Morrisville: Example of What Not To Do, Part II

If you can't be a good example, at least be an example.

See what the BCCT readers think of the lessons learned here in Morrisville when applied to the new Centennial school.

"The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn't he?"

Anyone Remember "The Clash"?

I've been humming this tune all day long.

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Please vote in our newest poll. And, feel free to add an explanation as a comment to this post.

Morrisville: Example of What Not To Do

Editorial in the BCCT today

Just Another Night in Morrisville, Part III

I may need some assistance on some of the details of this part of the story, because the reconstruction I have seems to have some portions at odds with each other. SO...while some of the details of this may have to be clarified, the result is spot on.

If you remember back to the time following the revelation that the Emperor self-commissioned the $2500 Hellman building report to cover his tracks for the defeasement, it was suggested and broadly hinted at, that the Emperor was given a talking to by Counsel Kelly and the rest of the board. (Disclaimer: I was not there and those that were there are not talking. At least not to me. But if you want to, my email is listed at the top.) He was basically told, you're new and inexperienced, and you're eager to push your agenda, but this is not allowed. You can't run your own show here. You act in the name of the board only. We're covering you this time by an 8-1 vote. Go and sin no more.

Now, last night, we find out that the Emperor has been lunching with the district health care provider contact and/or other health care provider contacts (please, someone clarify!) in order to promote "competition" among the providers.

The problem is that the board did not sanction this. The Emperor also apparently casually mentioned that he was "the boss" and he wanted action taken to reduce costs to the district. (Clarification requested.)

Let me stop here and applaud the idea that the Emperor was promoting, not the way it was done. Stimulating competition and lowering costs is worthy. The Emperor has a problem with the "red tape" stuff and clearly and loudly proclaimed this for all to hear.

Captain Obvious reports that many people who have a high disdain for authority and controls have an authority and control problem of their own. Not that I'm making a correlation here, you understand.

So, that's when Robin Reithmeyer unleashed her latest load of lèse majesté and told the Emperor that this board runs on red tape.

Momentary reality check: A self professed experienced CPA with extensive contact with the US Tax Code and the IRS, as well as several municipal governments in Pennsylvania, is unaware that red tape runs the world. Um...I'm thinking, maybe...NOT!


But then, the other four board members, even Mrs. Steve "You Squandered Two Million Dollars Of Our Money" Worob began chiding him. So did Counsel Kelley. So did the audience. They had all already privately told him once not to overreach and to operate beyond his mandate. Now, the public got to watch and join in.

With last night's performance, quite a bit was lost. The openness and honesty that the Stop the Schoolers supposedly ran on, and that Bill Farrell (honestly and sincerely, I believe) mentions quite often, is revealed as nothing but hollow words, as empty as the chocolate bunnies on Easter morning when you bite their ears off. With these acts, one man has made a mockery of the eight remaining members of the board, the school administration that he holds in high disregard, the parents that he openly ignores, and yes, even the taxpayers that he is allegedly crusading for.

Don't believe me? See for yourself on the replays all next week. Watch and check back in with us here and let us know what you think. Unless the tape is mysteriously damaged or lost.

When the name "Bill Clinton" is mentioned, I'm sure the first association you made to a word was "liar". I'm not sure what one word will stick here, but for William I, Emperor of Education, I have no doubt that the single word will show itself sooner rather than later.

I believe my three minutes are up. Feel free to add as you will.

Comic Relief

An editorial view of the blind defeasement entitled "The Silence of the Lambs"

Just Another Night in Morrisville, Part II

When we last left our story, an open insurrection was beginning against the autocratic rule of the Emperor. The members of the Q in the audience were aghast at her insolence. The Emperor himself was rocked and resorted to babbling semi-coherently about school safety issues.

But before we visit this storyline, let's take a look at the delivery of the Q-gram last weekend that was discussed by several speakers. For some bizarre reason, it was disclosed that pictures are taken of the houses that receive a Q-gram. Do me a favor and leave me off the distribution list.

