 |
Conference 2008 Highlights
With a theme of "School Choice Continues its Growth and Achievement", Conference 2008 was held, for the first time, in Pittsburgh at the Downtown Marriott and William Penn Omni Hotels. Attendance for the three day event was in excess of 1,000 individuals, including CEOs, board members, school administrators, teachers, speakers, and vendors.
Informative and entertaining lectures/presentations were delivered by Dr. Yvonne Chan, Kevin Chavous, Esq. and Allison Powell.
- Dr. Yvonne Chan is the Founder and CEO of the New Century Learning Charter School in Los Angeles. A dynamic public speaker and tireless advocate for choice in public education, Dr. Chan continues to serve as a charter school principal while appearing nationwide with her message of hope through school choice. Recently, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Dr. Chan to the California State Board of Education.
- Kevin Chavous, Esq. is a former Councilman from the District of Columbia, were he advocated for and helped accomplish the current state of dynamic charter school development in the nation's capitol. A dynamic and articulate speaker, Kevin inspired the conference with his passion for improving the lives of children by allowing them access to quality choices in public education.
- Allison Powell of the North American Council of Online Learners (NACOL) taught a cyber school class to an 800 person plenary session with a high tech, six screen configuration that showed the audience a glimpse of the future. She demonstrated seamless and quick access to high quality interactive websites and virtual classrooms, a first time experience for many of the attendees.
Other notable attendees included:
- State Senators Andrew Dinniman (D-Chester County) and John Pippy (R-Allegheny and Washington Counties) both received PCCS Legislative awards as contributing the most to the improvement of Commonwealth students' education by supporting charter public schools.
- Five Western Pennsylvania charter schools were awarded PCCS Pioneer Awards for a decade of providing charter school choice: Manchester Academic CS, Northside Urban Pathways CS and The Urban League of Pittsburgh CS of Pittsburgh; the Dr. Robert Ketterer CS of Latrobe and the Ben Wiley CS of Erie.
The conference was serenaded by student musical performances from Students of The Urban League of Pittsburgh CS, Tidioute CS, Lincoln Park Performing Arts CS and the Northside Urban Pathways CS.
A highlight of the conference was a gala reception at the Carnegie Science Center featuring the Northside Urban Pathways Steel Band and a hip-hop science presentation by Grand Hank of Philadelphia. The second annual presentation of the PCCS 2008 Scholarship awards occurred on the final day.
Conference attendees were asked to stop by the PCCS "Feedback Kiosk" to fill in a survey about services that they thought that PCCS should start providing in their developing Center for the Enhancement of Charter Schools. The information gained from the more than 250 attendees who completed this survey will be used to develop the Center, which is due to open in the fall of 2008
Sponsored by:
Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools
Co-Sponsored by:
|
|
