Southern Huntingdon County School District


The Southern Huntingdon County School District is a public rural school district based in the southeastern part of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania in Three Springs,
Pennsylvania. The school district includes all of Three Springs Borough, Cassville Borough, Orbisonia Borough, Rockhill Furnace Borough, Saltillo Borough, Shade Gap Borough, and including the townships of Cass Township, Clay Township, Cromwell Township, Dublin Township, Springfield Township and Tell Township. The district encompasses approximately 221 square miles. According to 2000 federal census data, it serves a resident population of 8,030. According to District officials, in school year 2007-08 the SHCSD provided basic educational services to 1,358 pupils through the employment of 113 teachers, 67 full-time and part-time support personnel, and 8 administrators.

District History

The Southern Huntingdon County School System became effective on July 1, 1956, at which time all school boards of all twelve municipalities signed the district's Articles of Agreement. Two high Schools were consolidated. Rockhill and Shade Gap Elementary Schools were the first two buildings constructed in 1956, followed by Spring Farms and Trough Creek Valley Elementary Schools in 1961, consolidating 55 one-room schoolhouses into only four buildings. Ground was broken on the High School on July 11, 1960, students occupied the facility on September 1, 1962, and dedication was held November 4 that year. In 2004, an renovtion/addition project was completed adding a middle school to the secondary campus. The final action was completed on July 1, 1966, officially forming the Southern Huntingdon County School District.
Superintendents
* Denotes Acting Superintendent

Schools

The Southern Huntingdon County School District operates one combined high school/middle school and three elementary schools. The school also sends students to the regional career & technology center, used by every school district in Huntingdon County. The district administrative office is located on 10339 Pogue Road, Three Springs, PA 17264.

Middle / High School

10339 Pouge Road
Three Springs, Pennsylvania 17264

Elementary schools

There are three Elementary Schools, all Grades K-5
510 Meadow Street
Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania 17249
12075 Old Plank Road
Three Springs, Pennsylvania 17264
22251 Shade Valley Road
Shade Gap, Pennsylvania 17255

Academic achievement

The Southern Huntingdon County School District was ranked 442nd out of 498 Pennsylvania school districts, in 2010, by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The ranking was based on student academic performance on four years of PSSA results in: reading, writing, mathematics and two years of science.
In 2009, the academic achievement, of the students in the Southern Huntingdon County School District, was in the 14th percentile among all 500 Pennsylvania school districts Scale

Graduation rate

In 2010, the school has declined to School Improvement I AYP status due to the chronic very low achievement of its students.
; PSSA Results
; 11th Grade Reading
; 11th Grade Math:
; 11th Grade Science:
;College remediation:
According to a Pennsylvania Department of Education study released in January 2009, 13% of Southern Huntingdon County High School graduates required remediation in mathematics and or reading before they were prepared to take college level courses in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education or community colleges. Less than 66% of Pennsylvania high school graduates, who enroll in a four-year college in Pennsylvania, will earn a bachelor's degree within six years. Among Pennsylvania high school graduates pursuing an associate degree, only one in three graduate in three years. Per the Pennsylvania Department of Education, one in three recent high school graduates who attend Pennsylvania's public universities and community colleges takes at least one remedial course in math, reading or English.

Dual enrollment

Southern Huntingdon County School District offers a dual enrollment program. Dual Enrollment is a state education program which allows high school students to attend Pennsylvania colleges and universities while remaining enrolled at their high school. The program is open to juniors and seniors. The credits they earn count towards high school gradation and earn college credits. Colleges offer the credits at a deeply discounted rate. Students have full access to their high school's extracurricular programs and participate in the high school's graduation event.
Southern Huntingdon County SD received a state grant of $846 to assist students with the cost of books, tuition and fees.

Graduation requirements

The Southern Huntingdon County School Board has determined that students must earn 24.6 credits to graduate, including: 4 credits of English, 4 credits of Social Studies, 3 credits of Mathematics, 3 credits of Science, 1.8 credits of Physical Education/Health, 2 credits Humanities, 1 credit Child Development, 0.6 credits in Pre-DP or DP1 and 4 credits in electives
By law, all Pennsylvania secondary school students must complete a project as a part of their eligibility to graduate from high school. The type of project, its rigor and its expectations are set by the individual school district. Students, at Southern Huntingdon County HS are required to create a portfolio of a career project which includes a job shadowing experience.
By Pennsylvania School Board regulations, for the graduating classes of 2015 and 2016, students must demonstrate successful completion of secondary level course work in Algebra I, Biology, English Composition, and Literature for which the Keystone Exams serve as the final course exams. Students’ Keystone Exam scores shall count for at least one-third of the final course grade.