The shocking revelation that the class of 2008 did poorly on the mathematics section of the PSSA was not shocking. The only people that were shocked were the dilettantes who bungee in to piously shed mock public tears about our education woes and then obliviously bungee out again until the next pseudo-crisis arises.

I am as disappointed in the math score as anyone is, but the truth of the matter is that real watchers and supporters of the Morrisville school district knew this already, because they were briefed by Dr. Beth Yonson.

The percentile scores for the class of 2008 were 28% scoring proficient or higher in mathematics. In reading, it was 58%. In writing, it was 86%. We have work to do in math, but it looks like the reading and writing scores are pretty good.

There was also a speaker who did an analysis of the complete scores for the entire state. Again, while the math scores were disappointing, they were not wildly out of synch with the rest of the state.

Kudos to Robin Reithmeyer, who had the audacity to openly proclaim that the Emperor had no clothing. She laid out her case rather well (does anyone have a copy of her statement?) and had several pointed exchanges with His Highness.

Then came the insurrection. Robin pointed put that the Emperor was trying to spend money without a comprehensive plan, and that if he has allowed the original December RFP for bids to have gone out without meddling with it, the board would be reviewing the bids already, not just the process. She also properly noted that the items listed as code violations are longstanding items that are grandfathered in. She further noted that the bids will be opened next week and spending the money now without a plan was foolish.

My understanding is that the Emperor melted down quite like the Wicked Witch of the West when Dorothy doused her. He babbled about fires in the school and how the children were in danger.

Isn't it curious how these same items existed last year and candidate Hellmann didn't want them addressed, and now that he's holding on to personal responsibility for it, he's the Mother Theresa of repairs?

The $200,000 in repairs only covered the high school, not the two elementary schools. These schools are even worse off than the high school.

Speaking of the elementary schools, The Emperor arranged for his buddies to do another study, this time at the elementary schools. This time, he even managed to mention it to the board before the study started.

Both of these items failed to be approved, by a 3-3 tie, with Hellmann, Worob and Farrell wanting to plunge along without a plan, and Reithmeyer, Kemp, and Frankenfield wanting a comprehensive plan. **NOTE ADDED: I should mention that Bill Farrell has a deep and genuine interest in the safety of the schools and the students, and I believe that he is more interested in safe schools "right now" so that our kids are safe.**

On another note, I don't understand all of this, so if someone has the info, please share, but apparently Hellmann has a serious personal issue with the banking institution holding the district's money. A move out of here was not approved as well.

Then came the revelation that Billy-Boy stuck his hand in the cookie jar. Again.

More to come.

Just Another Night in Morrisville, Part I

A line like that conjures up a quiet, placid, gentle evening. Bird call, dog bark, cat meow, and cricket chirp, all combining to create their symphony of the night. Well, just like Dr. Johnny Fever transitioning the formerly quiet music station into WKRP by dragging the needle across the LP (kids, ask your fossilized parents to explain what I just said), let's take a look at last night's school board business meeting where the fun and laughs were non-stop.

Thank you to everyone who dropped me a line with their take on last night's meeting. There was a general agreement on one thing: What is the Emperor thinking?

First, let's start off with the rumor that the defeasement cost $2 million dollars. I can categorically report that information is 100% completely false. It was actually about $2.4 million. No one knew about it except the Emperor until it was all over. The public and even a few of the board members pleaded for judicious deliberations at the January 23 meeting, but the defeasement express plowed onward. We now know the true cost. Between the previous feasibility studies and the current debt retirement costs, Morrisville is now the proud possessor of a $5 million dollar sports complex in the rear of the high school. The only good thing this did was provide a closure for the "squandering" squawkers to cease their pseudo-frugal spending chant. No matter what the Gibson board spent as an entity on studies and analyses, the Hellmann board, single handedly, spent more.

A second, and slightly more bizarre note to the defeasement, is that the Emperor will not "dumb down" a defeasement cost presentation for the board or the public. It's too complicated for us mere non-CPA mortals to comprehend. However, he will invite us to feast at the right hand of power and trek to his office where he will personally lead us through the magical mystery money tour and show us his spreadsheet. There's something about that that sounds vaguely unsettling in a sidewalk flasher type of way...

