed major changes to the district’s footprint Monday evening. District officials said the changes, which consisted of closing seven schools and six buildings, as well as opening two new schools...
Education nominee vows to tackle problems worsened by virus
President Joe Biden’s nominee for education secretary is promising to help reopen schools but says much of the hardest work will come after that as schools try to address long-standing disparities worsened by the pandemic. “These inequities will endure, and prevent the potential of this great country, unless tackled head-on,”...
Sun Coach will transport only special needs students in South Allegheny as contract dispute continues
Special needs students who attend school programs outside of the South Allegheny School District will have busing to transport them to their respective facilities for the time being, but not the rest of the district’s 1,700 students. The school district and Sun Coach Lines reached a partial resolution during a...
Norwin to expand in-class elementary teaching
Norwin plans to give its 1,850 elementary school students the option of returning to school four days a week beginning Feb. 15, which doubles the number of in-class instruction days under the hybrid instruction model Norwin has used since school began. Superintendent Jeff Taylor said students in the four elementary...
School bus service halted as South Allegheny, Sun Coach Lines face off over contract
Late Friday morning, attorneys for South Allegheny School District sent a letter to the attorney representing their bus transportation company, praising progress they had made 10 days earlier in a dispute over $800,000 in back fees. Four hours later, the company, Sun Coach Lines, responded by saying they were terminating...
As virus cuts class time, teachers have to leave out lessons
English teachers are deciding which books to skip. History teachers are condensing units. Science teachers are often doing without experiments entirely. With instruction time reduced as much as half by the coronavirus pandemic, many of the nation’s middle school and high school teachers have given up on covering all the...
Pittsburgh Public Schools delay returning to classrooms until April 6
Pittsburgh Public Schools has delayed the return to in-school instruction another two months, until April 6. The district targeted the return to classroom instruction at the end of February. One after the other, several board members spoke at their meeting Wednesday in support of continuing to teach classes online, though...
Western Pa. schools receive grants to improve cafeterias
Eight local school districts are among those awarded more than $875,000 in grant money to help upgrade food service equipment in their cafeterias. In all, 59 elementary, middle and high schools will benefit from the funds, awarded to schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, a federally assisted meal...
Hempfield schools preparing for possible staff vaccinations
Staff at Hempfield Area School District could be next in line to receive the covid-19 vaccine. According to a letter by Superintendent Tammy Wolicki, district leaders are working with Hayden’s Pharmacy in Youngwood to provide an opportunity for staff to receive the vaccine early next month. “We are supporting this...
Duquesne University asked to bring back professor fired for using racial slur in class
A faculty-elected oversight body recommends that Duquesne University President Ken Gormley rehire Gary Shank, the education professor fired for using a racial slur during a virtual lecture on race and language in September. “While Dr. Shank’s use of the N-word was misguided, it was not malicious,” concludes a report by...
Mt. Pleasant Area students resuming hybrid instruction model
Students in the Mt. Pleasant Area School District are heading back to the classroom this week after more than a month of remote learning. District Superintendent Timothy Gabauer detailed in a letter to parents a plan that the school board approved for students to resume in-person classes Monday varying by...
High covid numbers could delay return to hybrid classes until April for Pittsburgh students
The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board is scheduled to vote this week on a measure to delay the return to partial in-person instruction until at least April 6 because of the high number of people in Allegheny County testing positive for the coronavirus, district officials announced. Delaying the planned return to...
Pittsburgh Public Schools Board expected to push in-person learning back to April
Pittsburgh Public Schools Board members are expected to make the “tough decision” next week to postpone the return of in-person learning until April 6, after the district’s spring break, board president Sylvia Wilson said Wednesday. “No one wants students back in school more than I do,” Wilson said. With covid-19...
Western Pa. teachers struggle to get information on vaccine distribution
As the state expands the first priority group for the covid-19 vaccine, educators in Western Pennsylvania are struggling with inadequate and often conflicting messages about when teachers and staff could receive their first doses. Teachers and staff inside school buildings fall into Phase 1B of the federal and state guidelines...
SAT doing away with optional essay, subject tests
NEW YORK — The College Board said Tuesday it will eliminate the optional essay from the SAT and do away with subject tests amid a changing college admissions landscape. “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of being innovative and adaptive to what lies ahead,” according to a statement from the...
Carnegie Mellon postpones start of in-person instruction, citing covid-19 rates in region
Carnegie Mellon University officials announced Tuesday that the school will delay the start of in-person instruction for the spring semester until Feb. 15. “As part of our continuing (covid-19) mitigation efforts, we have decided to delay the start of in-person instruction by one additional week,” CMU spokesman Jason Maderer said....
Pitt holds MLK Day discussion on ‘Race, Justice and Politics after the Capitol Siege’
Plenty of Americans are still trying to make sense of the attack on the Capitol, six days into a new year preceded by a year of racial tension and political uncertainty. They are in good company. As part of a special Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, a panel of...
Colleges, universities in Western Pennsylvania could get more than $200M in new stimulus reliefVideo
Colleges and students struggling to make ends meet in a pandemic economy will get a $21 billion boost from the latest infusion of coronavirus stimulus, with more on the way, should Congress take up President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package. The U.S. Department of Education recently released projections...
School choice lawsuit surge pushes possible high court fight
Vermont is facing at least its second lawsuit in four months over a voucher program that allows students in communities that don’t have schools or are not part of supervisory unions to attend schools of their choice, including approved private institutions. The Vermont system in which certain towns pay tuition...
Kiski Area officials: State Education Department contradicts themselves with new school guidelines
As the district prepares to enter its second semester, Kiski Area is one of few that has offered in-person and hybrid instruction all school year, Superintendent Tim Scott said — staying consistent amid shifting guidelines from the state Department of Education. During a Wednesday evening school board meeting, Scott and...
