Pittsburgh Magazine Ranks PA Cyber 'Great Place to Work'

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 600-employee Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School is one of five large companies in the Pittsburgh region rated as "Great Places to Work" by Pittsburgh Magazine.

The October issue features rankings compiled by Next Generation Consulting of Madison, Wisc., from an anonymous 40-question survey that had to be completed by at least half of a company's employees.

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The opportunities for advancement in a youthful, fast-growing organization was cited as the best benefit of working for PA Cyber.

"There's a real feeling of togetherness here," Craig Jeffers, 33, said in the article. Jeffers, assistant director of elementary education at PA Cyber, has received his third promotion since joining the school in 2006 and was accepted into its leadership cohort, a two-year professional-development program.

Employees said they share PA Cyber's mission to provide educational choice for Pennsylvania families. The "primo perk" cited was the opportunity for a significant number of the school's teachers to work from home.

"Some even work from other continents: Italian conversation teacher Tony Mauro teaches virtual classes from his home in Italy," writer Christine O'Toole stated in the piece.

Some of the things employees said they love about working for PA Cyber include daycare facilities for the large number of babies born to the youthful workforce (90 in the past two years) and promotion of healthful activities such as $20 a month gym memberships and a recent wellness motivational visit by "Biggest Loser" contestants Filipe and Sione Fa.

Participants in the survey had to choose their levels of trust, management, professional development, connections, rewards and life-work balance. To validate the results, the survey also asked if respondents would recommend their company to other job seekers.

The other four large (100 or more employees) companies named "Great Places to Work" by the magazine are: Developmental Dimensions International, an international talent development company in Canonsburg and Bridgeville; Hefron-Tillotson, a family-owned financial planning company in downtown Pittsburgh; ModCloth, an e-retailer of women's clothing in Pittsburgh's Strip District; and PJDick/Trumbull/Lindy Paving, a large general and highway construction company based in Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, headquartered in the small steel mill town of Midland, Pa., is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It was the state's first K-12 public cyber charter school and is Pennsylvania's the largest and most successful cyber, with an anticipated enrollment of 10,000 students for the 2010-11 school year. PA Cyber proudly holds the designation of "Made AYP" (Adequate Yearly Progress) in 2010 state testing, meeting 29 of 29 performance targets for participation, graduation and academics. It recently was granted a five-year charter renewal by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Contact Fred Miller, [email protected], 724.777.5918

SOURCE PA Cyber Charter School