The new board secretary, Marlys Mihok, was not in attendance last night. Also missing in action are the minutes from the January 2 special meeting; the January 9 agenda meeting; the January 30 special meeting; and the February 13 agenda meeting. So now the Morrisville School District will pay for someone else to do her job. This is in addition to the stipend that she receives for not doing it and is keeping, despite past board practice of donating it back to the financially strapped community. It figures. One of the few times that I want the Emperor to exercise his financial fix-it magic pixie dust, he's asleep on the job, voting to allow Marlys to continue piling up missing minutes faster than a state work crew on a coffee break.

Then, it got interesting. With reliable toadies Mihok, Angry Al and Gloria Heater not in attendance, the first cracks in the Emperor's invincibility aura appeared.

The Emperor was ready to deny tenure to a dedicated and caring teacher if it involved a raise for her. Even if it did (and it does not, until next school year), that's a very petty attitude, but perfectly consistent for the Emperor. Congrats to our MHS vocals teacher who gained tenure last evening.

The Hellmann Building Report, formerly known as the defeasement fig leaf, was used as the rock solid cornerstone for an emergency safety repairs resolution to spend an open ended amount of money (only some $200,000 was identified, the rest was "to be determined"). At first the Emperor wanted to table the motion because his vote counting skills showed three storm troopers missing from the front lines. When the board refused to table, the Emperor became passionate about spending the money because the "professional engineers" identified these issues. Very passionate. Extremely passionate. So passionate that one has to wonder what might be in it for him.

This is not a swipe at the engineering firm. They are a well respected company with a long track record of success. But we have noted the lapses in the report, including that it is, by the candid admission of the firm, incomplete. What did you expect for $2500? A full report complete with Power Point slides?

So then, a voice of reason started to speak. It was persistent, clear, and unambiguous. Robin Reithmeyer wanted to know enough information so that she could make up her own mind, rather than relying on royal pronouncements of whim to guide her vote. She even mentioned an email that the Emperor had sent to her instructing her to keep quiet and just cooperate.

The plot thickens. More later.

Do We Need To Know This For The Test?

Nice to see that all our kids are well educated, according to USAToday . *sigh*. Where have you gone, Millard Fillmore? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Teens losing touch with common cultural and historical references

Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job.

Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them.

Twenty-five years after the federal report A Nation at Risk challenged U.S. public schools to raise the quality of education, the study finds high schoolers still lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of "a complete education." And, its authors fear, the nation's current focus on improving basic reading and math skills in elementary school might only make matters worse, giving short shrift to the humanities even if children can read and do math.

"If you think it matters whether or not kids have common historical touchstones and whether, at some level, we feel like members of a common culture, then familiarity with this knowledge matters a lot," says American Enterprise Institute researcher Rick Hess, who wrote the study.

Among 1,200 students surveyed:

•43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900.

•52% could identify the theme of 1984.

•51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism.

In all, students earned a C in history and an F in literature, though the survey suggests students do well on topics schools cover. For instance, 88% knew the bombing of Pearl Harbor led the USA into World War II, and 97% could identify Martin Luther King Jr. as author of the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Fewer (77%) knew Uncle Tom's Cabin helped end slavery a century earlier.

"School has emphasized Martin Luther King, and everybody teaches it, and people are learning it," says Chester Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. "What a better thing it would be if people also had the Civil War part and the civil rights part, and the Harriet Tubman part and the Uncle Tom's Cabin part."

The findings probably won't sit well with educators, who say record numbers of students are taking college-level Advanced Placement history, literature and other courses in high school.

"Not all is woe in American education," says Trevor Packer of The College Board, which oversees Advanced Placement.

The study's release today in Washington also serves as a sort of coming out for its sponsor, Common Core, a new non-partisan group pushing for the liberal arts in public school curricula. Its leadership includes a North Carolina fifth-grade teacher, an author of history and science textbooks, a teachers union leader and a former top official in the George H.W. Bush administration.

