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.

He listened to their concerns and gave insight on some of the initiatives facing school districts in the commonwealth.

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

Harner 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.

A 1978 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he entered the U.S. Army as an officer in the infantry and had a 20-year military career.

His education experience includes, among others, 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.

Harner said he has been an urban, suburban and rural principal so he "can relate to all situations."

With 1.8 million students in Pennsylvania, 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 members on the education committee.

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

The meeting at Parkland School District Administration Building was his first community meeting in the region and he said his goal was to listen and learn.

Parkland School District Superintendent Richard T. Sniscak opened the question-and-answer period asking where the department of education is with the waiver requested from the federal government for a change in the No Child Left Behind law.

Currently, Pennsylvania students are measured by adequate yearly progress.

As members of Congress and President Barack Obama have not agreed on No Child Left Behind, states may 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," Harner said. "The waiver is real soon."

On Aug. 20, Gov. Tom Corbett announced the U.S. Department of Education had approved the state's No Child Left Behind waiver request.

"This is welcome news for students, parents, taxpayers, educators and public schools across the state," Corbett said. "This waiver allows Pennsylvania to focus on improving schools by directing resources to areas that help students academically succeed. We now have a better way of guiding improvement efforts in schools by establishing ambitious, yet attainable, goals."

According to Corbett, the approved waiver is designed to improve Pennsylvania education in three areas: making sure all students are ready for careers or college; developing recognition and accountability standards by the state for all public schools; improving and supporting effective teachers and principals in all classrooms.

The new evaluation system will be in place for classroom teachers beginning with the 2013-14 school year, and for principals and specialists in the 2014-15 school year.

The waiver also abolishes the adequate yearly progress designation for each school building and school district. In its place will be the School Performance Profile that will be used to measure the academic progress of all public schools.

"The U.S. Department of Education has recognized Pennsylvania's student-centered waiver request that will improve public education across the state," Harner said on Aug. 20. "Under the state's approved waiver, Pennsylvania citizens will have access to quality information about the performance of our public schools and students will be provided with high-quality educational programs."

During the meeting at Parkland, Harner 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 said an early warning system for students is being developed and a greater access to tools to do the work will need to be provided.

Northampton Superintendent Joseph Koval-chik commented on the Pennsylvania Information Management System, the 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," Kovalchik said. "We're cutting regular education staff and hiring data people."

The group of educators said administrators, school board members and teachers are often unsure about department of education requirements.

Harner said he has been hearing about disjointed communications with the department of education.

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

Harner said a Performance Information Management Service person is very valuable and can provide a wealth of information.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, "PIMS is responsible for ensuring existing and future performance-based, education-related data are available to help the U.S. Department of Education staff and state administrators, among others, improve and strengthen policymaking, planning, and management through the use of data."

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," Wright said.

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

Harner said PIMS is an important measure of accountability for how districts get paid for services, such as Title 1.

"We are at a crucial stage; we're being asked to verify the data," he said.

Harner was asked his personal opinion of Common Core.

"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 past standards were too low.

Exeter Township School Director Russell J. Diesinger commented on the mandates.

"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," Diesinger said. "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.

"We are trying to run the ship now far differently than 15 years ago," Diesinger said."We are losing quality administrators and support staff because we have to cut back. These are troubling times."

Harner said he was listening and trying to understand.

"I'm very sensitive to these situations," he said.

Sniscak said Parkland, in its 2013-14 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.

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

Parkland School Board Vice President Roberta M. Marcus also addressed 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 the department of education.

Marcus said she would like to see Harner 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."