Blended Schools

The high school students may attend a virtual academic program offered by the district. The curriculum is standards based. It requires approximately 165 to 170 hours to complete a full credit course. Each student is provided with the technology equipment and services as needed by the student. Equipment includes: home personal computer, printer and reimbursement for dial-up internet service. The Southern Huntingdon County School District also provides all the textbooks and workbooks necessary for completing each SHCSD BlendedSchools course. Students who are taking BlendedSchools courses and are working toward an SHCSD diploma are required to take the appropriate state PSSA assessments.
BlendedSchools courses may be utilized by students who are involved with home schooling, homebound instruction, remediation, summer school, credit recovery, enrichment, alternative education, and regular education students. Students taking a BlendedSchools course for remediation, summer school, early graduation, or credit recovery are charged a designated fee for the course and any other applicable fees. Student may participate in all district extracurriculars.

Middle school

; 8th Grade Reading:
; 8th Grade Math:
; 8th Grade Science:
; 7th Grade Reading:
; 7th Grade Math:
; 6th Grade Reading:
; 6th Grade Math:
In December 2009, the district administration reported that 216 pupils or 16.1% of the district's pupils received Special Education services.
The District engages in identification procedures to ensure that eligible students receive an appropriate educational program consisting of special education and related services, individualized to meet student needs. At no cost to the parents, these services are provided in compliance with state and federal law; and are reasonably calculated to yield meaningful educational benefit and student progress. To identify students who may be eligible for special education, various screening activities are conducted on an ongoing basis. These screening activities include: review of group-based data ; hearing, vision, motor, and speech/language screening; and review by the Instructional Support Team or Student Assistance Team. When screening results suggest that the student may be eligible, the District seeks parental consent to conduct a multidisciplinary evaluation. Parents who suspect their child is eligible may verbally request a multidisciplinary evaluation from a professional employee of the District or contact the Supervisor of Special Education.
In 2010, the state of Pennsylvania provided $1,026,815,000 for Special Education services. The funds were distributed to districts based on a state policy which estimates that 16% of the district's pupils are receiving special education services. This funding is in addition to the state's basic education per pupil funding, as well as, all other state and federal funding.
Southern Huntingdon County School District received a $721,048 supplement for special education services in 2010.

Gifted education

The District Administration reported that 21 or 1.63% of its students were gifted in 2009. By law, the district must provide mentally gifted programs at all grade levels. The referral process for a gifted evaluation can be initiated by teachers or parents by contacting the student’s building principal and requesting an evaluation. All requests must be made in writing. To be eligible for mentally gifted programs in Pennsylvania, a student must have a cognitive ability of at least 130 as measured on a standardized ability test by a certified school psychologist. Other factors that indicate giftedness will also be considered for eligibility.

Bullying policy

The Southern Huntingdon County School District administration reported there were 11 incidents of bullying in the district in 2009.
The Southern Huntingdon County School Board has provided the district's antibully policy online. All Pennsylvania schools are required to have an anti-bullying policy incorporated into their Code of Student Conduct. The policy must identify disciplinary actions for bullying and designate a school staff person to receive complaints of bullying. The policy must be available on the school's website and posted in every classroom. All Pennsylvania public schools must provide a copy of its anti-bullying policy to the Office for Safe Schools every year, and shall review their policy every three years. Additionally, the district must conduct an annual review of that policy with students. The Center for Schools and Communities works in partnership with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency and the Pennsylvania Department of Education to assist schools and communities as they research, select and implement bullying prevention programs and initiatives.
Education standards relating to student safety and antiharassment programs are described in the 10.3. Safety and Injury Prevention in the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Health, Safety and Physical Education.

Wellness policy

Southern Huntingdon County School Board established a district wellness policy June 20, 2006 - Student Wellness Policy 246. The policy deals with nutrition of meals served at school, the control of access to some foods and beverages during school hours, age appropriate nutrition education for all students, and physical education for students K-12. The policy is in response to state mandates and federal legislation. The law dictates that each school district participating in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 "shall establish a local school wellness policy by School Year 2006."
The legislation placed the responsibility of developing a wellness policy at the local level so the individual needs of each district can be addressed. According to the requirements for the Local Wellness Policy, school districts must set goals for nutrition education, physical activity hat are aligned with the , campus food provision, and other school-based activities designed to promote student wellness. Additionally, districts were required to involve a broad group of individuals in policy development and to have a plan for measuring policy implementation. Districts were offered a choice of levels of implementation for limiting or prohibiting low nutrition foods on the school campus. In final implementation these regulations prohibit some foods and beverages on the school campus.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education required the district to submit a copy of the policy for its approval.