Did Defeasement Cost $2 Million?

This is a rumor I'd really like to prove false. In comments to another post today, the question was posed regarding the cost of defeasement. We knew that some $25,000 went to the Hellmann crony financial firm as payment. Here we have an anonymous poster suggesting that the real costs were some two million dollars.

Can we get some real cost numbers on this? I know a certain councilman and school board spouse would complain that this is squandering if this is true.

Blogger Jon said...

Speaking of frugal spending, is there any status information on the bond defeasement that can be shared? Have the bonds been defeased? If so, how much did the defeasement cost, just the $29,000 fee for the defeasement company?

With interest rates dropping, I'm concerned that the investments made to defease the bonds won't cover everything, and that taxpayers will end up holding the bag for the difference for years to come. I hope my concerns are unfounded, especially since this was not mentioned to the public at either at the January 23 board meeting when the board almost voted to defease, or the January 30special meeting when they did.

February 26, 2008 10:22 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hear that the defeasement cost over $2 million, and that all Board members except his highness had no idea it would cost this amount. Lovely.

February 26, 2008 1:41 PM

21st Century Funding Cuts-Action Needed

I just received this urgent news tip. If you have the opportunity, please help.

We had many of the club advisors work on letters with their students. There is no better testimonial than the words out of the mouths of our children. We will be sending a large packet of letters, and petitions to each of our local representatives. Additionally, we have asked all the school district employees, and the agencies that partner with 21st Century to call the offices of Patrick Murphy, Bob Casey, and Arlen Specter. The flyer below has numbers to the local and Washington D.C. Offices

We feel that the loss, or reduction of after school programs would be devastating not just to our students, but the millions of students participating in 21st Century programming nationwide. Though we have not been notified that we would among the programs affected, neither have we received assurances that we are safe.

Please consider contacting our representatives to have your voice heard. Feel free to pass these phone numbers to anyone who may be interested in helping us to be heard.


URGENT! YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING 21ST CENTURY FUNDING CUTS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: February 25th and 26th –
National Call-In Days to Show Support for After School Programs.

President Bush is proposing a devastating cut to after school funds and a drastic restructure of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. This would mean that after school programs such as Morrisville’s would not have funding needed to remain in operation. If you want to show opposition to this proposal, we are urging you to participate in a National Call-In Campaign to support after school programs on February 25th and 26th.

On February 26th the US Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings will be testifying before the House of Appropriations Committee responsible for after school funding and we want Members of Congress to know that their constituents do not support the President’s proposal to cut and reconfigure the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program.

Together we can send a message that after school programs are critically important to the success of our children and youth and that the President’s proposal should be rejected. Encourage your partners, colleagues and friends to call in n behalf of the millions of youth who need a safe, productive and inspiring place to go to during the after school hours.

Congressman Patrick Murphy –
215-826-1963 (Bristol Office) 202-225-4276 (Washington Office)

Senator Bob Casey –
215-405-9660 (Philadelphia Office) 202-228-0604 (Washington Office)

Senator Arlen Specter –
215-597-7200 (Philadelphia Office) 202-224-4254 (Washington Office)

Parent Action Alert

Here's a reminder about the upcoming school board meetings on this Wednesday night, February 27.

The Education Committee and Human Resources Committee meetings are at 6:30 and 7:00 in the G-hall conference room.
The business meeting starts at 7:30 in the LGI.

Parents: the future of your children is being driven simply by dollars and cents. Decisions will be made solely on this basis and will not address parental concerns. According to people who attended the last parent advisory meeting, the Emperor made it clear that the goals that the parents have for their children carry less weight than the wishes of the taxpayers.

This is not automatically bad. Frugal spending is a good thing. However, while the digital-style process of adding columns of numbers proceeds without errors, the analog-style education process is hardly as neat and tidy. There are costs and allowances required by law, common process, and even just plain decency that defy neat quantification. Remember how the Emperor wants to nickel and dime the special education kids? Your kids are next.

