Education category, Page 6
Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi gets 47% raise in wake of campus closure decision
Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi’s base salary will increase 47% in an effort, approved Friday by the university’s board of trustees, to keep her as president until 2032. The trustees voted 34-1 to approve Bendapudi’s new compensation package, which increases her base salary from $950,000 to $1.4 million, an increase...
Penn State to close WPSU radio station
Penn State will shut down its public radio station, WPSU, after trustees voted against a proposal to transfer its operating assets to WHYY, a public media organization in Philadelphia. WPSU has depended on annual subsidies of at least $3.4 million from the university to operate the station. The university budgeted...
Western Pa. college campuses grapple with fear and security after Charlie Kirk’s killing
Seton Hill student Romilleigh Donovan disagreed with viewpoints of late conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah. Still, Donovan, a sophomore studying criminal justice, was deeply troubled by Kirk’s death on Wednesday. “I was appalled, but I was not surprised...
Western Pa. college students grapple with fear and security after Charlie Kirk’s killing
Seton Hill University student Romilleigh Donovan disagreed with viewpoints of late conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah. Still the sophomore studying criminal justice was deeply troubled by Kirk’s death on Wednesday. “I was appalled, but I was not surprised...
Judge issues nationwide block on Trump policy that cuts off Head Start for people in U.S. illegally
A federal judge has issued a nationwide block on a Trump administration directive that prevented children in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program. Head Start associations in several states filed suit against the policy change by the U.S. Department of Health and Human...
Hundreds of Pennsylvania educators call for cyber charter funding reform in state budget
Hundreds of Pennsylvania school district administrators are calling for cyber charter funding reform to be included in the state’s 2025-26 budget. A letter featuring signatures from administrators at 215 schools was sent to state legislators Thursday — calling for a cyber charter funding formula that reflects the true cost of...
Trump administration cuts grants for minority-serving colleges, declaring them unconstitutional
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is ending several grant programs reserved for colleges that have large numbers of minority students, saying they amount to illegal discrimination by tying federal money to racial quotas. In a shift upending decades of precedent, the Education Department said Wednesday it now believes it’s unconstitutional...
High school seniors’ math, reading scores declining, national report says
High school seniors’ math and reading comprehension are on the decline, according to a national report. The National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Education, administered the National Assessment of Educational Progress to a sample of students from 1,500 schools throughout the country from January to...
U.S. high school students lose ground in math and reading, continuing yearslong decline
WASHINGTON — A decade-long slide in high schoolers’ reading and math performance persisted during the covid-19 pandemic, with 12th graders’ scores dropping to their lowest level in more than 20 years, according to results released Tuesday from an exam known as the nation’s report card. Eighth-grade students also lost significant...
Central Westmoreland CTC eyes campus, program expansion as enrollment increases
Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center is outgrowing the buildings on its 44-acre campus in New Stanton — noting a more than 500-student increase in enrollment in the past five years. One of more than 80 career and technical education centers statewide, Central Westmoreland will educate 1,518 students this year...
Carnegie Mellon creates committee to discuss role of The Fence tradition
Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian on Thursday announced an official 17-member group tasked with making new recommendations for operation of The Fence, which has been a long-standing campus tradition. The announcement came in a letter two months after Jahanian temporarily shut down use of the Fence. The closure followed...
Students return to an updated Sewickley Academy Senior School
Nataliya DiDomenico, Global Studies Coordinator and English as a Foreign Language teacher, sat at a new desk waiting for her first class of the school year. “I am excited,” said DiDomenico, who is in her 14th year at Sewickley Academy. “I feel like my students will be energized. Everything is...
Judge reverses Trump administration’s cuts of billions of dollars to Harvard University
BOSTON — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the reversal of the Trump administration’s cuts to more than $2.6 billion in funding research grants for Harvard University. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs sided with the Ivy League school, ruling the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection...
Fetterman, McCormick call on Pa. universities to combat antisemitism
Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators are calling on five of the state’s universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, to ensure that Jewish organizations on their campuses are “equipped to protect the students they serve.” U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, and Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, said their request comes on the heels of...
Hempfield resident’s donation to WCCC will support students in skilled trades, allied health
After a 43-year career in highway construction, Hempfield resident Bob Miner Jr. wants to give back to the skilled trades industry and his lifelong home, Westmoreland County. Miner, 70, started the Robert Miner Family Foundation in 2023 alongside his wife and daughter after selling his company, Donegal Construction. The foundation...
Nursing school? Workforce training? Ideas pitched for future use of PSNK property
Suggestions for what the Penn State New Kensington property will become post-spring 2027 range from a nursing school, to a manufacturing training center or a mixed-use site. But regardless of what eventually pans out, those who attended a invitation-only meeting with Penn State leadership at the PSNK campus this week...
WCCC sees enrollment increase after years of decline
After 14 years of declining enrollment, Westmoreland County Community College may be starting to reverse the trend. As of the first day of classes, enrollment is up nearly 1.9%, or 42 students, compared to the first day of the 2024-25 academic year. And that doesn’t account for students taking late-start...
Judge lifts suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine at University of Pittsburgh
A federal judge on Thursday lifted a suspension against a pro-Palestinian student group at the University of Pittsburgh, finding that the speech they engaged in leading up to the suspension was protected by the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan granted a motion seeking a preliminary injunction for...
Pittsburgh’s Catholic leaders on alert after school shooting in Minneapolis
A Pittsburgh-area native leads the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese, where gunfire during a back-to-school Mass Wednesday killed two students and injured more than a dozen others. Archbishop Bernard Hebda grew up in Brookline. His counterpart in Pittsburgh, Bishop Mark Eckman, offered prayers for Hebda and everyone else reeling from the latest...
‘Happy where we are’: enrollment steady at Pittsburgh area Catholic schools, superintendent says
With enrollment seemingly stabilizing after a post-pandemic dip, the superintendent the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s schools said there are no plans for school closures on the table in the near future. “As of right now, we are pretty stable and happy where we are,” said Superintendent Lauren Martin. Martin was...
Mt. Lebanon named highest-ranked Pittsburgh-area high school in national listing
Mt. Lebanon was the highest-ranked Pittsburgh-area school in a U.S. News and World Report listing of the country’s best public high schools. The list, released last week, assessed more than 24,000 public high schools across the country. The majority of the schools, 18,000, were ranked on several performance-related factors: college...
Last chance: Penn State New Kensington, Fayette welcome final 2-year class before impending closure
Bailey Maschok always knew she wanted to spend two years studying at Penn State New Kensington and finish her degree at the university’s main campus in State College. “I’m really grateful I made the cutoff to do two years here before going up to main campus,” said Maschok, 18, of...
Panel at Sewickley Public Library discuss student cellphone use in school
A panel of local educators, an advocacy group and a college student believe cellphones are a distraction for young learners. One of the panelists at a discussion held at the Sewickley Public Library on Aug. 22, state education lead for Pennsylvania Unplugged, Kelly Marsh, cited various statistics, including the fact...
As back-to-school costs rise, educators rely upon donations to bolster classroom supplies
The brightly colored posters, comfortable seats and hands-on science experiments present in Kaylyn Wojnarowski’s Gateway classroom might not exist if the first grade teacher relied solely on the district’s budget for supplies. Wojnarowski welcomed students back to her classroom at Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary on Thursday — the start of...
Hempfield Area drafts 3D designs for high school renovation
Five years after Hempfield Area School District approved a feasibility study for a renovation of its 1956 high school, the district is starting to nail down what the refurbished building will look like. Architect Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates laid out visions for the project in October, and the school board...
