Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Education Dr. William E. Harner stopped in the Lehigh Valley Aug. 15 to meet with school superintendents, administrators and school board members, listen to their concerns and give insight on some of the Pennsylvania Department of Education initiatives facing school districts.

The event was sponsored by the Pennsylvania School Board Association, Region 8.

Harner was nominated by Governor Tom Corbett to serve as Secretary of Education May 22.

He is a 1974 graduate of Cheltenham High School, Montgomery County. He received a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of South Carolina and master's degrees in education supervision and human resources from the University of South Carolina. He is a 1978 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He entered the ranks of the U.S. Army as an officer in the infantry and had a 20-year military career. He retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army after serving as an infantry battalion commander and receiving the Legion of Merit, the military's highest award for service.

His education experience includes serving as superintendent of Cumberland Valley School District, Cumberland County, regional superintendent/ deputy to the chief executive officer in the Philadelphia school district, superintendent of Greenville County Schools, South Carolina, principal of Hilton Head High School, Beaufort County School District, South Carolina and chairman for high school redesign in the Recovery School District of New Orleans.

Harner said he has been an urban, suburban and rural principal so he "can relate to all situations." With 1.8 million students in the state, his quest is to "change the lives of students."

During the nine weeks Harner has been on the job, he has met with 48 of the 50 senators. He has also spent time with the folks on the education committee.

"I want to move education forward in the state," Harner said.

He said transparency and openness is important to him.

The meeting at the Parkland School District Administration Building Aug. 15 was his first community meeting in the region and he said his goal was to listen and learn. He wants to go to all 15 PSBA regions.

Parkland School District Superintendent Richard T. Sniscak opened the question and answer period asking where PDE is with the waiver.

The waiver is an application by the PDE to the federal government for a change in the No Child Left Behind law. Currently, Pennsylvania is measured by adequate yearly progress and is expected to have students 100 proficient by 2014. Since members of congress and President Obama have not been able to agree on the No Child Left Behind Law, they are allowing states to seek waivers so they can develop their own accountability systems to measure progress in schools.

Harner said Carolyn Dumaresq, deputy secretary for elementary and secondary education has been working the waiver hard through the U.S. Department of Education. "They are allowing us to go through with school profile. The waiver is real soon," Harner said.

Harner also discussed the school profile system which he said is "incredible" and the school performance which will feed into student profiles.

"I'm very into accountability," Harner said.

He said the teacher effectiveness, principal effectiveness and school profile are right now not connected or as efficient as they could be.

Harner also said he realized data driven collection is not going on in all districts.

"We shouldn't spend a dime on something that is not working," Harner said.

He also said an early warning system for students is being developed and a greater access to tools needed to do the work will need to be provided.

Northampton Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik commented on the Pennsylvania Information Management System, PDE's statewide data system designed to meet student-level data reporting requirements and provide robust decision support tools.

"In this world of lack of money, our staff is really low. We're cutting regular education staff and hiring data people," Kovalchik said.

The group of educators said administrators, school board members and teachers are often unsure about PDE requirements which can create a problem with the way things get rolled out. Then public education gets a black eye again.

Harner said he has been hearing about disjointed communications with PDE.

He said he was charged by the Governor to build a strong team and improve communications with the districts.

Harner said a PIMS person is very valuable and can provide a wealth of information.

Northwestern Lehigh School District Superintendent Dr. Mary Anne Wright said there are higher stakes to do the data collection right now. "We've had a PIMS person doing this for five years; with increased data, she is pushing the information out to principals for verification."

Both Wright and Kovalchik said there needs to be a different level of administration input.

Harner commented PIMS is an important accountability for how districts get paid such as Title 1.

East Penn School District Superintendent Dr. Thomas Seidenberger said, "We are at a crucial stage; we're being asked to verify the data." He also wanted to publicly thank the department and Dumaresq for support he recently needed at a school board meeting regarding CommonCore issues.

Harner was asked his personal opinion on CommonCore.

"I believe students should be held accountable on what they know," Harner said. "This new set [of standards] is spot on. We need standards, need accountability for our students and need to be internationally competitive."

Harner said we have had too low of standards in the past.

Exeter Township School Director Russell J. Diesinger said "these are great ideas on paper, but if you don't have the resources to fund them, you can't attract great teachers and leadership. That's the reality. We need to talk about the one in five kids who live in poverty." Diesinger is also a teacher in the Reading School District.

"This is my 43rd year in education and I'm bothered it appears the zip code determines the quality of what you get. It's almost shameful. PDE doesn't understand that in the field we are facing tremendous economic challenges. We are trying to run the ship now far differently than 15 years ago. We are losing quality administrators and support staff because we have to cut back. These are troubling times," Diesinger said.

In response, Harner said, "I'm out listening and trying to understand. I"m very sensitive to these situations."

Harner said that was an inappropriate characaterization of PDE of not knowing what is going on. He said PDE has no authority on some of the school districts.

In a discussion on special education funding, Seidenberger said the autistic population is growing.

Sniscak said Parkland, in its 2013-2014 budget, projects special education expenditures at approximately $18.9 million.

"We project commonwealth funding and federal Funding (IDEA, Access and ARRA) to be approximately $5.4 million," Sniscak emailed The Press Tuesday. "The difference, approximately $13.5 million, is made up through local effort funded by the taxpayers."

"Litigation in special education is like a runaway freight train," Sniscak said.

Superintendents agreed staff is spending too much time in courtrooms rather than with students.

Parkland School Board Vice President Roberta M. Marcus told Harner "this is the most highly functional group of sister school systems and they are a collaborative, cooperative and fun group."

Marcus said, "We would like to see the same kind of partnership with PDE. She said she would like to see him develop his department with more people like Dumaresq.

"Our door is open; we hope to have your door open as well," Marcus said.

"We are here to serve," Harner said.

"I value teachers," Harner said. As a superintendent, he told teachers, "we work as a team."