I see the other parents in the schools frequently, volunteering, assisting, or even just keeping up to date. I have not encountered a current school board member or a member of the criticism groups doing the same thing. This is an open call to anyone who can point to the critics of the Morrisville schools who put their money where their mouth is and actually volunteer their time in the schools.

Not a News Flash: Bucks Property Tax System Broken

This is hardly a breaking news bulletin, but it goes to show that it's not just Morrisville in a tax crunch. Maybe the people screaming about their taxes need to remember that their elected council members in Morrisville Borough, Bucks County commissioners, and Pennsylvania state representatives and senators should be the target of their "don't tax me out of my house" anger, not the students of the Morrisville school district.

Morrisville residents would most likely see their property taxes raised as the result of a county reassessment, simply going by the idea that the newer communities are generally over-assessed and the older communities are generally under-assessed, even though your individual millage may vary.

I particularly like the point made below where the less than thriving Doylestown of the 1980s had a failing business base and higher taxes. The residents built up the town, including...wait for it...building new schools!... I bolded this section to make it easier to read. And to think of the opportunity we passed up as a community.

Broken: Bucks County's property tax system is decades old

Bucks County’s system for setting property taxes is creaking with age.

Even so, county officials — elected and appointed, Democrat and Republican – have no plans to change it.

Often homeowners who paid the same price for their houses have drastically different tax bills, sometimes thousands of dollars different.

A review by The Intelligencer of nearly 13,000 home sales between May 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007 shows the disparity is widespread.

Take, for example, two Doylestown homes that sold for about $430,000:

Taxes for a newly constructed home on Woodbridge Drive are $6,701. A few streets away, an Oakland Avenue home that dates back to the late 1800s has a tax bill of $1,638.

For residents who live on these streets, that translates to a difference of more than $5,000 a year.

In New Hope, the owner of a West Bridge Street home that sold for $700,000 last year paid $3,891 in taxes. That’s half the $8,087 bill paid by the owner of a New Street home that sold for less — $684,000.

The problem typically isn’t as pronounced in lower-priced properties, but it still exists.

In Bensalem Township, the owner of a Williams Street home paid $1,065 in taxes, which is nearly one-third the $2,929 tax bill paid by the owner of a Virginia Avenue home.

The sale prices? Almost identical at $122,500 and $122,100. The percentage of assessment-to-sale value? For one, it’s 5.2 percent and 14.4 for the other while state guidelines suggest it should be somewhere in the middle at 9.1.

It is not hard to find examples like this in virtually every municipality in the county.

While Bucks officials point out that, countywide, the margin of error in its assessments is within acceptable standards, that is likely little consolation to individual homeowners who are paying hundreds or thousands more in taxes for a home worth just as much as one up the road.

The analysis of these sales also suggests that newer homes are more often over assessed and older homes are more likely under assessed.

For example, Bedminster, Buckingham, Hilltown, Richland, Warrington, and Warwick, all communities that have had a significant amount of new construction, showed many more over-assessed than under-assessed homes. Those over-assessed homeowners are paying, on average, $530 to $1,255 more in property taxes.

In contrast, the older communities of Bristol, Doylestown Borough, Falls, Morrisville, New Hope and Yardley had many more under-assessed homes, translating to average tax savings to those residents of $611 to $1,819.

Old vs. new

Part of the problem is the age of each home. Across the state, taxes are based on property assessments, which are increasingly inaccurate the more time that passes between reassessments.

In Bucks, the last countywide property reassessment was in 1972. Over the years many complicating factors have put things out of whack.

For people who live in older homes in places where sale prices have skyrocketed, the skewed system is good news. Homeowners end up paying taxes based on old, outdated, and very likely low assessments. They save money — sometimes thousands.

But those who live in newly constructed homes often have higher assessments and bear much more of the tax burden than their neighbors.

The situation has spawned a number of lawsuits, here and elsewhere. The outcomes could decide the issue once and for all and force substantial change in Pennsylvania.

As homeowners who live on the older Oakland Avenue and newer Woodbridge Drive — although not in the two homes mentioned above — the Hevners and the Slebodnicks have perfect seats for the old vs. new debate.