Governance

The Southern Huntingdon County School District is governed by 9 individually elected board members, the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The federal government controls programs it funds like Title I funding for low-income children in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates the district focus resources on student success in acquiring reading and math skills.
The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives Sunshine Review gave the school board and district administration a "F" for transparency based on a review of "What information can people find on their school district's website". It examined the school district's website for information regarding; taxes, the current budget, meetings, school board members names and terms, contracts, audits, public records information and more.

Budget

In 2009, the district reports employing over 100 teachers with a starting salary of $30,742 for 185 days work. Additionally, Southern Huntingdon County School District teachers receive a defined benefit pension, health insurance, additional payments for work outside of regular school hours, professional development reimbursement, 3 paid family sick leave, 3 paid personal days, and 10 sick days, life insurance and other benefits. The president of the local union gets 5 days with pay each year to conduct union business According to State Rep. Glen Grell, a trustee of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System Board, a 40-year educator can retire with a pension equal to 100 percent of their final salary.
The average teacher salary at the district was $45,989 while the maximum salary is $91,052. In Pennsylvania, the average teacher salary for Pennsylvania's 124,100 public school teachers was $54,977 in 2008.
In 2007, the Southern Huntingdon County School District employed 100 teachers. The average teacher salary in the district was $43,426 for 180 school days worked. As of 2007, Pennsylvania ranked in the top 10 states in average teacher salaries. When adjusted for cost of living Pennsylvania ranked fourth in the nation for teacher compensation.
Southern Huntingdon County School District administration costs per pupil in 2008 was $721.45 per pupil. The district is ranked 288th out of 500 in Pennsylvania for administrative spending. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 per pupil.
In 2008, Southern Huntingdon County School District administration reported spending $10,374 per pupil. This spending ranked 451st in the commonwealth.
; Reserves
In 2009, the district reported a $1,495,941 in an unreserved-undesignated fund balance. The designated fund balance was reported as zero.
In September 2010, the Pennsylvania Auditor General conducted a performance audit of the district. Findings were reported to the administration and school board.
The district is funded by a combination of: a local income tax, a property tax, a real estate transfer tax, coupled with substantial funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the federal government. Grants can provide an opportunity to supplement school funding without raising local taxes. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pension and Social Security income are exempted from state personal income tax and local earned income tax regardless of the individual's wealth.

State basic education funding

For 2010-11 the Southern Huntingdon County School District received a 2.44% increase in state Basic Education Funding resulting in a $6,889,575 payment. This was the highest increase in BEF in Huntingdon County. Kennett Consolidated School District in Chester County received the highest increase in the state at 23.65% increase in funding for the 2010-11 school year. One hundred fifty school districts received the base 2% increase in 2010-11. The amount of increase each school district receives is determined by the Governor and the Secretary of Education through the allocation set in the state budget proposal made in February each year.
In the 2009-2010 budget year the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided a 3.35% increase in Basic Education funding for a total of $6,725,532. The state Basic Education funding to the district in 2008-09 was $6,507,799.74. The district also received supplemental funding for English language learners, Title 1 federal funding for low-income students, for district size, a poverty supplement from the commonwealth and more. HASD received the highest increase in Huntingdon County for the 2009-10 school year. Among the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg School District in Berks County received the highest with a 22.31% increase in funding.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 504 district students received free or reduced-price lunches due to low family income in the 2007-2008 school year.

Accountability Block Grants

Beginning in 2004-2005, the state launched the Accountability Block Grant school funding. This program has provided $1.5 billion to Pennsylvania’s school districts. The Accountability Block Grant program requires that its taxpayer dollars are focused on specific interventions that are most likely to increase student academic achievement. These interventions include: teacher training, all-day kindergarten, lower class size K-3rd grade, literacy and math coaching programs that provide teachers with individualized job-embedded professional development to improve their instruction, before or after school tutoring assistance to struggling students. For 2010-11 the Southern Huntingdon County School District applied for and received $278,749 in addition to all other state and federal funding. The district used the funding to provide prekindergarten, full-day kindergarten and reduced class size.

Education Assistance grant

The state's EAP funding provides for the continuing support of tutoring services and other programs to address the academic needs of eligible students. Funds are available to eligible school districts and full-time career and technology centers in which one or more schools have failed to meet at least one academic performance target, as provided for in Section 1512-C of the Pennsylvania Public School Code. In 2010-11 the Southern Huntingdon County School District received $92,419.

Classrooms for the Future grant

The Classroom for the Future state program provided districts with hundreds of thousands of extra state funding to buy laptop computers for each core curriculum high school class and paid for teacher training to optimize the computers use. The program was funded from 2006-2009. Southern Huntingdon County School District did not apply for funding in 2006-07 nor in 2007-08. For the 2008–09, school year the district received $83,715. Of the 501 public school districts in Pennsylvania, 447 of them received Classrooms for the Future grant awards.

