April (snow) showers...

April is a time when flowers bloom, buds come out on the trees and birds chirp in the morning - unless, of course, you live in western PA.  We still have some mounds of snow melting in spots across the campus.  Our fields are still soft and muddy in some spots.  Our maintenance supervisor and his guys work hard to get the fields and track ready for spring sports.  As winter leaves a messy trail in its wake, It is always challenging to get our facilities in top shape to meet the needs of all who use them in the spring.

Great news: the sale of the former Middle School and athletic field is complete.  And, as promised, we had our first grounds committee meeting last evening.  The committee, chaired by Board member Dennis Simmers, included coaches, administrators, maintenance and community members.  Goals and priorities were discussed with plans for future meetings and direction.  As a hub for the community, the committee feels it is important to responsibly maintain and improve our campus and its surrounding grounds; more to come on this at a later date. 

Our Business Manager presented our tentative budget at a public meeting on Thursday, April 16.  The meeting was poorly attended; I have a feeling this could be the result of the fact that, for the fourth year in a row, Central Cambria will hold the line on taxes.  Several factors make this an almost Herculean feat: first, employee costs, as well as our pension contribution, have risen significantly. Second, although Governor Wolf has promised to do more for public education, the Republican-controlled Legislature has not committed to his budget plan.  They are holding resolution of the pension issue as their number one priority before agreeing to any budget proposal.

Mrs. McDermott and I attended an ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training at Richland HS.  This program is designed to give a person or group of people, who find themselves in a life-threatening situation, some mental and physical tools that could play a vital role in their survival.    It is designed so that anybody can employ the strategies.  We plan to have ALICE trainers come to our district next fall to train our staff on these strategies.  While it is rather sad that such skills are needed in the educational arena, I am a firm believer in taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the children in our care.

On the subject of security, our buildings continue to practice not only monthly fire drills, but also shelter in place drills, lockdowns and evacuations.  After each drill, staff and administration debrief to discuss issues and concerns that may need to be resolved before the next drill.  It is important to remember that, while there  are no guarantees of positive outcomes in a violent situation, the more one prepares, the better is one's chance of survival.

If you have young children ages 0-6, you should check out our Ready Rosie website.  You must be a resident of our district and register your child(ren) on the site to begin receiving online resources that provides daily activities for adults to do with children.  The activities are simple and  take only about two minutes a day.  Each activity is modeled on a two-minute video.  Simply watch the video, do the activity and everyone learns something new! It's received nothing but positive reviews from teachers and their own children.

I recall that last year at this time I wrote in my blog, “The Pens this year are making history with the number of wins and shutouts" (what a difference a year can make).” But how far into the playoffs will they go this year with limited evidence of scoring power, despite the efforts of Crosby and Malkin?   History is on the Pens'  side, though, as the only time in recent memory they scored fewer than 100 points (96 this year) was in 2007 – and that was the year they won the Stanley Cup!  And yes, I smell football in the air as many colleges are playing their spring games (e.g, the Blue White game at PSU), the draft is at the end of this month, and the NFL schedules are due to be released next week.  My personal gridiron drought is coming to a close. 😃

Dr. D.

Springtime??

Is winter gone for good?  Or has the arrival of spring only brought warm thoughts to our minds?  The snowstorm last Friday, March 20^th,  raised serious doubts about the thought of flowers and trees budding: below is a picture of our first spring track practice on that date…Sooner or later, as the calendar edges closer to April, the sun will at last have a palpable effect on the days and nights in our region. 

March is certainly a transitional month, as pleasant days mingle with not-so-seasonal ones.  The same “good news and bad news” might apply to school finances, especially with a new governor at the helm.  Governor Wolf has proposed many changes and additions to the new budget.  On the positive side, there is proposed new money being allocated to the basic education subsidy and the special education budget, as well as relief from monies going to charter and cyber schools. 

A negative aspect of Governor Wolf’s plan is that funding for his budget will meet with some resistance from the Republican-controlled House and Senate.  While there appears to be a groundswell of approval for increasing the basic education subsidy, the process for doing so has resulted in some interesting discussions that will likely affect the dollar amount assigned to this subsidy.  Related to the issue of money for cyber and charter schools, I wonder how many people are aware that our District pays almost $300,000 to cyber charter schools each year—this despite the fact that very little overhead costs are associated with such online programs.  Of course, any relief and/or accountability by the legislature would be a tremendous help for our district’s finances.

Since Governor Wolf’s budget presentation, I have received three letters concerning the proposed budget.  The first was from the Republican legislators to all Superintendents, urging us not to count on any extra money when we develop next year’s budget (a bad omen, I must say).  The second letter came from the Acting Secretary of Education, Pedro Rivera, asking that all Superintendents send to him their plans for the use of these additional monies (a good sign, right?).  The third letter came from the speaker of the House, Mike Turzai and Senate Majority leader, Dave Reed, asking Governor Wolf to rescind the directive that Superintendents send Mr. Rivera their plans for increased education money.  Talk about confusing messages! Maybe legislators have been using the Abbot and Costello baseball skit (“who’s on first, what’s on second and I don’t know is on third”) to guide their decisions….

I, along with many other PA Superintendents, will be anxious to see how this all shakes out for public education.  Central Cambria will continue to put aside money for cost increases related to pensions, health care, and special education.  Our Board of Directors have done a great job maintaining and, in some cases, increasing programs.  These are tough times in the education arena; being proactive and forward-thinking will go a long way in maintaining the excellence at Central Cambria School District.

Finally, if it is close to the end of March, can football season be far behind?  Many colleges, including PSU, have begun spring practices.  NFL free agency had some interesting moves and changes, which have a way of whetting the appetite of fans everywhere, regardless of which teams they favor.  The Pens also seem to mirror the month of March as they yoyo between playing poorly to looking like champions.  I hope they realize the playoffs are only two weeks away.

I encourage you to not put away that shovel or snow blower yet, as I recall the birth of my granddaughter about three years ago on April 18, when our district got 10” of a heavy wet snow that caused many power outages in our area.  Nice to know that the weather is neither Republican nor Democrat and shows no favoritism…

Until next month,

Dr. D.