In light of the recent signing into law of changes to the state’s open records law by Gov. Edward Rendell, school districts have a host of questions, which PSBA hopes to answer in many forms, including an upcoming three-part series of Web conferences.

What will the changes mean for school entities? How will it affect daily operation? What records now are considered public? What costs will be associated with the changes in the law? All are on the minds of school administrators, board members and solicitors, and all will be answered in the series starting in March.

PSBA Deputy Chief Counsel Emily Leader and Director of Legislative Services Beth Winters have been closely involved as the amendments to the law made their way through the legislative process. Leader and Winters will join with other experts to present the Web conferences in a lively and informative manner.

The first Web conference will offer members an overview of the new law and what changes will most affect school entities. The second will focus on what policy and procedural changes school entities may need to implement to fulfill the requirements of the law. The third conference will review the exceptions and definition changes that will affect public education most.

Available connections to the Web conferences will be limited. For member convenience, these sessions will be offered at various times as morning, afternoon and evening Web conferences on the following dates:

Be sure to complete and fax in the Post-Conference Evaluation Form!

The Nuts and Bolts of Right-to-Know 2008

Presented by Sharon Fissel, PSBA director of Policy Services, and Emily Leader
Discuss what the school district or local agency needs to know about adopting policies and procedures and how to handle requests, from designating an open-records officer to setting fees and providing local agency responses to requests.

• April 2 6-7:15 p.m.
• April 3 8-9:15 a.m.
• April 4 12-1:15 p.m.

What's Public, What's Not and What We Don't Know
About the 2008 Right-to-Know Law

Presented by Teri Henning, general counsel, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, and Emily Leader
Discover the definitions, exceptions and ambiguities of the law.

• April 9 6-7:15 p.m.
• April 10 8-9:15 a.m.
• April 11 12-1:15 p.m.

Web conference participants will be required to have a high-speed Internet connection and a separate phone line.

Registering for Web Conferences

To register for these conference, visit http://mymeetingcentral.com/registration/RegistrationList.aspx?a=15105.

Fees:
Each one-hour-and-15-minute Web conference will cost $119 per session or $325 for the whole series.

When you register for a PSBA Web conference, from the Web conference host. The Web conference host e-mail will come from info@mymeetingcentral.com. Please make sure messages from this address will not be stopped by a spam filter on your computer.

DO NOT delete this information as it will provide directions for Web conference sign-in and download instructions for handouts.

Participation in the Web conference requires a speakerphone and a high-speed Internet connection.

DO NOT attempt to log in to a Web conference more than 15 minutes prior to the start of the program. Until the program is live, the host location will display only a blank screen or PSBA Welcome page.

***Technical questions: All technical questions should be directed to Andrew Kissinger only by e-mail at andrew.kissinger@psba.org. Questions cannot be taken by phone.

Billing questions: All billing questions should be directed to Radosna Vesnic at radosna.vesnic@psba.org.

Cancellation policy: For most PSBA inservice programs, refund of registration fee will be made only if cancellation is received at PSBA headquarters at least 72 hours in advance of meeting. Cancellations less than 72 hours prior to the event may be transferred to substitute participants for the same seminar. Please do not contact the seminar facility directly.

For more information, contact PSBA at (800) 932-0588.