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| BLaST Intermediate Unit 17. October, 2007 |
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| Blast Intermediate Unit 17 |
Weird name but great work.
What is a BLaST Intermediate Unit 17?
BLaST Intermediate Unit 17 is not a new space fantasy video game.
An Intermediate Unit is an educational service agency for school districts in Pennsylvania. Unit 17 is one of 29 Intermediate Units in the Commonwealth. It covers four counties, Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan and Tioga. The initial of each county served is cleverly configured into the word, “blast”.
Intermediate units serve as quasi-governmental education service agencies. They act as a liaison between school districts and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The 3-tiered system has been around a long time. In 1854 the Commonwealth created a tripartite system where the County Superintendents acted as the middlemen between the state and local educational authorities. The school directors of each district were required to select as county superintendent "one person of literary and scientific acquirements and of skill and experience in the art of teaching".
One hundred years later the system became a bloated bureaucracy with a lot of duplication and inefficiencies. In April 1955, The Pennsylvania Conference of Education was convened to offer recommendations on how to fix the system. The meeting issued several resolutions including the following, “Whereas, this confusion is essentially due to considerable permissive legislation attempting to safeguard the principle of local autonomy, thus resulting in duplication of effort, dissipation of professional energies, and a waste of tax dollars;
Therefore, be it resolved that this conference recommend that the State Council of Education present a proposed plan to the Legislature for identifying agencies of the State to serve as an extension of the State’s educational authority at an intermediate level and to function as a service and leadership agency in the interest of all local units included in the intermediate plan.“
However, the current system of Intermediate Units didn’t get any traction until after 1965 and was finally implemented in 1970.
“The IU’s were established by the act of January 14, 1970 (1969 P.L.468, No.192), which abolished the county board of school directors, the county superintendents and other county-level school officers and transferred their responsibilities to the IU, and the act of May 4, 1970 (P.L.311, No.102), which added Article IX-A (Intermediate Units) to the Public School Code. Act 102 divides the Commonwealth into 29 IU’s and specifically assigns each school district to a unit.”
Some school districts are very small and don’t have the bargaining power to buy services at reduced rates. IU’s can purchase supplies and materials in large quantities, get substantial discounts and pass the savings on to the school districts. The system was also designed to insure equity between wealthy and poor school districts.
IU’s helps maintain uniformity of education across the state while meeting the specific needs of local school districts regardless of their size or wealth.
Thomas Shivetts, the head honcho at BlaST Intermediate Unit 17, knows a lot about the needs of educators. He started out as a teacher in Williamsport 36 years ago, at about the same time the state began the restructuring process to satisfy the needs of it’s 501 school districts. Mr. Shivetts said the administrative upheaval had little effect on those working in the trenches. The transition went fairly smoothly.
BlaSt IU 17 handles the needs of 19 school districts in a geographical area almost the size of Connecticut. It has two offices, one on Reach Road in Williamsport and one in Canton PA.
Executive Director Tom Shivetts says on the IU17 website, “In monthly meetings with superintendents, special education directors, curriculum directors and technology leaders from our districts; we constantly strive to serve as a resource and an intermediary between the districts and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Directors of our three Divisions: Student Services, Educational Planning, and Business Management Services, all serve on my executive cabinet and assist with total organizational direction as well as serve in valuable state-wide leadership positions in their respective fields.”
Now you know.
Visit www.iu17.org for more information.
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Visit www.iu17.org for more information.
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