Tag: merger

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National University Grows to 42,000 Students in Merger, Plans Nationwide Online Expansion

National University Grows to 42,000 Students in Merger, Plans Nationwide Online Expansion
Michael Cunningham
National University System Chancellor Michael Cunningham announces the merger and new emblem. Picture by Chris Jennewein

National College announced Monday it will merge academic functions with its local affiliate, the on-line schooling pioneer Northcentral University, and extend educating nationwide.

The merger will develop a combined college with 42,000 learners and increase 24 doctoral degree systems when providing 90{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of training on the net.

Cunningham said the merger will permit the San Diego-based nonprofit university to supply a comprehensive suite of academic courses from the pre-college to doctoral amount with a target on “micro-credentials” and workforce education applications made with input from prime employers.

“The union of these two institutions will make it possible for us to give workforce-applicable, in-demand plans — practically fully in an asynchronously on the internet format — to adult learners in all fifty states,” mentioned Dr. Michael R. Cunningham, chancellor of the Countrywide University System

The merger has been accepted by the Western Association of Colleges and Colleges, the accrediting entity for equally community and personal institutions in the West, and Cunningham also launched a new emblem for the blended National University.

National University’s power has been in giving profession-applicable levels and credentials for grownup learners at the undergraduate amount, whilst Northcentral has perfectly-founded master’s and doctoral choices. Northcentral, which has 12,000 college students, turned portion of the Nationwide University Program in 2018.

“Bringing together the expertise, abilities and motivation to service of these two numerous tutorial communities will help us to deliver towards our shared mission with appreciably greater effects and access,” stated Dr. Eugene Wilkerson, co-president of Northcentral.

In remarks following the announcement, Cunningham stated the merger will maximize efficiency and aid Nationwide College continue being incredibly cost-effective, with tuition toward a diploma in the vary of $12,000 a 12 months.

“This is not a merger for attrition. This is a merger for excellent,” he said, with no personnel to eliminate careers.

He said a crucial goal in the merger is better obtain and affordability, and mentioned that on the web learning suits busy adult students mainly because it can consider spot “anytime, anyplace.”

National University was started in 1971 and has grown to grow to be San Diego’s major private nonprofit college with 190,000 alumni.

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Pennsbury Moves Forward With Study Of Possible Morrisville Merger

Pennsbury Moves Forward With Study Of Possible Morrisville Merger
The Pennsbury College District Administration Setting up in Fallsington. File photo.
Credit rating: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com

Could the Pennsbury Faculty District and Morrisville University District grow to be just one? The respond to is anyone’s guess, but the idea is receiving a significant glance.

With aid from the Pennsylvania Department of Instruction, the Pennsbury Faculty Board voted final thirty day period to employ Philadelphia-based Community Financial Management to examine the feasibility of a feasible merger. The information was to start with noted by The Advance of Bucks County.

The price tag for the review is $195,000.

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The outcome of the examine will not lock Pennsbury in to any final decision, but it will give officials much more info.

Pennsbury CFO Christopher Berdni a short while ago claimed the selling price tag for the research will be protected by a state grant.

In a ask for for proposals, the Pennsbury School District issued the subsequent define for the review:

The Pennsbury School District challenges this Ask for for Proposal from money/instructional consultants to carry out a reorganization feasibility analyze on the Pennsbury College District merging with the Morrisville Faculty District. In addition to a whole merger, the examine will assess a model of Morrisville sending all or some students to Pennsbury Faculty District on a tuition basis.

The objective in requesting this analyze is to determine if the merger or tuition marriage is in the most effective desire of both faculty districts, like, but not constrained to, if instructional prospects would be enhanced for all students at a equivalent or reduced cost to taxpayers.

Public Economic Administration will begin their study in July and purpose to deliver a ultimate report in December.

The analyze will involve website visits, critique of documents from the districts, getting achievable efficiencies, interviews, community meetings, and a presentation with the firm’s findings.

Morrisville Borough High College.
Credit score: Morrisville Borough Faculty District

The Pennsbury University District has a lot more than 10,000 learners and is built up of Falls Township, Reduced Makefield Township, Tullytown Borough, and Yardley Borough, when the Morrisville College District has close to 850 pupils who occur from Morrisville Borough.

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The Morrisville Borough College District has struggled for decades owing to its dimension and a deficiency of ample funding. It just lately been given an supplemental $1 million in condition funding to assistance.

