Highspire Education Coalition

03/02/2020

PRECEDENT-SETTING: Court has ruled there IS Educational Merit in our communities effort to better the education of our students!

The Commonwealth Court decision overturns a Dauphin County judge's rejection of the dissolution proposal mounted by the Highspire Education Coalition.

03/02/2020

COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA FINDS EDUCATIONAL MERIT IN HIGHSPIRE EDUCATION COALITION’S PETITION, OVERTURNS SECRETARY OF EDUCATION’S DECISION AND ORDERS ESTABLISHMENT OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

HARRISBURG, PA (March 2, 2020) – In a precedential opinion issued earlier today, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania found educational merit in the Petition for the Formation of an Independent School District brought by the Highspire Education Coalition and reversed the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas with instructions for the trial court to enter an order establishing the formation of an independent school district in Highspire, Pennsylvania pursuant to Section 242.1 of the School Code, 24.P.S. §2-242.1.
The Commonwealth Court found that Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Pedro A. Rivera, exceeded the scope of his statutory authority in determining that the Coalition’s 2014 petition lacked “educational merit” based upon “conjectural adverse financial projections.” The comprehensive opinion, authored by President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, rejects the Secretary’s attempts to justify his denial of the petition on financial grounds, ultimately concluding that the “educational opportunities denied to Highspire students will not solve the district’s financial challenges.”
The Court agreed with the Coalition’s argument that the Secretary’s decision effectively constructed a “financial paradox” in which Highspire’s students were required to remain in a school district that is projected to continue to experience a persistent structural deficit with or without them, while also simultaneously denying those same students the ability to utilize their right to seek to improve the quality of their public education explicitly because of the perceived cost their exit would create for the Steelton-Highspire School District.
The Coalition appealed the Secretary’s initial denial of the petition in an effort to have the review correctly focused on educational concerns and not financial matters. “The Coalition is very pleased with the Commonwealth Court’s decision,” said Ken Becker, a spokesman for the coalition who filed the petition on behalf of Highspire residents. “Ensuring the children of Highspire are receiving a high-quality education has always been our top priority,” Becker continued, “and today's decision recognizes that objective and brings us even closer to the delivery of our goal to our students.”

11/06/2018

Learn more about School Choice options available for your K-12 student!!

Commonwealth Charter Academy will provide information on the opportunities it provides. 77 Steelton-Highspire students already attend!

10/05/2018

PARENTS: The Highspire Education Coalition is committed in its efforts to improve the educational opportunities available to our children. While we continue our efforts to become part of a better performing school district, we have also investigated other options available NOW for our children. We have invited Commonwealth Charter Academy to visit our community on November 14 at 7 p.m. to provide information on its programs and answer any questions you may have. We are excited that CCA offers K-12 instruction. There are currently 77 Steelton-Highspire students attending CCA this year. Come learn more on November 14 at 7 p.m. at the Highspire Fire Company Meeting Hall.

02/21/2018

PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FINDS HIGHSPIRE STUDENTS WOULD BENEFIT EDUCATIONALLY FROM A TRANSFER TO MIDDLETOWN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT BUT DENIES THE TRANSFER DUE TO POTENTIAL FINANCIAL ISSUES The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently issued a preliminary determination that children li...

03/06/2017

2016 SAT Scores Released: The Pennsylvania Department of Education released the 2016 SAT averages for Pennsylvania high schools. Scores were broken down among the 646 public high schools, charter schools, and vocational technical schools having at least 11 students graduating in 2015 that took the SAT test. Steelton-Highspire High School was again among the worst performing, ranking 576th overall, placing it in the 10th percentile among all schools ranked, with an average composite score of 1179. When not considering charter schools and vocational technical schools, Steelton-Highspire High School ranked 539th out of 581 public schools, placing it in the 7th percentile among Pennsylvania public schools. Of the 42 public schools ranked lower than Steelton-Highspire High School, 30 are in the Philadelphia City School District.

By contrast, Middletown Area High School ranked 222nd with an average composite score of 1491. The average for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was 1424. The scores for both Steelton-Highspire High School and Middletown Area High School are consistent with their historical scores going back to 2008, which were reported to PDE as part of our petition to relocate our students to Middletown Area School District.

http://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Assessment%20and%20Accountability/Pages/SAT-and-ACT.aspx -1

03/01/2017

Press & Journal: STILL WAITING

Highspire parents such as Nicole Robinson already have been waiting a long time for the state to decide on whether students like her 13-year-old son Ethan can be transferred from Steelton-Highspire …

02/22/2017

PennLive reports on the effort to improve the Education received by the students of the Highspire Borough:

A petition has been filed to order the Pennsylvania Department of Education to decide the "education merit" of seceding from the Steelton-Highspire School District and creating a new school district for students from Highspire.

02/22/2017

TAKING ACTION: The HEC has filed a petition with the Commonwealth Court requesting it to order the Department of Education to make a decision on the Educational Merit of the Steelton-Highspire School District split.

11/02/2016

If you are like us, you have been patiently waiting for a response on our petition. I just wanted to give an update on where we stand and what is holding up our progress:
1. Our petition was submitted for review by the local court who certified the Petitions and that the Highspire Education Coalition had met all the requirements to proceed on October 15th, 2014.
2. It was submitted to the Secretary of Education during the Election Year and Transition with all responses by both School Districts and the HEC in March of 2015, on-time, and thorough.
3. The Secretary of Education has had the petitions and responses to their requested Questionnaire for over 20 months without a Determination. (average time for past petitions has been 12 months)

We have met several times with our Congressmen and State Representatives to gather more information and to finally get a determination on the "Educational Merit" of the petitions (Secretary of Education rules on this, before sending it back to the Courts to certify the Determination, and then it goes to the Board of Education for the final word). The Secretary of Education's office has also requested a site visit, which it has not done in past Determinations and which we feel does not have any bearing on the "Educational Merit" of the Petition. We have petitioned the court to bring everyone back in for a status/explanation of the delay. As always, I will bring you any Progress or Information as it is received, but for now, be patient and strong for the betterment of education to our youth!