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WILKES-BARRE — Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Bernard Prevuznak summed up the message with one phrase: “We cannot continue on the path we are currently engaged.”
Prevuznak joined Hanover Area School District Superintendent Andrew Kuhl and Luzerne Intermediate Unit Executive Director Anthony Grieco in testimony before a Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee hearing at the Wilkes University Tuesday.
The topic was education funding, and with six Democrats at the table, including two former teachers — Wilkes-Barre’s Eddie Day Pashinski and Philadelphia’s Jordan Harris — the tone was decidedly supportive of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to dramatically boost state funding for schools.
Pennsylvania Department of Education Executive Deputy Secretary David Volkman led off the testimony by noting he worked his way up from school bus driver to district superintendent.
Citing studies that show learning disabilities can be detected in children as young as nine months, Volkman championed the need for pre-school programs. He said the Wolf Administration wants to eventually offer universal pre-kindergarten.
Pressed by Harris on the need to look beyond increased money to the “allocation of human capital,” Volkman said the administration is “looking to create a school turnaround office” that would have representatives work with a district to determine strategies to help low-achieving schools.
Prevuznak noted Wilkes-Barre Area has depleted what had been a $16.5 million reserve in 2011 to $7 million this year and potentially to as little as $500,000 next year, all to make up for state budget cuts.
Despite the fact that studies show at-risk students regress during summer vacation, the district had to cut summer school, Prevuznak said. And all that spending has left the district with little money to deal with “three structurally obsolete high schools.”
Kuhl rattled off cuts at Hanover Area, including 17 teacher positions by attrition, consolidation of four elementary schools into three, elimination of sports in grades 7 and 8, and cutting four administration positions.
The district’s low-income population that has risen to 62 percent, while special education spending rose 14.2 percent, doubling the annual cost to $840,000 since 2011. This, he noted, happened while the state flat-lined special education funding for six years.
While much of the testimony involved rising costs and sharp spending cuts in area districts, the hearings grew most animated when committee Chairman Mike Sturla of Lancaster and Harris hit issues close to their hearts.
Sturla criticized former Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration for cutting education money his first year, then two years later raising alarms about a looming pension fund crisis. “They acted as if they didn’t know it was coming!” Sturla said.
Harris grew most vocal discussing the need to change how teacher seniority impacts assignments. He noted that in Philadelphia veteran teachers often ask to get assigned to more affluent schools, leaving low-income students with new, inexperience teachers.
“How do students who need the most get the least?” Harris asked. “We can’t move past this moment when we’re talking about funding unless we’re talking about how we distribute the money we’re getting.”