Marywood University’s School Leadership Academy to Host Presentation on  “Leadership in the Best Interest of the Student: Addressing a Culture of Strikes in Pennsylvania Schools”

 

SCRANTON, PA (October 9, 2017)—Marywood University’s School Leadership Academy will host a presentation titled, “Leading in the Best Interest of the Student: Addressing a Culture of Strikes in Pennsylvania Schools,” on Thursday, October 26, 2017, from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m., in the Comerford Theatre, in the Center of Natural and Health Sciences. This event is free and open to the public. The moderator for the presentation is Candis Finan, Ph.D., of McPherson & Jacobson, and retired superintendent of the Delaware Valley School District, Milford, Pa.

 

State Representative Will Tallman will be the keynote speaker and panelist, and he will speak about the Strike Free Education Act, of which he is a sponsor. Representative Tallman is serving his fifth term in office, having first been elected to serve the residents of the 193rd Legislative District in 2008. He has been appointed to serve on the Education Committee. Rep. Tallman earned his bachelor’s degree in cross cultural communications from New Tribes Mission. He served two terms on the Wellsboro Area School District Board of Education and was president of the board for two years. He also served on the Pennsylvania School Board Association’s legislative council.

 

Additional speakers include:

 

  •  Aaron Chapin is serving as the northeast regional president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Mr. Chapin is a middle school teacher in the Stroudsburg School District, where he teaches 5th grade at Stroudsburg Middle School. Mr. Chapin has been a teacher for 24 years. He has served on the state Board of Directors for PSEA for the past three years. Additionally, Mr. Chapin has served as the president of his local PSEA/NEA affiliate since 2013, the Stroudsburg Education Association. He has also volunteered for the Greater Hazleton Youth Soccer Association of 16 years, both as a coach and a commissioner.

 

  •  John Audi, Esq., with the law firm of Sweet, Steven Katz & Williams. Mr. Audi will speak about the negotiation process for boards and unions. Mr. Audi has more than 30 years of experience in public sector labor and employment law and now focuses his work on education labor law, public sector labor law, legal consultation, and staff training. He began his career as general counsel to a union of state workers employed by the Office of Employment Security, and, from 1999-2008, he served as in-house regional counsel for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. His vast experience touches all aspects of labor relations matters including: arbitration, bargaining, PLRB hearings, and related court litigation. He served for 11 years as an administrative law judge for the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, and he is a frequent lecturer on labor, employment and education legal matters.
  • Joseph A. Polizzi, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Education and the director of the School Leadership Academy at Marywood University. He holds a Ph.D. from Penn State in Educational Leadership. Prior to earning his Ph.D., he was a New York State Senate Fellow, serving on the Senate Education Committee, a Fulbright exchange teacher in Pecs, Hungary, and he was a high school English teacher for 8 years in the New York City School system, where he was a United Federations of Teachers Chapter Leader. His areas of research include: authentic leadership, ethics in education leadership, understanding suffering in schools, transformative learning, and using films as a medium of instruction.

 

Panelists include:

 

  •  James McGovern, superintendent of Lake Lehman Schools.
  • Louise Brzuchalski, certified public accountant and school board director for the Abington Heights School District
  • Pat Musto, Dallas School Board director. Mr. Musto was elected to the Dallas School District Board of Directors in 2015 for a four-year term. Presently, he is the president of the Joint Operating Committee of the West Side Career and Technical School in Pringle, Pa., which includes five sending schools, of which Dallas School District participates with 32 students. He is the chairman of the Dallas School Board Finance Committee and a member of Dallas School District Contract Negotiating Committee. Mr. Musto earned his bachelor of arts degree from King’s College.
  • Linda Keck, MA, is a licensed psychologist who maintains a private practice in Kingston, PA.  Her practice has included individual, family, relationship/couples, and groups. She has provided services to children, adolescents and adults. Over the course of her career, she has worked in in-patient programs as an Art Therapist, Therapist, and as a psychologist in school based Student Assistant Programs.  She developed a “Survivors Track” program for adolescents who were victims of sexual abuse. Linda has also provided clinical supervision and psychological services to children’s partial hospitalization programs, and psychological evaluations in children’s behavioral health programs. She has presented to student assistance professionals on numerous clinical issues at state, regional, and national conferences
  • Tracy Zarola, is a parent and realtor in the Dallas School District.

 

For additional information about the “Leading in the Best Interest of the Student: Addressing a Culture of Strikes in Pennsylvania Schools,” please visit www.marywood.edu/education/graduate-programs/ms-principal.html, or call (570) 348-6289.