Borough Council Votes Down New School

Well, well. It looks like the NSNs may finally be getting what they want.

$30M school plan rejected

The school’s fate depends on whether the school board resubmits plans.

By DANNY ADLER COURIER TIMES

Morrisville’s council denied preliminary land development plans during a stormy Monday night council meeting that ended with a spatter of applause from a tired, heavily anti-new-school audience.
The passionate issue to consolidate the district’s two elementary schools and the middle-senior high school into one building has rattled community members with heated and, quite often, polarizing discussions. Monday evening was no different.
The council denied plans for the $30 million, pre-K-12 school because they did not comply with the borough’s subdivision and land development ordinance, which follows the state requirement for stormwater infiltration.
Borough Manager George Mount said he’s unsure what happens next; the fate of the school lies with the school board and whether it will resubmit plans.
The school board’s attorney, Marc Kaplin, on Tuesday said he’s unsure whether the board will do that.
The Courier Times was unsuccessful Tuesday in reaching school board President Sandy Gibson for comment. A Morrisville school board meeting is scheduled for 8 tonight at the Morrisville Middle-Senior High School on West Palmer Street. According to an early agenda, no action will be taken on the proposed building.
The ordinance behind the council rejection requires that a certain percentage of stormwater be infiltrated within 96 hours. The school board was seeking a waiver for that requirement, stating it can’t possibly happen due to the soil on site.
“We don’t need it, but we’re asking for it anyway,” said Kaplin, the newly reappointed attorney representing the school board. Kaplin said that by providing documentation that the requirement can’t be met, he was following the ordinance.
“I think there’s a reason 96 hours was chosen by professionals,” council President Jane Burger said moments before the council unanimously voted down the school’s plans.
Burger said the school board’s engineer, Raudenbush Engineering, did not justify why the school should be exempt from the regulation and that the plans fail to show undue hardship.
James McCann, the borough’s engineer, said the plans complied with everything except the infiltration requirement, adding that more could be done to meet standards.
Jack Raudenbush, the school’s engineer, said the infiltration wasn’t possible due to the low permeability of the soil.
Rich Brahler, a senior transportation planner with the Bucks County Planning Commission, on Tuesday afternoon said that in similar cases, the planners typically need to scale back the scope of the project so they can meet the infiltration requirements.
A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection spokesman said the local ordinance was created after a DEP model ordinance.
“How aggressively they stick to that will be a measure of how successful their stormwater management is,” spokesman Dennis Harney said Tuesday. “It’s a way of empowering local officials on an issue that hits at the local level.”
Council members also stressed concerns over the amount of traffic the new school would generate.
“It spells disaster,” Councilman Stephen Worob said of having young schoolchildren walking and teenage students driving to the same school.
Those who support the new school say it’s time to start anew, claiming the borough’s existing schools are old and structurally unfit. And at the cost of renovating the old buildings, some say, there might as well be a brand new one standing.
Opponents, though, have crowded public meetings, angered at soaring school taxes and questioning the building’s impact on storm water management and traffic, among other things.
Of the dozen residents who spoke out about the school at Monday’s meeting, not one supported the school.
In May’s primary election, borough residents overwhelmingly voted against the new school by selecting six anti-school candidates to run against three independent candidates this fall.

You know, I was talking to another PSP parent today and we agreed that maybe it is time to let the NSNs have all the fun. I still support a new school. It's also quite clear that the NSNs have no intention of doing the responsible thing by proposing a new way forward. All they propose is Stop The School"™ Longtime House Speaker Sam Rayburn once famously remarked, "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one." There are no carpenters at work here.

Maybe this columnist says it best...

Master politicians do more than earn your vote. They win your heart, foolish as you know it is to give it up.

The goal, of course, is to lure the prey -- you, the voter -- to the voting booth. When that happens and you finally seal the deal by casting your vote, the transaction is complete. The wooing is over and it's onto the next phase, the business of government.

With victory comes a need for action, not rhetoric. It's time to put the slogans to rest, whether it's "Morning in America" or "Together We Can." The next test is whether the candidate can harness poetry and translate it, as elected official, into policy...

"What do we do now?" Robert Redford asks that question at the end of the classic 1972 movie "The Candidate." He plays Bill McKay, a lawyer who runs a campaign of hope, charisma, and simplistic slogans. When he wins, the candidate has no idea what to do next.

Wouldn't it be nice for the PSPs to be the ones sitting in the audience heckling the NSNs as they struggle with the realities of governing? The problem is that we, the taxpayers, are going to pay for the for our foolish flirtation with the folly of a few visionless wannabes.