Bob Hevner and his wife bought their Oakland Avenue home in 1984 when the borough held few signs of today’s quaint downtown that draws people from New York and Philadelphia in search of shopping and fine dining.

Back then, they said, half the stores were closed on Main Street. In the two decades since then, the taxes and commerce from residents like the Hevners built a thriving borough.

“We paid to build the schools,” Bob Hevner said, standing in his living room on a chilly winter evening. “We paid to create the fire department. We paid to make all the improvements that make Doylestown what it is today.”

They bought their home for less than $80,000, according to county tax records, but larger homes on their block now sell for many times that figure. Although he concedes their home has appreciated, it wouldn’t fill a fourth of the square footage in the large, new homes that have cropped up in Central Bucks.

“Doylestown is not a wealthy community,” said the retired chemical engineer.

Carl and Elsie Slebodnick live a few blocks away on Woodbridge Drive in the new Lantern Hill development in the borough. They don’t think they should have to subsidize residents whose assessments reflect sale prices of the early 1970s.

In 2003, the retirees downsized, selling their four-bedroom Buckingham home that sat on an acre, and purchased the three-bedroom Lantern Hill townhouse that required less up keep. Homeowners’ association fees cover things like snow removal and landscaping.

Carl Slebodnick successfully petitioned for a reassessment of a home in 1991, so he is savvy about taxes, but nothing could soften the blow of tax bills for their newly constructed townhome, which sold for about $360,000 four years ago but would likely go for more today. Their tax bill on a $49,120 assessment is $6,707, which is more than double the tax bill paid across town by the Hevners, county records show.

“We did expect them to be higher, but we didn’t expect them to be as high as they were,” he said.

While the value for the development’s 117 condos and townhouses has gone up, it’s not enough to make up for 35 years of appreciation on old homes, he said.

“In spite of (our homes’) appreciation,” he said, “other homes have appreciated too. We’re still way out of whack with where we should be.”

Assessment vs. market value

But how skewed are assessments in Bucks County and how widespread is the inequity?

The Intelligencer attempted to answer these questions by analyzing a 16-month snapshot of sales data.

The figures do not show how tax bills stack up on homes that have not sold during this window and some homes listed may have been reassessed, due to home improvements, since the county started providing the data last year.

By using a state-set percentage called the “common level ratio” as a benchmark, the 12,447 home sales can be used to compare tax rates. The figure represents the difference between a home’s market value and its assessed value. It is used to set the tax assessment for new construction.

The 2007 figure won’t be finalized until June, but the 2006 figure is 9.1, meaning your assessment should represent 9.1 percent of your home’s market value.

If all homes in the county appreciated at the same rate, the assessment would never have to change. Even as prices went up, everybody’s assessment would keep the same ratio to their market value.

But because, as expected in any real estate market, different parts of the county have appreciated at different rates, not everybody’s assessment is equitable.

In fact, it’s not uncommon for a home to be assessed at a rate as low as 5 percent of market value.

Yet new construction seems to be bearing the bulk of the tax burden — with assessments as high as 15 percent of market value.

Chadds Ford Attorney Donald Weiss, who used to represent Bucks homeowners in assessment appeals, says part of the reason might be that the extraordinary number of new homes that have been built in Bucks County distorts the formula used to set their assessments.

Thousands of new homes have been added to the tax rolls each year for nearly 20 years and their assessments, set by a formula designed to find an average, are then used to help set the next year’s average.

A true average would look at all the homes in the county and what their market value is each year compared to their assessment, but the only way to do that is with a reassessment.

“You don’t have to be a mathematician to see how unfair it is,” he said. “I think this is what the people have to be seeing. Some people are over-assessed compared with their neighbor.”

The county uses other averages and formulas to show that, overall, county assessments are within or close to industry-accepted ranges.

Within those countywide averages, however, are variations between individual properties that can be striking.

That’s because the difference between a home assessed at 9 percent of market value and 8 percent may not appear significant, but it can have a dramatic impact on a tax bill.

