Meets Noon Mondays at the Hilton
www.hbgrotary.org
Executive Director: Linda Freedenberg
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone: 717-234-1208
Fax: 717-234-3234

May 10, 2010

Speaker: Dr. Gerald Kohn "SAVING THE HARRISBURG SCHOOL DISTRICT: Two Points of View"

and Group Study Exchange from Denmark & Lithuania

Greeter:  John Sutliff
Invocation:  Joan Prescott
Club Singing:  John Hickey
Publications:  Peter Henninger

Corporate Member

Birthdays:
No Birthday’s this week.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS / MEETING LOCATIONS: 
May 10     Group Study Exchange and Dr. Gerald Kohn– "SAVING THE HARRISBURG SCHOOL DISTRICT: Two Points of View"

May 17    Strategic Plan Report and Students/Teacher of the Quarter
For complete programming go to our website: hbgrotary.org and click on calendar.

For meeting cancellations due to inclement weather.... Tune to ABC27-TV or check your e-mail or call the Rotary office at 234-1208.

PROGRAM: Group Study Exchange Team from Denmark & Lithuania:  The seven member team from District 1460 is led by Rotarian Peter Rastrup, with team members Claus Damkjaer, Kestas Duoba, Dalia Kacenauskaite, Viktorija Kaltanaite, Maj Rotne, and Hanna Steffensen.  After arriving at HIA on April 10, the team will begin to learn about the culture, customs and people of District 7390, before departing for home on May 15.  This program is funded by your donations to The Rotary Foundation, to help spread goodwill and understanding around the world.

Dr. Gerald Kohn:  Superintendent of schools for over twenty-five years in five districts and three states, Dr Kohn brings a perspective from the experience of what works well in public school education.  His latest superintendency has been for the Harrisburg School District for the last eight and a half years.  He has been the Harrisburg Superintendent for a longer time than his three predecessors combined - longer than he or anyone else thought possible when he arrived in July 2001.  During that time, the Harrisburg students' state test scores increased to where three times  more are now passing.  Graduation has increased by 171%, college acceptance up by 419% and dropouts have decrease by 57%.  Last year 75% of Harrisburg's students' state test scores improved by more than one year's growth from April to March, more than almost any other district in the state.  On December 15, 2009, The National Superintendents' Roundtable from Seattle WA named Dr. Kohn National Superintendent of the Year for 2009.  Yet on March 15, 2010, two months after she "gagged" him, Harrisburg Mayor Thompson fired Dr Kohn.  Dr. Kohn prepared for his career at Princeton (BA), Monclair (MA) and Harvard (EdD) Universities.

NEWS AND NOTES:
•  ROSTER INFORMATION SHEETS: Please return with any updated information and your committee selections for 2010-11.

• The Fellowship Committee invites all members and their guests to attend our “Nine and Dine” events in 2010.  Once a month, at a different venue each month, we will play nine holes of golf and have a chance to grab a bite to eat and a cold drink.

In order to plan ahead and accommodate attendance every month we ask that you sign up either for the golf and dine package or either golf only or dine only.  In other words there will be a sign up sheet each month.  (You certainly can play golf with a preplanned group or ask to be grouped by the host of each event.)

This is not a fundraiser for the club-it is a fellowship event-but you will need to budget to pay the announced fees for the golf and food.  You will also receive a make up for attendance!

Our second Nine & Dine event is Tuesday May 25th at Blue Ridge CC.  The package to play and ride a cart is $25. Additionally it is “Italian Pasta” buffet night at the club so all players and dine-only attendees can budget $10 for a wonderful dinner!

We can set up as many tee times as we need between 3:50 and 4:50 that day.  Please sign up today or as soon as you can as we will need to confirm our playing needs with the course in the next few weeks.

• DISTRICT NEWS:
1.  Check out the District Newsletter: www.hbgrotary.org  Enjoy!

ATTENDANCE:
LAST ROTARY MEETING:  5/3/10       55%
Rotarians   69   Active Specials     12        Guests  11    Visiting Rotarians  2    =   94

Minutes by Mark Stone:
The weekly meeting of the Harrisburg Rotary Club was held at Harrisburg University.  President Carolyn opened the meeting at 12:17 P.M. Wil Everhart led us in prayer and John Hickey led the group in singing "God Bless America." A smaller than usual crowd was on hand with the change in site venue. We greeted each other as is our custom. At 12:30 President Carolyn ask those members with announcements to come forward.