California Stop the School

The Courier Times had an interesting letter today that shows pretty fairly the outside perception of Morrisville

Hit the brakes

In reference to the article on the Morrisville School board hitting the gas for the new $30 million school, we own property in Morrisville and have an elderly parent who owns property and lives in Morrisville. Although we don’t live there, we are paying the sky rocketing taxes. I wonder if Sandy Gibson can see past this school to see the surrounding area.
I think the taxpayers would rather see Morrisville refurbished before a school is built. No one wants to live in a town with more than several cigarette joints, a bail bond company, a firecracker shop, a boarded up gas station, low-income apartments that have been in the news for violent crimes and a shopping center that has problems keeping tenants. I have been to my parents’ house on occasion when school lets out and the profanity and dress code is disgusting.
A new building is not going to teach these kids higher morals or better behavior. The number of students attending the schools it is not worth the money. People are moving out, not moving in with school-age kids. The registration declines every year. What happens when you have a $30 million school and too few students? If they need to consolidate, than use the schools that already exist.

Let's look at the letter:

I'm pleased that they are helping out their surviving parent, but I am sorry that they need to do so. It opens the question of how effectively the parents saved and invested for their future, but assuming they did the typical savings and investing, yes, it's a crime that inflation has eaten away at the savings stored up. That's a question of macroeconomics on a federal and world level that does not really have anything to do with Morrisville and a new school.

Yes. The demographics described are somewhat true. We have smoke shops at the foot of every bridge, enough nail salons to do one nail per shop and still have shops left over, a bail bondsman and a fireworks company. None of these establishments are illegal and they generate business and tax revenue. This speaks more to the rebuilding effort underway from the borough council than the school.

The low income apartments need to be somewhere. I didn't choose to have them there, and I'm sure the writer didn't either. The "low income people" don't have a child to help out with the bills like the writer's mother does. Where would Mom or Dad be living if you didn't assist? Low income does not always mean low morals or low standards. Violent crime can happen even in the safe "high income" suburbs.

And no one wants to live in a place like that? Would the last one to leave New York City please turn out the lights? If it's so bad, why do you allow your parent to live in a substandard place like this? How's the mother-in-law suite coming along?

However, our culture today does have low morals and low standards. Yes, the profanity and dress of today's kids is appalling. And so it was for every generation looking back at the "younger generation" then coming up. I bet the letter writer was a 60s flower child who has grown into a respectable adult. That's where the parents come in. If the parents use and teach the profanity and low morals and/or permit the children to use them, then that's a parental problem, not a problem of the school. The school systems have already taken over so many areas of education because the parents will not do the teaching they are supposed to. What are YOU teaching YOUR children?

A new building does not change the curriculum and what would be learned. There's a stroke of the blinding obvious.

Families with kids are moving out? Let me check on that and get some figures, but that's not what I'm seeing. The enrollment is growing.

Use the schools that exist? We covered that earlier. Look at the report and ask: Would the letter writer use the toilets shown in the appendix? This is written like a true believer who DOESN'T have to use the school and walk a mile in the shoes of a student and can speak from the safety of the outside. Take Mom or Dad on a walk sometime and visit the school to see what it looks like inside. If you lived here, you probably remember the high school from your days here...it hasn't changed.

Renaissance in Morrisville?

It's nice to see Morrisville grow. Here's a great story from Tuesday's Bucks County Courier Times about a local business that's growing and prospering.

DiPalma said the business really turned a corner in 2006, when it moved from Atomica’s Pennsylvania Avenue address to a larger, brand new office space on East Bridge Street.

“We saw a 200 percent increase in profit after we moved in,” he said. “We had a space that we weren’t embarrassed to bring clients to and where we were comfortable giving big presentations."

Wow. I wonder if the same thing applies to a new school. No...probably not. The adults who are supposed to be providing the learning space don't have to use it.

Courier Times Says the Voters Spoke...Did They?

So, the massive editorial might of the Bucks County Courier Times has spoken against the new Morrisville school

Respect voters’ decision

Don’t take action on unwanted new school

Morrisville school board’s lame duck majority could cost the small school district big money.
We understand that the board majority wants to do what’s best for the children. But members need to do what’s best for taxpayers, too.
Voters made their desires well known in the fall, and they don’t desire a new school — or, more accurately, the expense of a new school.
The board’s new majority will take over in December, and it’s no secret that plans for a new school will be scrapped at that time.
Current board members know that. They should act accordingly, which means respecting voters’ desires and not obligating the financially struggling district to anything that will later have to be undone — probably at great expense.

