Past News

Saturday, February 1, 2014
House Representative Paul I. Clymer was awarded the PA School Choice Champion by PA Cape members.

Dear PACAPE Schools,
As you know there is an ever growing understanding within the Private School movement that engaging the culture around us is more critical than ever in enabling our schools to succeed. As a part of recognizing that importance, over the last several years many PA schools and school associations have become more intentional about working together to be a part of building relationships and engagement with those in our communities and in government. PA CAPE (the PA affiliate of the Council on American Private Education) has been instrumental in that process. There has been some significant success in broadening those around us in the Commonwealth to the incredibly important and significant work that our schools and preschools are accomplishing. This is important work and yet one that requires discipline, sacrifice and attention. As a part of this work the leadership of PACAPE is working to be more intentional about bringing opportunities for each school and leader to be able to respond to things that benefit their work, but also allow them to contribute to the larger effort to advance private education in the Commonwealth. This newsletter is a part of that attempt.

D. Merle Skinner, Co-Coordinator PACAPE
Coordinator ACSIPA merle_skinner@champion.org

Sean McAleer, Co-Coordinator PACAPE
PA Catholic Conference smcaleer@pacatholic.org

2014 Legislator School Choice Champion Award
Each year PACAPE awards an award to a PA School Choice Champion and this year that award will be presented on January 29, 2015 with the ceremony to take place at 9:00 AM at Statesmen Hall at the Double Tree Resort 2400 Willow Street Pike, Lancaster.

Dr. D. Merle Skinner, Co-Coordinator PACAPE ACSIPA Coordinator
Dale McLane, Christian Schools International
Michelle Twersky, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
Dr. David Hegedus, Assistant Director, ACSI, Northeast Region
Sean P. McAleer, MGA, Co-Coordinator PACAPE PA Catholic Conference
Mary Cae Williams, American Montessori Society
Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Agudath Israel-Mid-Atlantic Region

2014 PACAPE Administrator/Teacher of the Year Awards
Beginning this week applications for Nominations for these newly formed Awards will be accepted. Nominate people that you believe would qualify. Please pass this information to your broader school constituency. We would love to see Private School Teachers and Administrators from across the State represented in this process. Go to the following link to nominate someone: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RH7KPF5 . You can also view a copy of the program model here: www.champion.org/pacape/awards/awardmodel.pdf


Early Childhood Protection Legislation
We are actively working on legislation (in the works for several decades) that would allow Religious preschool, after/before school, summer school, bible school and out of school time programs to follow similar regulations offered to K-12 religious and private schools in Pennsylvania. This would allow a registration process that would assure all health and safety regulations would be met, but would not allow DPW to have any impact in curriculum. This legislation has hit many hurdles, and it looks like this might be our best chance to pass it, so watch for this carefully in the near future. As leadership representing Pennsylvania school administrators and the leadership of the PACAPE we are supporting both HB 1588 and SB 1030. You can find out more about this legislation on the www.pacape.org website.


National School Choice Week 2014
Are you signed up to participate? During the week of January 26 to February 1, 2014, schools around the country will be celebrating National School Choice Week with various events, like special assemblies, parents' nights, or open houses. It's an annual celebration that shines a spotlight on effective education options for all children. Each year thousands of events take place in every state across our nation, bringing positive attention to the importance of high-performing schools like yours. You can register for your school's free supplies here: www.schoolchoiceweek.com/schools.


EITC Birthday Rally, Harrisburg May 7th, 2014
During the last couple of years the legislators who have supported school choice for our families have needed support to maintain that level of commitment and to advance it. This is a way you can not only teach your students to invest civil thought, but also to show our friends in Harrisburg that we are willing to support them. This year we would like the Private school communities be well represented. Plan now on attending. Talk to your Private School Association Leader for details.

February 13, 2013
U.S. Senate Introduces Federal Tax Credit Legislation

January 23, 2013
The Pennsylvania affiliate of the Council on American Private Education announced that recently retired Senator Jeffrey E. Piccola (R-Dauphin) will be the recipient of the group’s School Choice Champion award. If you would like to read the entire press release you can do so by clicking the link: School Choice Champion - Senator Piccola

Pictured below are: Co-Coordinator, Sean McAleer (PA Catholic Conference); Senator Piccola; Michelle Twersky (Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America); Co-Coordinator, D. Merle Skinner (Association of Christian Schools International); and Rabbi Ariel Sadwin (Agudath Israel-Mid-Atlantic Region).



December 18, 2012
USDE Offers Resources Following Newtown Shootings

The horrifying ending to the lives of innocent children in Connecticut last week has us all searching for ways to make sense of the senseless and bear the unbearable.

The U.S. Department of Education today compiled a collection of resources to help school communities across the nation respond to the crisis and to help school children cope with the trauma. We provide the links to those documents at http://www.capenet.org/new.html. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, students, and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School as well as to the wider community of Newtown in this time of unspeakable grief.