Richard Almy, a Phoenix-based consultant who has studied property values in Allegheny County, said even small differences in ratios translate to thousands of dollars in inequitable taxes.

When assessments are close to 100 percent of market value, those small differences are less noticeable. But when, over the course of years, assessments drop to only a small percentage of real value, the impact is magnified.

“Less than 100 percent of market value is a graveyard of assessors’ mistakes,” he said, quoting a common turn of phrase for people in his line of work. “If you’re down around 9.1, one percentage point difference translates into a fairly huge difference in what you pay in taxes.”

Meeting the standards

Over the years and even until now, the county commissioners in Bucks have defended the current assessment system. While they may not go as far as to say it is fair or even good, they claim most alternatives would be worse. Reassessing, they have said, will be too expensive, or it will force people out of their homes. They have argued that the problem really is the property tax, and the county should just wait until the state gets rid of that.

Still, the present commissioners and their lawyer attempt to justify assessments by pointing to measurements calculated by the state — “coefficient of dispersion” and “price-related differential” — to make the case that now is not the time for a costly and time-consuming reassessment.

In fact, county solicitor Guy Matthews says Bucks is among the best-scoring counties on the PRD scale.

“Bucks County is in a very favorable position on that,” he said.

Asked how such a disparity between new construction and old can exist, Matthews said over-assessed homeowners might appeal to the Assessment Board of Appeals to get their taxes lowered, but the owners of under-assessed properties are unlikely to appeal.

“Where property is under-assessed,” he said, “we can’t do anything about it because that would be illegal spot assessment.”

Illegal spot reassessment is exactly what some have criticized the county for doing a dozen years ago.

Richard Brosius, the county’s chief appraiser, said in a deposition given as part of a pending lawsuit against the county, that his office reassessed about 18,000 mostly townhomes and condos in a five-year period during the early 1990s because they were over assessed.

These changes can then impact the state-set average, as the re-assessed homes, with their lower assessments, are sold.

Tax experts who hear Bucks hasn’t reassessed in 35 years have a hard time believing that assessments — and therefore taxes — could possibly be fair.

Tom Connelly, formerly of the State Tax Equalization Board, said the reality that new home owners in a county like Bucks are paying a higher tax rate than older home owners “creates class war.”

The only solution is a countywide reassessment, he said.

“One of the unique features of Bucks County is they don’t have a major city so their values are for the most part evenly distributed,” he said. “It would appear that in the southern part of county they are not getting the appreciation of real estate values. As compared to more recently developed areas where there is still appreciation.”

Montgomery County, whose reassessment is only a decade old, is an example of why states are increasingly switching to annual reassessment.

The county implemented new assessments in 1998 at a cost of about $8 million, according to the head of the assessor’s office Thomas Brauner. Before that, the last time they had reassessed was 1978.

The ratio between sale and market value is down to 50.7, but it’s unclear how many properties stray from that number. Brauner has declined to answer questions about whether it’s time to reassess, as has Bucks’ Brosius.

A Band-Aid

Commissioners Charley Martin and Jim Cawley have consistently rejected doing a reassessment because they say the state’s system of taxing individuals based on the property they own is simply unfair.

They don’t want to put a Band-Aid on the problem.

Martin, a Republican, has gone so far as to say that people moving into pricey homes built in the county essentially deserve to pay higher taxes because they’re the ones putting a strain on infrastructure.

“If the new people coming in to the county are paying a little more that’s fine with me,” he said at an August public meeting.

However, a group of retirees who have lived in Bucks for years and then bought new homes in age-restricted communities are convinced the inequitable tax system means they pay disproportionately high bills too. They even sued the county to prove it.

Like the incumbent commissioners, Democrats who ran for commissioner last year did not support reassessment.

“We didn’t because it wouldn’t be fair to people living in homes who are just making ends meet and then would not be able to make ends meet,” said incoming Commissioner Diane Marseglia. “Coming up with a reassessment would not be equitable.”

