Join the Team and send some students with special needs to Morgan’s Wonderland

 Special Education Resource, Special Needs Community  1 Response »
Jun 242010
 

by Denise Jacks

Several months ago, I introduced you to a magical place here in San Antonio called Morgan’s Wonderland —the world’s first ultra accessible family fun park designed specifically for children and adults with special needs. Having taken an afternoon to tour the facility with one of the park directors, I can honestly say that if you have not had an opportunity to visit their website or follow their Facebook page, you are missing out on some serious warm-fuzzies.  If you live near San Antonio, I encourage you to go and see the place for yourself. Please remember to make reservations first. The park directors closely manage the number of people admitted daily in order to avoid overcrowding. This is just one example of the park’s sensitivity to the needs of the audience it serves.

As part of the community dedicated to serving individuals with special needs, pretty much everyone at PCI saw a partnership with Morgan’s Wonderland as a natural extension of what we do, much like our involvement with Special Olympics and The Achievers Center.  After our initial visit in February, we brainstormed ways to get involved. Now we are excited to get EVERYONE involved!  Here’s how:

PCI Education, WeAreTeachers.com and Morgan’s Wonderland are teaming up to send students and their families to Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, Texas.  Starting this fall, we are going to sponsor a contest on the WeAreTeachers website that will invite teachers to nominate a student with special needs and his or her family to visit Morgan’s Wonderland.  The winning student, three family members, and the student’s teacher will receive a trip to San Antonio where they will spend two nights and two days at the park—including airfare, hotel accommodations, and park admission free of charge. In addition, the winning teacher will receive a suite of PCI reading and math products for his or her school or classroom.

Here is the part where we need your help!  We are looking for corporate sponsors to partner with us on this project. The benefit for all involved will be tremendous—not just for the students and families who will get the opportunity to visit this amazing place, but you will get the warm-fuzzies just by being involved!

If you would like to get involved, please contact Denise Jacks at djacks@pcieducation.com

Doing The ARRA Shuffle

 ARRA and IDEA, SPED Legislation  2 Responses »
Jun 162010
 

by Lee Wilson, President and CEO of PCI Education

Heads up – Congress is discussing moving “idle” ARRA funds from Title 1 and IDEA to the general Stabilization Fund by the end of July.  The definition of “idle” is unclear – although it would appear to be any funds that are not obligated regardless of whether they have been distributed to districts.

An article in Politico last week revealed that the House is maneuvering to find more funds for teacher pay – but is running into resistance.  A more detailed follow up piece in Ed Money Watch reviewed how this might actually work.

“As of May 28, 2010, all IDEA funds had been obligated to states. The remaining unobligated ARRA funds include $1.4 billion for Title I, about $1.4 billion for Pell Grants, $250 million in Statewide Data Systems Funds, about $150 million in Teacher Incentive Grant Funds, and $38 million for Vocational and Rehabilitative Services. This total amount of unobligated funds, around $3.2 billion, doesn’t come close to the $23 billion requested for these purposes in previous version of House and Senate legislation.

To make up the rest of the difference, any legislation would have to redirect already obligated (but not outlaid) ARRA funds into a fund specifically meant for teacher salaries and benefits. Not including SFSF, about $21.9 billion in ARRA education funding has yet to be outlaid, including roughly $8 billion in both IDEA and Title I. This amount is much closer to the $23 billion that was requested for the Education Jobs Fund by the House and Senate.”

Essentially they may rewrite the rules more than halfway through the program.

The goals are laudable – making sure that we retain as many teachers as possible in very tough times.  The original proposal called for $23 billion in additional funding specifically to help states and districts pay teachers in the coming year.  This appears to have been scaled back to $10 billion – but even that is problematic given the climate in Congress.

Unfortunately this not only affects the students with the greatest needs it also penalizes schools and districts who have been using the full amount of time allotted in ARRA to plan carefully before acting.

There are no easy answers here – the budget crises at the state level are staggering.   Kids are going to show to school in September ready to learn whether the economy is doing well or not.

Please encourage your congressional delegations to support the full second round of stimulus funding for education.  Let them know that rewriting the rules halfway through isn’t acceptable and that both teachers and students with special needs need our support.

Two PCI products win AEP Distinguished Achievement Awards!

 Academic Standards, Special Education Classroom, Special Education Resource  1 Response »
Jun 092010
 

by Leslie Buteyn

Environmental Print and Word Problems for Nonreaders, two of PCI’s first products developed for nonreaders, won Distinguished Achievement Awards last night at the Association of Educational Publishing Awards Banquet and Gala in Washington, D.C.

For more than four decades, the AEP Awards have honored outstanding resources for teaching and learning. One of the largest and longest-running awards programs for educational products, the AEP Awards aim to:

  • identify products that exemplify the highest standards of professional, quality educational content,
  • give credit and recognition to the organizations who are leading the way in this field, and
  • set benchmarks to which the rest of the industry can aspire.

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Leslie Buteyn is tasked with developing products from the idea phase to the marketplace and is responsible for managing the development of many of PCI Education’s bestselling products. She has developed products for students from preschool age to adult in all subject areas.

Prior to her career at PCI, Buteyn was a middle school language arts and reading teacher in San Antonio. She holds a Bachelor’s in English and a Master’s in Teaching. Both degrees were earned at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.