We are waiting with baited breath to see how the Herald-Standard handles a real story worthy of investigation: yesterday's news that a state report has flagged two local school districts -- Uniontown and Connellsville -- for possible cheating on standardized tests called the PSSA.
Based on the story announcing this news, "PDE investigating report that flags districts for possible cheating on PSSA," the early prognosis for any tough probing is not encouraging. How can it be when that particular story doesn't even mention which Connellsville schools were flagged in the report?
All the Herald-Standard chose to divulge was that "Third-grade PSSA results from Ben Franklin School (in the Uniontown Area School District) were flagged on the report," and that "several elementary schools in the Connellsville Area School District" were also flagged.
See for yourself: http://www.heraldstandard.com/news/local_news/pde-investigating-report-that-flags-districts-for-possible-cheating-on/article_97202068-cb04-5935-91b5-720d04150ca4.html
We had to check out the same story on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's website to find out that the Connellsville schools implicated in this report were: Bullskin Township Elementary School, Clifford N. Pritts Elementary School, South Side Elementary School, Connellsville Area Career and Technical School.
You would think that if you are going to name the one school building in Uniontown that has this potential problem, you would also name the four buildings in Connellsville that are alleged to have it too. Perhaps Herald-Standard editor Mark OKeefe has a good explanation for why that did not happen.
The Post-Gazette also provided its readers an important perspective by noting that the report flagged eight school districts and one charter school in southwestern Pennsylvania for possible cheating. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11194/1160004-454-0.stm
The Associated Press provided even better perspective: at least three dozen schools, or about 36 of Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, were flagged in the report, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
No one is accusing anyone of wrongdoing at this point. But the perspective of a source quoted in the Post-Gazette story is worth giving to the public, especially since it was missing from the Herald-Standard story.
Andy Porter, dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, reviewed the report, and said this to the Post-Gazette: "If there's one flag, that's something to be investigated because to get a flag, you have to have a result that is just completely beyond anything expected to happen by chance ... I don't think we're talking about student cheating here at all. We're talking about adult cheating."
This certainly sounds to us like something the Herald-Standard should investigate. As a topic, it is at least on par with the fake letter to the editor the newspaper published from Ruth Thompson, the controvery over using tax dollars to launch and fund Fayette TV, criticism by one disgruntled member of the Marcellus Shale Task Force and the Connellsville Area School Board's threat to yank its legal advertising from the newspaper.
All of those topics were judged to warrant saturation coverage by the newspaper, generating front page stories and editorial commentary. But those were easy targets. This one's a little tougher, and even though it does not involve the newspaper's finances or reputation, it is certainly no less important.
Showing posts with label Connellsville Area School District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Connellsville Area School District. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
We are in charge of a school district?
Somebody please buy seven dunce caps so they can be given to Connellsville Area School District board members Kevin Lape, Gary Wandel, Dr. P.J. Carte, Dr. Paul Means, Denise Martin, Tom Dolde and Jim Fabian.
They deserve them, not because they want cancel legal adertising in the Herald-Standard as retribution for editorials they don't like, as reported in Sunday's front-page story, "Attorney says board's action may be illegal."
No, this crew deserves to wear the crown of stupidity for failing to be smart about it. First up, director Lape, author of the motion to penalize the newspaper:
Lape cited the negative content of recent editorials published by HeraldStandard.com, including school board endorsements and support of a study tied to a proposal to consolidate Fayette County School Districts as his foundation for the action.
“The Herald-Standard should stick to selling newspapers, not be involved in what a school district should or shouldn’t be doing,” he said.
Way to go, Mr. Lape. You andthe others who didn't get the newspaper's endorsement in the May primary election now make it painfully clear that you're going to make them pay by, well, not paying them.
Then we have this public relations gem, also printed in Sunday's story:
Fabian, meanwhile, expressed pleasure at the opportunity to cast a favorable vote to Lape’s motion to halt advertising in HeraldStandard.com as he exited the meeting.
“I’ve been waiting for a month to do that,” he said.
It is hard for us to believe that seven people who are in charge of running a school board, and thus educating thousands of children, are themselves so stupid. It is no wonder that their school district faces a $7 million deficit and that socking property owners with tax increases is the only way they can balance the books.
Instead of picking a fight with the Herald-Standard, all they had to do was use logic. The law requires that school districts place their legal advertisements -- for things like when they are holding a meeting, or when they are soliciting bids for a project -- in a newspaper of general circulation within the political subdivision of the school district.
That is fancy wording for, "You have to advertise your meetings and such in a newspaper that circulates in your area."
The easy out for these disaffected Connellsville Area School District board members? You say, "Hey, we've been doing some nosing around, and one of us discovered that there is a newspaper of general circulation with here in our own back yard. It is called the Connellsville Daily Courier. And since we are the Connellsville Area School District, we think makes better sense to advertise in the Connellsville Daily Courier, instead of the Uniontown-based Herald-Standard."