In April 2021, officers from the Morrisville School District reached out to Pennsbury to converse about a likely merger.

Prior to this decade, officers from the Morrisville Borough Faculty District despatched letters to the Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Bensalem, Council Rock, Neshaminy, and Pennsbury school districts in an energy to crank out desire in merger talks. Morrisville Borough faculty officials have beforehand pointed to extra tax income for a suitor, two structures in the district, and benefits for area students as selling details.

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In 2014, Pennsbury turned down an provide to merge with Morrisville.

Communicate of a merger amongst Pennsbury and Morrisville occurred given that the 1970s.

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School merger idea spiked amid heated community backlash

School merger idea spiked amid heated community backlash

A strategy to potentially fold the very small Fort Edward Union Free of charge University District into nearby South Glens Falls educational institutions has been aborted, both equally school boards stated.

Opposition to the acquisition largely arrived from Fort Edward, which stood to attain from academic offerings, extracurricular packages, and athletics offered in the 3,000-pupil South Glens Falls district. But Fort Edward would get rid of its identify, its modest course dimensions and —  some feared — its cultural identity. 

The South Glens Falls board unanimously voted in favor of sending the merger strategy to voters, although 5 of nine Fort Edward board officials voted towards moving forward with a neighborhood referendum. 

“I appreciate that our Board of Instruction voted to choose this crucial subject to our citizens. Any proposal this essential really should be resolved by our voters.” South Glens Falls Superintendent Kristine Orr stated. “While the district was ready to go forward with this perform, we understand that now was just not the right time to proceed.”

If authorized by the faculty boards and voters in both communities, the proposed merger would have produced the mixed district qualified for $50 million in point out incentive help and $6 million in setting up aid over 15 many years and would have lowered taxes for citizens in Fort Edward, Moreau and Wilton.

The merger was also seen as an response to Fort Edward’s fiscal challenges. Fort Edward in recent years has found 3 budgets defeated and has dipped into its fund equilibrium for 5 many years in a row. South Glens Falls has seen regular spending budget approvals for extra than a ten years and has grown its fund harmony in latest decades. 

The Fort Edward college board read impassioned testimony from group members who argue their children would endure in a greater faculty surroundings. Some took offense at the idea their college district was missing in educational rigor. Numerous mentioned the approach disrespected the village’s record and cultural identity.

The board’s vote in opposition to keeping the referendum was met with thunderous cheers and applause in the significant college auditorium on Wednesday. 


Board customers who opposed the evaluate said the timing was not ideal for a merger. They take note that feelings are significant because of to the pandemic which has stoked cultural battles about general public health actions in colleges like mask-carrying and vaccine mandates. 

School board leaders condemned the own assaults lobbed in opposition to board users, who they said were being smeared as corrupt “goons” on social media and by opponents who went doorway to doorway to blast the proposal. 

“Some behaviors we have witnessed do not depict the best of Fort Edward. Lots of of us you should not appreciate the booing, yelling and own attacks some of us have been uncovered to,” board member James Donahue mentioned. “We want to occur together for the ideal fascination of our youngsters. Don’t forget, it can be Fort Edward against the entire world.”

Castallo and Silky Instructional Consultants were being hired in 2020 to generate a analyze laying out the added benefits and potential pitfalls of annexing the districts. 

Each districts are going through declining enrollments, the analyze observed. Fort Edward’s K-12 enrollment dropped from 494 to 396 in the very last 6 many years. Enrollment in South Glens Falls fell from 3,136 to 2,831 in the similar interval.

The joint district would have saved about $1.4 million in income and gain costs through a reduction of about 11 teachers and one particular superintendent. But most of the work would possible be reduce through attrition rather than layoffs, the report states. There would also be a want to hire about 7 or eight academics in the main issue regions for the Fort Edward learners.

Fort Edward teachers would have seen a increase to convey their salaries up to the pay out of educators in the South Glens Falls district.

One of few vocal proponents of the approach, Elaine Trackey-Saltsman, was shouted down by the crowd at a modern hearing. Trackey-Saltsman ran for university board about the summer months on a pro-merger system but misplaced to an anti-merger candidate.

“Enable the people determine,” she instructed the board at a Sept. 13 conference. She added. “As significantly as dividing the village, the people who want the merger are being quite tranquil due to the fact of the detest that’s coming from the other facet.”