Let's take a quick look at the election. By all measures, this was a well attended primary and a much larger than normal number of voters turned out for what is a normally sleepy primary. Ask any of the NSNs, and the overwhelming 3 to 1 margin allows them to claim that "We Represent The WILL of the PEOPLE"™.

But 75% of what? Gather around, and let's remember the three biggest lies in the world: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

If you take a handful of stones from a quarry and find that 75% of the stones in your hand are blue, and 25% are orange, you can rightly claim that 75% of the stones in your hand are blue. Nothing more than that. You cannot rightly claim that the quarry itself is 75% blue. You cannot claim that the orange stones are irrelevant. You cannot claim that there are no red stones in the pit either.

Open questions to the Courier Times editorial board: Why do you assume that the November election is irrelevant and assume that this board will be seated in December? Why do you dismiss the November general election voters so casually? Why do you think a new school is bad for Morrisville taxpayers? Why do you think the month of May is "fall" in the Northern Hemisphere? Why do you unhesitatingly regurgitate the propaganda of the "We Represent The WILL of the PEOPLE"™ NSNs rather than taking an independent and unbiased look at the facts? And why did you cover this ten days after it occurred? Shame on you, and several big "Thumbs Down!" for you.

Chicken Alert!!!

Ahhh...I love the smell of fresh hypocrisy in the morning! Accompanied by the scurrying little feet of scared demagogues, the No School Negatives (NSNs) are hurriedly retreating to the safety of the do nothing ranch, awaiting their coronation.

The Bucks County Courier Times, only ten days late, today covers the July 30 meeting where the NSNs once again said "We Represent The WILL of the PEOPLE"™ yet refused to hint at what they would do other than "Stop The School"™

Dear Morrisville voters: You expect your council, mayoral, county commissioner, and every other political office seeker to lay out their platform. Why are you giving these visionless people a pass? Remember former President George H. W. Bush and "read my lips...no new taxes?" What was the result? New taxes.

Here's the secret: They don't have a plan. They just don't like paying higher taxes and think that once they gain a hold of the budgetary reins that Morrisville can continue to get by with a maintenance only infrastructure. That's a fair goal...no one wants to pay more taxes without a purpose. If you are comfortable with their purposeless negativity, then vote your conscience and elect the NSNs. But keep in mind that supporting these people means you support keeping our Morrisville schools with substandard infrastructure.

This isn't the preferred place for any politician. Vote for me and pay more! It's pretty suicidal in terms of asking for votes. Think about how many candidates have asked for your vote with that approach...probably only the six May primary candidates. But how many of these candidates now officeholders either refused to answer or flatly said "No New Taxes!" and then thumbed their nose at the people who got them the position?

If you support the NSNs, don't you want to know what they will do? Tell them to come out from hiding. Three NSNs have the exact same information that the six Pro School Progressives (PSPs) have. Cats got their tongues? Or embarrassment because they stand ready to gain their amazing cosmic power but only have an itty bitty living space.

Comments??

Do you want to comment on a post you've seen? Now you can email me at savethemorrisvilleschool@yahoo.com.

A Bridge to a New School

The horrible tragedy of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis is now moving into the second part of the story, from the initial horror to the search for answers to the questions of "why?"

WHY?

Some of the answers aren't pretty. Time Magazine suggests:

• More than 70,000 bridges across the country are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion... It is unclear how many of the spans pose actual safety risks... It is money that Congress, the federal government and the states have so far been unable or unwilling to spend.
• "We're not doing what the engineers are saying we need to be doing," said Gregory Cohen, president of the American Highway Users Alliance, an advocacy group representing a wide range of motorists. "Unfortunately when you consistently underinvest in roads and bridges ... this is the dangerous consequence." "People think they're saving money by not investing in infrastructure, and the result is you have catastrophes like this," said Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., a member of the House transportation committee.

