Robert Presley didn’t wait long to name his priority. The Jim Thorpe Area School District superintendent, recently accepted into a competitive statewide education leadership fellowship, said he plans to use the program’s capstone advocacy project to take aim at Pennsylvania’s cyber charter school funding formula — the same issue he has pressed from his first day on the job.

“The Jim Thorpe Area School District taxpayers spend over $4 million a year on cyber charter students,” Presley said. “From day one of my superintendency, I have advocated for and been outspoken on how cyber charter schools need to be held accountable by the state like all traditional school districts are, and how their funding formula, especially for special education students, must be revised to more accurately reflect their actual costs.”

Jim Thorpe’s school board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve Presley’s participation in the 2026-27 Education Policy Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Education Policy and Leadership Center, or EPLC, at a cost of $2,925 plus travel.

The program, which has run since 1999 and produced more than 700 graduates statewide, limits each cohort to a maximum of 35 fellows drawn from education, government, human services, business and community organizations across Pennsylvania.

Presley described the fellowship as a direct investment in the district, not just in his own professional development.

“The program brings together education leaders from across Pennsylvania and neighboring states to study the policy, finance, leadership, and workforce issues that are shaping public education right now,” Presley said. “That kind of learning directly benefits our students, staff, and taxpayers.”

The eight-month program runs September through May and includes a two-day opening session in the Harrisburg area, a leadership forum at Gettysburg’s battlefield and the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, 14 virtual Friday morning sessions, a midyear in-person gathering, a two-day trip to Washington to meet with members of Congress and federal officials, and a Day-at-the-Capitol in Harrisburg where fellows present policy project briefings directly to lawmakers.

The program is run jointly with fellows from Michigan, New York and Ohio for the leadership forum sessions.

For Presley, the appeal of the program goes beyond the curriculum. He said the issues Jim Thorpe faces — cyber charter costs, special education funding gaps, and a state adequacy formula that leaves districts like his without new dollars — need to be argued beyond local board meetings.

“The value of this program is not simply having a seat at the table,” Presley said.

“It is being able to bring the perspective of a rural public school district into conversations where decisions are actually being made.”

Presley said he already works to influence state policy as a member of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators’ State Legislative Committee, and described a personal habit of reviewing state legislation weekly and writing at least one state senator or representative every week or two to weigh in on pending bills.

The fellowship adds structure and access to those efforts. The program’s schedule includes sessions on education finance, state budget priorities, school choice, workforce development, civic dialogue and building coalitions with public officials — topics that connect directly to the fights Presley said he has been waging since taking over as superintendent.

He said the fellowship also offers something harder to manufacture on the job: a cohort of peers from across the state facing the same pressures.

Presley, who is entering his fifth year as superintendent, traced a path to this position that began in the classroom. He started as a teacher in a small rural district, then moved into administration as both an elementary and a high school principal before arriving at Jim Thorpe.

“I have worked very hard throughout my career to get to where I am, and I am so grateful that my experience, resume, and efforts are being recognized through this fellowship selection,” Presley said.

He said success in the program, for him, is defined less by credentials than by what he carries back to Jim Thorpe when it ends.

“Success for me in this program is just becoming a better leader who will be able to bring back new ideas to my district,” Presley said, “and the ability to refine my advocacy skills and influence within the state of Pennsylvania to be a voice for my students, staff, parents, and taxpayers.”

The fellowship is facilitated by Doris Hagemann, EPLC fellowship program coordinator and director of student services at Cumberland Valley School District, and Amy C. Morton, EPLC executive director and a former K-12 deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Past speakers have included the executive director of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee, the executive deputy secretary of the state Department of Education and the executive director of the State Board of Education.