The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award

The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform.

Who is eligible? Nominees may be an individual school board member, or the entire board of a school district, intermediate unit or career and technical school (including Superintendent or Chief School Administrator). All nominees must be current members of PSBA.

Who can nominate? Nominations may come from several possible sources, including:

1. A PSBA member may nominate an individual recipient who may be a member of his/her own board or another PSBA member board;
2. A PSBA member board may nominate itself;
3. A Superintendent or Chief School Administrator of a PSBA member entity may nominate on behalf of a board.

What is the timeline/process? PSBA will open the nomination process and make applications available each spring. The deadline to submit nominations to PSBA June 22, 2012. The committee will review all nominations after the deadline has passed and will make a decision prior to the association’s Annual School Leadership Conference. The winner will be notified by early-September and awardees will be recognized and receive a plaque during the Annual School Leadership Conference. A notice of the award will be made in PSBA publications and web site, and a news release will be issued to the local media of the recipient.

What are the award criteria? Awardees will be selected based on the description and/or evidence provided in the nomination form that shows how they are working to affect educational policy and legislation through effective advocacy at the local, state, and/or national levels. Work must be related to the most recent legislative session, and a description and/or evidence of efforts must be included with the application for nomination. A scoring system will be used to determine a recipient.

Recipients of the award will be selected with the following criteria and considering the diverse activities that may be included within each area:

• Impact on legislation or legislators - Actions that have an effect on advancing public education consistent with PSBA policies, generating support and/or raising new awareness among legislators. (maximum10 points)
• Mobilizing grassroots advocacy - Actions that mobilize legislative advocacy by fellow board members and/or members of the community. (maximum 10 points)
• Raising public awareness - Actions generating support for and raising awareness among the state policymakers, media and the general public regarding a specific legislative issue or issues. (maximum10 points)

Within the above three criteria, additional points may be awarded for these factors:

• Advocacy efforts that include multiple components that serve to frame an issue, develop alliances and gather and disseminate data relevant to moving the agenda forward. (maximum10 points)
• Local innovation (maximum 5 points)
• Consistency of effort (maximum 5 points)

The following are examples of the diverse types of activities that may be indicative of the individual or board’s efforts in the above criteria, but are not the sole factors in determining eligibility or scoring:

• Keeping the local school board updated on legislative issues, and initiating advocacy efforts (such as the adoption of resolutions, letters, etc.) as necessary.
• Strengthening alliances with legislators and other state policymakers through personal visits to explain issues from the public school perspective and to encourage them to adopt legislation that is supportive of public education and beneficial to students. Personal visits include meetings at the legislators’ local or Harrisburg offices, as well as through invitations to legislators to visit the school entity.
• Contacting legislators and other state policymakers through phone calls, e-mails, letters, and/or other methods to discuss issues, particularly in response to PSBA Calls to Action.
• Participating in PSBA’s legislative advocacy program including activities related to platform development as well as other activities related to developing or expressing PSBA’s position/policy on legislative issues.
• Encouraging other professionals, residents/participants, and/or other community stakeholders to become active advocates on behalf of public education.
• Educating the media to garner positive attention regarding the value of public education as well as the impact of current legislative proposals upon the local school entity. This may include activities to increase media attention such as submitting op-ed articles and letters to the editor, and conducting meetings with local editorial boards and education reporters, media appearances, press conferences, etc.
• Educating and engaging parents and the community regarding the value of public education as well as the impact of current legislative proposals upon the local school entity. Such activities include distributing articles and information through newsletters and website, meeting with local PTA/PTOs and asking for their advocacy support, discussing the local impact of issues at board meetings, conducting public forums, etc.

Advocacy Award Selection Committee -- Nominations will be considered by the Advocacy Award Selection Committee, which is appointed by the current PSBA president each January. The committee will consist of no more than seven members, and members who are selected will be from various school boards and PSBA regions throughout the state. No PSBA staff will be members of the committee or have any participation or influence on any decision made by the committee. In the event that a committee member would subsequently be nominated as an award recipient, he or she would be required to resign from the committee. The PSBA president would appoint a replacement for the original member, so that all applications received may be considered objectively and without bias. Applications will be considered and judged individually by each committee member and by the group as a whole in making a final determination of an award recipient.

Scoring/Selection: The Advocacy Award Selection Committee will score nominees in accordance with the above criteria and points system. Generally, a minimum of 25 points will be necessary to be selected, but the committee may, at its sole discretion, make the selections and any exceptions to the minimum score threshold. The committee also has the ability to make more than one award if there is a tie or if it is felt that more than one award is warranted. In addition, at the discretion of the committee, an award may not be fulfilled in any particular year.