The landmark American Rescue Plan, which Congress approved during the week of March 8, will direct $6.5 billion in much-needed federal funding to Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools, helping schools to hire more educators and support professionals and reduce health risks in school buildings.

“The American Rescue Plan provides dedicated education funding that will help schools make in-person instruction as safe as it can be,” PSEA President Rich Askey said. “This funding will support efforts to modify school buildings to better accommodate social distancing and improve ventilation, furnish personal protective equipment to employees, and intensify support and instruction for students who have experienced delayed learning.

“We know that there is a lot of work to do, and these resources will help educators and support staff address the academic, mental health, and emotional support needs of our students going forward.”

The new law, which will allocate more than $130 billion to K-12 schools across the nation, will give schools the resources to reduce health risks and keep students and educators safe. The plan also makes extraordinary investments that will lift countless children and families out of poverty. Funds can be used to:

• Hire more teachers, support professionals, custodians, nurses, and counselors:
• Implement safety protocols and acquire PPE;
• Improve ventilation and HVAC systems;
• Help students deal with lost opportunities to learn they’ve endured this past year;
• Put devices and the internet in the hands of students who have been locked out of online learning; and
• Feed hungry students and provide assistance for homeless students.

Now that Congress has passed the American Rescue Plan, state and local leaders must work to get all students the support and resources they need and ensure schools have the tools needed to meet CDC guidelines and keep our students, educators, and schools safe.

The pandemic has put an acute focus on mental health, especially for our students. And it’s made the work of our school counselors and psychologists that much more vital. Lezlie DelVecchio-Marks – a member in the Shaler Area School District – was recently recognized as the Pennsylvania School Counselor of the Year by the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association (PSCA).

DelVecchio-Marks has been a counselor for 19 years and worked in the district for the past 14. She currently splits her time between Burchfield Primary and Reserve Primary Schools and has made it her mission with these young students to reinforce notions of kindness, tolerance, self-esteem, and positive body image through a number of schoolwide programs like No Makeup Day (for staff), No Name-Calling Week, Girls Rock, and more. She even hosts schoolwide “Showcase Night” theatrical performances – including a virtual performance this year – that serve to reinforce these themes throughout the school community.

We caught up with DelVecchio-Marks to talk about her experience over the past year for the March 2021 issue of The VOICE. 

In addition to providing continued school safety grant funding in the state budget, policymakers adopted some important school safety initiatives in a separate school code bill. One of these intiatives requires public schools to establish threat assessment teams to assess and prevent violence before it starts.

Establishing threat assessment teams was among the recommendations included in PSEA’s 2018 report “Safe Havens of Learning: PSEA policy recommendations to enhance safety in PA schools.” Read the full report at www.psea.org/schoolsafety.

“These measures will definitely make a difference in our schools,” said PSEA President Rich Askey. “We encourage lawmakers to continue the good work they’ve done on school safety initiatives and send these bills to the governor’s desk.”

Raising the minimum teacher salary will help Pennsylvania school districts attract and retain the best and brightest to teach in our schools and change the lives of students. Pennsylvanians understand that and support a proposal to raise the minimum teacher salary in Pennsylvania from $18,500 to $45,000 per year.

Two-thirds of likely voters in Pennsylvania favor the minimum salary raise and nearly half of respondents “strongly favor” the measure, according to a poll conducted by Harper Polling for PSEA.

View the Feb. 21 memo from Harper Polling.