CNN continues the story:

• ... Experts said Thursday that the problem stems from a lack of money and leadership...While the "structurally deficient" and "functionally obsolete" monikers don't indicate the crossings are treacherous, they do imply serious problems, Stidger said. The Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River during Wednesday rush hour was deemed structurally deficient two years ago.
• Casey Dinges, a staff leader on the report card, said "structurally deficient" and "functionally obsolete" are technical terms used by the federal government. "Neither one means failure is imminent or that your life is in danger or that you should be afraid to get in your car," he said. "That said, we still have pretty serious concerns about the overall state of the nation's infrastructure." The report also said bringing all the nation's bridges up to snuff would cost $188 billion over the next two decades.
• While the number might sound staggering to some, Dinges says it's "doable. That's simply maintaining what we are doing right now," he said. "New technology, money -- there are resources involved, but I think the big thing is really political leadership, and that has to come at all levels of government," he said. "There has to be an honest discussion about the financial resources it takes to maintain these systems," he said, adding that infrastructure needs to be a priority. There are no Republican bridges. There are no Democratic drinking water purification facilities. We all use these systems," he said. But Stidger said states aren't getting the money they need to repair their roads and bridges. They're forced to resort to a process of "patch, patch, patch and nothing ever gets repaired," she said. She likened the process to putting a Band-Aid on a broken elbow and said, "There's only so much you can do with inadequate funding."

At the risk of being taken to task for comparing an actual tragedy to a potential tragedy, if you do not support the building of a new school to replace the old ones, how would you answer the Time Magazine or CNN reporters, or even Matt Drudge, covering the catastrophic failure of a component of a Morrisville school without resorting to blame shifting hyperbole and hypocrisy? The same set of conditions from Minneapolis exist right here in Morrisville. Money that we're unable or unwilling to spend to invest in infrastructure turns to disaster.

I saw six leaders vote to move forward Monday night. I also saw three others doing nothing, cowering in the corner of the meeting room, consistently voting with a resounding "NO" against progress.

I pray to God that the buildings remain safe until the new school opens, but if you're one of the people unwilling to spend the money on our community learning infrastructure, how would the death or harm of any of the Morrisville students or staff allow you to sleep at night?

The Old Schools

So why is Morrisville replacing three schools with one? Cost effectiveness. The baby of the three is the Morrisville Middle/Senior High school, which was built in 1958. Grandview Elementary, which celebrates the big 5-0 this year, was born in 1957. The hybrid granddad/grandchild is the former Robert Morris High School, which was built in 1924, closed for renovations in 1958, partially burned in a fire, and was reopened as Manoah R. Reiter Elementary in 1961. Source: the awesome Earl Davis' photography site. See his Tidbits of History.

So the students of Morrisville are using buildings not only from the era of the poodle skirt, but reaching back to the pre-Depression flappers! Kudos and greetings to our older folks who remember these eras fondly, but I doubt Grandma still has the "bee's knees" and Fonzie's getting a little long in the tooth.

I shouldn't forget the matched pair of trailers at Reiter either. The overcrowded district decided to stop holding music and art lessons in the hallways and purchased the trailers at a bargain...because they were already at the end of their useful service life. Make note of that "end of their useful service life" phrase, because it's going to be a familiar theme.

Let's go to Exhibit 1: The school district building report, freely available at the District Website. Does anyone want to count the number of times "end of useful service life", "not suitable for continued use", "not capable of repair", and similarly worded lines appear? I lost count. I'll have to get a new highlighter and check the printout again. BONUS: Do you think the phrase "manufacturer no longer in business" should be counted as well? I'm leaning toward "yes" myself.

So...the harvest gold and avocado green appliances all need to go, replaced and updated to the spotless stainless steel of the 21st century. Hmmm...but when we replace the appliances, the windows will look pretty bad. And then there's the air conditioning and the electrical systems. They've been updated since the 1970s too.

SPECIAL QUESTION FOR HOMEOWNER HANDYMEN: Does this sound like a weekend of bliss? I'm thinking possibly not.

Remember how back in the day, Pennsbury Pottery, Vulcanized Rubber and U.S. Steel paid the civic bills? Why do I bring this up? Look around your house and see where you may have cut corners and foregone repairs to save some money. That's exactly the type of upkeep that these three schools have lived with for decades. The previous boards have worked with less and less money and the talented custodial staff made miracles from Kleenex and baling wire. Less than complete upgrades and repairs make the age and conditions of these buildings even more of an issue.

And then there's the pesky little matter of ADA compliance. The curb cuts, lever door handles, extra wide bathroom stalls we're used to in modern buildings are not required for grandfathered buildings. Remodeling like this negates the grandfathering and lets loose another round of renovations. Pretty soon, we'll have to build a new building.

Which leads to another question...if not now, when? The real "when" for this new building was some ten or fifteen years ago, not today. And every day it's put off, the cost just climbs higher and higher.

What do you think?