And if these school board members were REALLY smart, they would have had the district's well-paid business manager provide some numbers to back up the decision. (We are pretty certain that the Herald-Standard's advertising rates are going to be higher than the Daily Courier's.)
All that Lape & Co. had to do was provide those numbers, and say, "Look, it's costing us $5,000 a year to advertise in the Herald-Standard, and we can fulfill that requirement for $3,000 a year by switching to the Daily Courier. Times are tough -- after all, we have a $7 million deficit to close, and we lost a ton of state subsidy this year -- so we have to save money wherever we can."
And if they were REALLY, REALLY smart, they would have thrown down the gauntlet in front of the Herald-Standard by saying, "Now if the Herald-Standard wants to match or beat the Daily Courier's rate, we will gladly consider keeping our advertising with them. Otherwise, the Herald-Standard is advocating that we pay MORE for a service than we actually have to. We don't consider that a prudent use of tax dollars. Do they?"
As for these board members being upset with the newspaper's support of state Rep. Tim Mahoney's effort to conduct a study to see if adminitrative consolidation of county school district would have money, that is a mere smokescreen issue. (And the behavior of The Connellsville Seven only serves to prove that Mahoney's vision cannot come to fruition soon enough. One side benefit would be that only one set of legal advertising would be needed, instead of six sets.)
Lastly, we remain a little unclear as to whether Lape's motion was just a proposal to do away with legal advertising in the Herald-Standard, or whether it is a done deal. The reporting in Sunday's story is a bit unclear on that count.
They deserve them, not because they want cancel legal adertising in the Herald-Standard as retribution for editorials they don't like, as reported in Sunday's front-page story, "Attorney says board's action may be illegal."
No, this crew deserves to wear the crown of stupidity for failing to be smart about it. First up, director Lape, author of the motion to penalize the newspaper:
Lape cited the negative content of recent editorials published by HeraldStandard.com, including school board endorsements and support of a study tied to a proposal to consolidate Fayette County School Districts as his foundation for the action.
“The Herald-Standard should stick to selling newspapers, not be involved in what a school district should or shouldn’t be doing,” he said.
Way to go, Mr. Lape. You andthe others who didn't get the newspaper's endorsement in the May primary election now make it painfully clear that you're going to make them pay by, well, not paying them.
Then we have this public relations gem, also printed in Sunday's story:
Fabian, meanwhile, expressed pleasure at the opportunity to cast a favorable vote to Lape’s motion to halt advertising in HeraldStandard.com as he exited the meeting.
“I’ve been waiting for a month to do that,” he said.
It is hard for us to believe that seven people who are in charge of running a school board, and thus educating thousands of children, are themselves so stupid. It is no wonder that their school district faces a $7 million deficit and that socking property owners with tax increases is the only way they can balance the books.
Instead of picking a fight with the Herald-Standard, all they had to do was use logic. The law requires that school districts place their legal advertisements -- for things like when they are holding a meeting, or when they are soliciting bids for a project -- in a newspaper of general circulation within the political subdivision of the school district.
That is fancy wording for, "You have to advertise your meetings and such in a newspaper that circulates in your area."
The easy out for these disaffected Connellsville Area School District board members? You say, "Hey, we've been doing some nosing around, and one of us discovered that there is a newspaper of general circulation with here in our own back yard. It is called the Connellsville Daily Courier. And since we are the Connellsville Area School District, we think makes better sense to advertise in the Connellsville Daily Courier, instead of the Uniontown-based Herald-Standard."
And if these school board members were REALLY smart, they would have had the district's well-paid business manager provide some numbers to back up the decision. (We are pretty certain that the Herald-Standard's advertising rates are going to be higher than the Daily Courier's.)
All that Lape & Co. had to do was provide those numbers, and say, "Look, it's costing us $5,000 a year to advertise in the Herald-Standard, and we can fulfill that requirement for $3,000 a year by switching to the Daily Courier. Times are tough -- after all, we have a $7 million deficit to close, and we lost a ton of state subsidy this year -- so we have to save money wherever we can."
And if they were REALLY, REALLY smart, they would have thrown down the gauntlet in front of the Herald-Standard by saying, "Now if the Herald-Standard wants to match or beat the Daily Courier's rate, we will gladly consider keeping our advertising with them. Otherwise, the Herald-Standard is advocating that we pay MORE for a service than we actually have to. We don't consider that a prudent use of tax dollars. Do they?"
As for these board members being upset with the newspaper's support of state Rep. Tim Mahoney's effort to conduct a study to see if adminitrative consolidation of county school district would have money, that is a mere smokescreen issue. (And the behavior of The Connellsville Seven only serves to prove that Mahoney's vision cannot come to fruition soon enough. One side benefit would be that only one set of legal advertising would be needed, instead of six sets.)
Lastly, we remain a little unclear as to whether Lape's motion was just a proposal to do away with legal advertising in the Herald-Standard, or whether it is a done deal. The reporting in Sunday's story is a bit unclear on that count.
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