Federal Stimulus grant

The district received an extra $410,000 in ARRA - Federal Stimulus money to be used in specific programs like special education and meeting the academic needs of low-income students. The funding is for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 school years.

Race to the Top grant

School district officials did not apply for the Race to the Top federal grant which would have brought the district up to one million additional federal dollars for improving student academic achievement. Participation required the administration, the school board and the local teachers' union to sign an agreement to prioritize improving student academic success. In Pennsylvania, 120 public school districts and 56 charter schools agreed to participate. Pennsylvania was not approved for the grant. The failure of districts to agree to participate was cited as one reason that Pennsylvania was not approved.

Common Cents state initiative

The Southern Huntingdon County School Board did not participate in the Pennsylvania Department of Education Common Cents program. The program called for the state to audit the district, at no cost to local taxpayers, to identify ways the district could save tax dollars. After the review of the information, the district was not required to implement the recommended cost savings changes.

Real estate taxes

The school board set property tax rates in 2010-2011 at 65.5000 mills. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value. Irregular property reassessments have become a serious issue in the commonwealth as it creates a significant disparity in taxation within a community and across a region. Pennsylvania school district revenues are dominated by two main sources: 1) Property tax collections, which account for the vast majority Act 511 tax collections, which are around 15% of revenues for school districts. The school district includes municipalities in two counties, each of which has different rates of property tax assessment, necessitating a state board equalization of the tax rates between the counties.
The Act 1 of 2006 Index regulates the rates at which each school district can raise property taxes in Pennsylvania. Districts are not authorized to raise taxes above that index unless they allow voters to vote by referendum, or they seek an exception from the state Department of Education. The base index for the 2011-2012 school year is 1.4 percent, but the Act 1 Index can be adjusted higher, depending on a number of factors, such as property values and the personal income of district residents. Act 1 included 10 exceptions, including: increasing pension costs, increases in special education costs, a catastrophe like a fire or flood, increase in health insurance costs for contracts in effect in 2006 or dwindling tax bases. The base index is the average of the percentage increase in the statewide average weekly wage, as determined by the PA Department of Labor and Industry, for the preceding calendar year and the percentage increase in the Employment Cost Index for Elementary and Secondary Schools, as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor, for the previous 12-month period ending June 30. For a school district with a market value/personal income aid ratio greater than 0.4000, its index equals the base index multiplied by the sum of.75 and its MV/PI AR for the current year.
The School District Adjusted Index for the Southern Huntingdon County School District 2006-2007 through 2010-2011.
The Southern Huntingdon County School Board applied for exceptions to exceed the Act 1 index for the budgets in 2010-11, including Maintenance of local Tax Revenue, Maintenance of Selected Revenue resources, Health Care Benefits, and Pension costs. The district was approved by the PDE to raise taxes beyond the Act 1 Index limit. In the Spring of 2010, 135 Pennsylvania school boards asked to exceed their adjusted index. Approval was granted to 133 of them and 128 sought an exception for pension costs increases.

Property tax relief

In 2009, the Homestead/Farmstead Property Tax Relief from gambling for the Southern Huntingdon County School District was $115 per approved permanent primary residence. In the district, 2,483 property owners applied for the tax relief. The tax relief was subtracted from the total annual school property on the individual's tax bill. Property owners apply for the relief through the county Treasurer's office. Farmers can qualify for a farmstead exemption on building used for agricultural purposes. The farm must be at least 10 contiguous acres and must be the primary residence of the owner. Farmers can qualify for both the homestead exemption and the farmstead exemption. Pennsylvania awarded the highest property tax relief to residents of the Chester-Upland School District in Delaware County at $632 per homestead and farmstead in 2010. This was the second year they were the top recipient.
Additionally, the Pennsylvania Property Tax/Rent Rebate program is provided for low income Pennsylvanians aged 65 and older; widows and widowers aged 50 and older; and people with disabilities age 18 and older. The income limit is $35,000 for homeowners. The maximum rebate for both homeowners and renters is $650. Applicants can exclude one-half of their Social Security income, consequently individuals who have income substantially more than $35,000, may still qualify for a rebate. Individuals must apply annually for the rebate. This can be taken in addition to Homestead/Farmstead Property Tax Relief.
Property taxes in Pennsylvania are relatively high on a national scale. According to the Tax Foundation, Pennsylvania ranked 11th in the U.S. in 2008 in terms of property taxes paid as a percentage of home value and 12th in the country in terms of property taxes as a percentage of income.

Extracurriculars

The district offers a variety of clubs, activities and sports. Eligibility to participate is set by school board policies.
By Pennsylvania law, all K-12 students in the district, including those who attend a private nonpublic school, cyber charter school, charter school and those homeschooled, are eligible to participate in the extracurricular programs, including all athletics. They must meet the same eligibility rules as the students enrolled in the district's schools.

Athletics