Karl Girton said in a resignation letter sent to the governor Tuesday that he would resign from the 22-member board, which sets state education policy and regulations, on Aug. 1.

Both Girton and a spokesman for Rendell said his stepping down had nothing to do with his support for a controversial graduation requirement sidelined by the legislature. Rendell supports the requirement.

In an interview, Girton said he would continue to advocate for uniform and rigorous statewide graduation standards for students, including a set of statewide tests.

Girton said the issue would not go away. “I think at some point in time people will get together and say this is the right thing for the students of this commonwealth,” he said. “The disappointment is that the system is failing tens of thousands of students by granting them diplomas that do not represent what they think it represents or what employers expect.”

Girton said that he had been offered a chance to resign as chairman but stay on the board until his term expires in November 2009. But “the board needed to coalesce around a new chair,” he said.

Girton’s departure follows months of criticism of a board proposal that Pennsylvania students meet statewide graduation standards before they can graduate high school.

The board’s plan to adopt new graduation requirements, including a set of state tests, was delayed by at least a year by the legislature amid opposition from many lawmakers, school board members, and educators who said the proposed rules would undermine the policymaking authority of local school boards.

The board envisioned creating 10 subject-specific final high school exams, and students who did not pass the PSSAs, comparable Advanced Placement tests, or International Baccalaureate tests would have to pass six in order to graduate, starting with the Class of 2014. Failing students could be retested.

In an effort to win broader support for the idea, the state Education Department is planning to develop tests that school districts can administer voluntarily, starting in the 2009-10 school year.

Rendell’s spokesman Chuck Ardo said yesterday that the governor’s request that Girton step down had nothing to do with the controversy.

“The governor felt that the appointment of this new contingent of board members would be an opportune time to consider appointing a new state board chair,” Ardo said.

Seventeen of the board’s members are nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. Eight new board members were confirmed to fill vacancies in April - the largest number of new members since Rendell took office, Ardo said.

In his resignation letter, Girton said his 17 years on the board “have brought some of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”

“I would like to believe that in that time we made things better for the students of our commonwealth,” Girton wrote.

Girton, a partner with a management-services company in Millville and a Republican, was first appointed to the board by Gov. Robert P. Casey. Girton was appointed chairman of the board by Gov. Mark S. Schweiker in 2002.

Girton is a former Millville Area school board member and former director of the Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, a regional education agency, in Snyder County.

Read more

Read more

Instead of sloppy joes or fish sticks, the star foods at the School Nutrition Association’s annual national convention this week were chocolate-covered frozen bananas, whole-wheat pizza, and bottled hummus.

The three-day convention, which ended yesterday at the Convention Center, drew thousands of cafeteria workers from around the nation. They were treated to a taste-test of the latest and tastiest foods from more than 400 vendors and exhibitors.

The variety and nutritional value of the foods offered - reduced fat and whole grains were buzzwords on the convention floor - reflected the evolving palette of today’s youngsters. While vegetarianism was comparatively rare a few decades ago, many students now refuse to eat meat or animal products. And many have allergies to ingredients like peanuts or gluten, which are common in many foods.

“A few years ago, it was hard to get [food] like that,” said Deborah Huck, president of SNA’s Pennsylvania chapter and the director of food service and nutrition at the Harbor Creek School District in Harborcreek, Pa.

The convention showed Huck many foods that would accommodate students with dietary restrictions. “At this food show, there’s a lot of new items that really give these kids a lot more choices,” she said.

On the convention floor, Enjoy Life Natural Brands, a company that specializes in allergen-free snacks, showed off its line of granola bars, chocolate-chip cookies and bagels, all devoid of common allergens such as milk, soy and wheat. The company even had a nut-free trail mix.

Kind Cakes, a Northeast Philadelphia company, had a table filled with bite-size morsels of its namesake product. Kind Cakes are vegan and free of many allergens. The cakes were advertised as “no eggs, no dairy, no worries.”

Linda Nelson, cafeteria director of MYA Parkway in West Philadelphia, said she was most intrigued by some of the breakfast bars she saw.

“Breakfast is the most important thing,” Nelson said. Students usually “don’t get a lot of breakfast,” she said.

A shared goal among many of the cafeteria workers in attendance was finding low-cost items for their menus. Food costs are rising, and many cafeterias are cash-strapped.

In addition, stricter nutritional standards, concerns over childhood obesity, and the looming prospect of widespread layoffs make this a time of near-crisis in the industry.

“We’re in the eye of the storm,” said the association’s president, Katie Wilson. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen. We’re all looking for more economical options.”

The financial numbers appear stacked against them. The average cost last year to prepare a school lunch - including food, labor, supplies and indirect fees - was $3.10, the association estimated. Meanwhile, the average sale price of an elementary school lunch was $1.66.

Cafeterias are facing a dilemma, Wilson said. They don’t have the money to purchase a wider variety of foods, but if they don’t, their students will eat out instead.

The challenges have revamped the role of cafeteria workers, said Huck.

“When [I] went to school, they were just lunch ladies,” she said. “It was a job, you went in for a couple hours, and that was the end of it.

“But with all the government regulations and the wellness policies and the nutritional analysis,” she said, “it really has become a food-service profession.”

Read more

Read more

Read more

Read more

Read more

Going Back to School

Fitting in at School

If you don’t see your worry in these tips for older students, shoot me a comment and let me know what you’d like to see covered.

Find other older students in the forum!

Read more

Read more

I’ll write about my observations over the next few weeks, but first I’d like to know what you like best about conferences. Take the poll in the forum, and leave a comment about how you voted.

I loved New Orleans, by the way. It was my first trip to the city, and what a wonderfully different place it is.

Read more