Announcements

Robin Scaer -- Visiting Rotarians.  A number of guests, a visiting Rotarian from Colonial Park and a prospective member were on hand today to hear our speaker.

Carrie Wissler Thomas -- Rotarians in the News.  Carrie shared with us that Rotarians Peluso, Abel, Saline, Wingate, Markley and Wallin are doing good works in the community as each were featured in local print publications in the past weeks.

Andy Rebuck -- Fellowship Committee.   Andy reminded us of the next Nine and Dine golf outing will take place on Tuesday May 25th at Blue Ridge Country Club. Sign up with Linda, or call/email Andy if you are interested in participating.

David Morrison -- Group Study Exchange.  David informed us that the GSE inbound group from District 1460 in Denmark will be with us next week at our meeting at the Hilton.  The group represents non-Rotarians in diverse vocations to include an auditor, a banker, a farmer, an economist and an HR professional. He encouraged members with similar vocations to "buddy up" with the GSE members at our various tables.

Peggy Grove -- Scholarship Committee.  Peggy informs us that the scholarship money is now $2,000 for each of four schools to include Sci Tech, John Harris, William Penn and Bishop McDevitt. The committee has a number of applicants to consider from each school. Winners will be announced in the coming weeks.

Program: Topic: "Improving Harrisburg City School District: Rewriting PA Empowerment Law" Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Senator Jeffrey E. Piccola

Bob Hostetter introduced State Senator Jeffrey Piccola to Harrisburg Rotary.  His presentation focused on proposed Senate Bill 1192, which would update the current Education Empowerment Act of 2000, which is scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2010. The original Education Empowerment Act of 2000 was designed to help struggling school districts with a history of low test performance or a history of financial distress. The Act created Education Empowerment Districts of which the Harrisburg School District is one of six empowerment districts across the commonwealth. Harrisburg School District is one of 32 districts in Pennsylvania that did not meet their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) performance target set under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for 2009.  Additionally, of those similar districts on the Empowerment List, Harrisburg City currently has the lowest number of students scoring advanced and proficient in math and reading.  In addition to academic distress, the Harrisburg School District has major financial challenges that include: spending over $16,000 per pupil -nearly $3,500 over the statewide average, faces a $23 million deficit for 2010-2011 school year alone, owes nearly half a billion in building projects debt and a school district poverty rate of 93%.  Since 2000, state taxpayers have forked over some $13.24 billion dollars to struggling school districts in the commonwealth. Senator Piccola's position is that we are spending too much money on failure.

The Senate Education Committee has held four public hearings across the commonwealth concerning Senate Bill 1192. The committee has heard from teachers, parents, students, administrators, school board members, charter school operators, union leaders, community groups and national experts.  Senate Bill 1192 would simplify the process by which a school district can be considered an empowerment district, and provide them with more options, tools and levels of intervention according to the academic distress of that school district. Based on their PSSA test scores, districts would be categorized as being in Warning, Level I, Level II, or Level III.  Charter schools were discussed as an option for troubled schools to make a streamlined conversion. The advantages of charter schools were discussed.  He cited the success of the Chester-Upland and Widener University Charter School in Chester.  A companion bill #1314 for charter schools is due out of senate committee on May 4th. An informative and interesting program.

Our next meeting will be at the Hilton Hotel on Monday, May 10th at noon.

OFFICERS:

DIRECTORS:

Carolyn Dumaresq           
John P. Judson, M.D.      
Robert S. Saline              
Barry Ramper, II,             
Carrie N. Wissler Thomas
William B. Boles                
William M. Tillett

President
President-Elect
Vice President
Immediate Past President
Secretary
Treasurer
Sergeant-at-Arms

Caryn J. Carr
John R. Detweiler
Kent E. Frese
John J. McHenry
Lawrence M. Means
Maria B. Persico
Andrew R/ Rebuck
Karen F. Snider