Education category, Page 59
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet resigns
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet is resigning, effective Oct. 1, district officials said Wednesday. The move comes after the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission found Hamlet violated the state’s Ethics Act with regard to travel expenses, accepting cash for speeches and failing to make required disclosures of financial interests between 2016...
Jill Biden heads back to classroom as a working first lady
WASHINGTON — Jill Biden is going back to her whiteboard. After months of teaching writing and English to community college students in boxes on a computer screen, the first lady resumes teaching in person Tuesday from a classroom at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has worked since 2009. She...
Greater Latrobe, Derry Area students plan walkouts to protest mask mandate
Some students at Greater Latrobe and Derry Area high schools are planning walkouts Tuesday morning to protest the statewide mandate requiring students, staff and teachers in K-12 schools to wear masks. Greater Latrobe organizer Spencer Bowman, a 17-year-old senior, said he hopes the school board will vote to buck the...
Legal experts say Wolf administration has authority to issue mask mandate
Republican leaders in Pennsylvania said Tuesday that in issuing a school mask mandate, Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration are trying to circumvent the will of the people expressed through the passage in May of a constitutional amendment. Legal experts said that the emergency powers amendment approved by voters in...
Wisconsin school board reverses on opting out of free meals
WAUKESHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin school district has reversed a decision to leave a federal free meals program following widespread criticism and loud protests from parents and others. Waukesha school board members said they received threats in the wake of national attention after voting to opt out of the program...
Commission: Pittsburgh schools Superintendent Hamlet violated Ethics Act
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet violated the state’s Ethics Act with regard to travel expenses, accepting cash for speeches and failing to make required disclosures of financial interests between 2016 and 2018, the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission said in a report issued Thursday. At a news conference Thursday morning, Hamlet...
Half of Pa. school districts with mask mandates are in Allegheny County, officials say
There are 59 school districts in Pennsylvania with mask mandates, officials said Wednesday. About half of those districts exist in Allegheny County. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald praised those 30 Allegheny County school districts and their school boards for instituting the mask mandates, a move meant to protect, among the...
Pittsburgh’s Environmental Charter School mandates covid vaccinations for employees
The Environmental Charter School’s mission is to grow citizens. It is along that vein, its chief operating officer said, that they have become one of the first in the area to mandate covid-19 vaccinations for their staff. “We need to operate as global citizens — we’ve got to model that...
Franklin Regional, Hempfield and Norwin schools team up for K-5 online academy
Three area school districts are banding together to create an online academy for students in kindergarten through fifth grade during the upcoming school year. Franklin Regional, Hempfield Area and Norwin formed the consortium Westmoreland Online Academy. A total of six teachers — two from each district — will be assigned...
North Allegheny teacher honored for spearheading student jump rope fundraiser
Like any good teacher, Dean Boronyak knows that making things fun can often be a great way to motivate kids. So when the North Allegheny physical education teacher was looking for ways his students could raise money for charity, he came up with a solution that channeled their boundless energy...
Franklin Regional prepares to open doors to new primary, intermediate elementary schoolsVideo
Teacher, administrator and staff comments about Franklin Regional’s new elementary campus largely center around a similar theme: possibilities. From new large-group instruction areas to creative media centers to little “pocket” areas where small groups can meet, collaborate or receive additional learning support, new educational opportunities are scattered throughout both the...
Pittsburgh Public Schools board OKs Sept. 3 start date
Students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools have a new date for the first day of school. The school board Wednesday voted to revise the calendar so that the first day of school will be Sept. 3, rather than Sept. 8. The district had initially planned to start classes on Aug....
Pennsylvania teachers union: Schools should require masks
Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union on Wednesday urged K-12 schools to require masks in school buildings, a measure that state officials are encouraging but not mandating. The Pennsylvania State Education Association cited the threat of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, which is spiking infections and hospitalizations across the...
Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to require masks in school
Masks will be required for the start of the school year at all schools within the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. The mask mandate applies to all students, faculty and staff, regardless of vaccination status — unless a medical or developmental condition prevents an individual from wearing a mask, the diocese...
Slippery Rock launches new College of Health Professions
Citing growing workforce needs and the popularity of a series of graduate health care and health information programs, the Slippery Rock University council of trustees approved the creation of a new College of Health Professions. The academic unit that will officially begin operating next fall will provide a central home...
Penn State’s faculty senate passes ‘vote of no confidence’ on university’s fall covid-19 plan
Penn State’s faculty senate formally passed a vote of no confidence Friday on the university’s fall covid-19 plan, slamming the administration for what it perceives as an inadequate response while again reiterating its desire for a vaccine mandate. The resolution stopped short of directly expressing no confidence in the Penn...
Pair of La Roche alumnae elected to top leadership posts on university’s board of trustees
A pair of alumnae of La Roche University in McCandless have been elected to serve in leadership positions on the board of trustees. Class of 2003 graduate Ernestine Harris will serve as board chair and Dione Graswick, who graduated in 1993, is the new vice chair, university officials announced. “I...
Duquesne University invokes mask mandate as students head to campusVideo
Citing a troubling increase in covid-19 infections regionally, Duquesne University announced Wednesday it is invoking a temporary mask mandate, effective Friday. The Pittsburgh university, which has required covid-19 vaccines as a condition of attendance this fall, said officials are requiring all individuals on campus to mask indoors, both in public...
Pittsburgh Public Schools pushes back start of school
Students of Pittsburgh Public Schools won’t return to class until Sept. 8 to give the district more time to iron out transportation issues, administrators said Tuesday. “We are also listening to the concerns raised by our staff related to the impact traditionally high temperatures in August have on our facilities,...
Sewickley Academy issues letter to parents addressing reasons for changes, including ‘toxic culture’
The Interim Head of School at Sewickley Academy, Ashley Birtwell, sent out a letter Aug. 4 to parents addressing the recent turmoil of events that have occurred at Sewickley Academy over the past six weeks. The letter, which the school also sent to the Sewickley Herald, comes after Academy representatives...
Pause on student loan payments extended through January
The Biden administration on Friday issued what it says will be the final extension to a student loan moratorium that has allowed millions of Americans to put off debt payments during the pandemic. Under the action, payments on federal student loans will remain paused through Jan. 31, 2022. Interest rates...
Empty dorm rooms pose financial problems for Pennsylvania public universities
Editor’s note: The original version of this story understated the total cost of the combined projects. This update reflects the higher, actual figures. As the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education finalizes the details of a historic consolidation, officials on the campuses of eight of its 14 universities are struggling...
To mask or not: School districts debate health, safety plans for year ahead
A split is forming among local school districts — those requiring masks for students in the coming academic year and those that leave the decision to personal choice — largely because of a lack of mandates from state or national health advisers. The Pennsylvania departments of health and education are...
Fine line divides local public and private universities on vaccine requirements
A fine line is dividing public and private universities in the region with regard to vaccine mandates. While private universities including Carnegie Mellon, Chatham, Seton Hill and Duquesne are requiring vaccinations for those on campus this fall, public universities here are stopping short of adopting mandates that state lawmakers —...
Schools confront more polarization with mask rules for fall
Students in Wichita, Kansas, public schools can ditch the masks when classes begin. Detroit public schools will probably require them unless everyone in a room is vaccinated. In Pittsburgh, masks will likely be required regardless of vaccination status. And in some states, schools cannot mandate face coverings under any circumstances....