Marseglia said she wouldn’t be able to afford her Middletown home if there was a countywide reassessment. She would like to see the county convene a nonpartisan committee of residents to study the issue for six months.

Across the state, elected officials have been reluctant to order reassessments. They view raising taxes — especially on seniors — as tantamount to political suicide.

But a reassessment doesn’t automatically mean higher taxes. As assessments go up, millage rates must come down. In a reassessment year, the revenue local taxing bodies receive from property taxes must remain essentially neutral. Individual properties owners might end up paying more in taxes because their assessments are artificially low now, but others should see their taxes fall as they no longer have to subsidize those under-assessed properties.

Good News on a Morrisville Student

Congrats to Andrew Brake!

From The Trenton Times
Auto insurance company awards $20K scholarship
Friday, February 22, 2008

WEST WINDSOR -- A Wyncote, Pa., high school student was cho sen from 300 applicants to receive a $20,000 tuition scholarship from the New Jersey-based Citizen United Reciprocal Exchange auto insurance company that has offices in the township.

Andrew "Jordy" Freed of Cheltenham High School is the third recipient of the "Pay It Forward" Scholarship, which is based on the 2000 movie of the same name and promotes contributions to society for no personal gain.

The four other finalists were Andrew Brake of Morrisville High School; David Karas of Notre Dame High School in Lawrence; Joshua Suslak from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South and Kimberly Critelli from The College of New Jersey in Ewing.

Each of the five finalists will receive a plaque and $1,000 from CURE for textbooks as well as other gifts.

Freed focused his winning essay on organizing benefit concerts that raise money for charitable organizations such as tsunami relief.

Morrisville Schizophrenia

Once again, Morrisville gets the opportunity to star as its own worst enemy. The headline for the story in the BCCT today is Residents split over Gateway Center.

We're always split. I'm not condemning partisanship--Biblically, sharpening steel upon steel is recommended because it provides a keener edge, and so it is with ideas. The more the ideas are worked upon by more and more people, the better the ideas can be.

However, we here in Morrisville have the uncanny ability to use this sharpening capacity for cross-purposes. Instead of buckling down to the admittedly hard work of making things happen, we're left with the same type of petty sibling bickering that used to have my father threatening to pull the car over.

Time and time again, we see "residents split" in the headline, whether it be for the late new school, Gateway, or whatever dispute du jour. I find it fascinating how the same people who bemoaned the high taxes that accompanied the new school and contributed to its demise, are the same people who do not want the new development to lower those same taxes.

Why would anyone in their right mind want to move to such a contentious little town, where anything new is greeted with derisive scorn and no one is a longtime resident until they've been here for over five decades? Imagine the sign at the foot of the Calhoun Street bridge--"Welcome to Morrisville. Now get out."

Sorry Mr. Mayor--your explanation notwithstanding, the Borough Council has a large share of the ignominy factor here for the nearly complete inaction and lack of support for a major new business initiative. After two years, this new building should be soliciting new tenants, not requesting approval actions. The fig leaf of legality aside, egos and hubris on the part of borough leaders have delayed this process. The sliver of land that is needed from Williamson Park doesn't destroy anything but the goose latrine area in the former leaf dump. The toll bridge commission sliver of land is ready to be acquired, but only if the borough council signals a go-ahead. Stop this squandering of this opportunity and settle this once and for all.

Residents split over Gateway Center

Disagreement continues over early plans for the Morrisville Gateway Center.

Some residents say the borough needs the extra tax base the proposed commercial office building at the corner of Bridge Street and Delmorr Avenue could bring to the borough.

Others say there are places better suited for the building, which calls for the purchase or lease of two acres of unused land at the southern end of Williamson Park.

“Please don't infringe on the little bit of green space that we have,” resident Herbert Brookes told the borough council Tuesday night.

Resident Sharon Hughes said there are other areas that wouldn't require using any park land.

“One of the best things Morrisville has is a park along the river,” she said.

The executive vice president of Penn Jersey Real Properties, the Morrisville-based developer that proposed the idea in May 2006, disagreed.

“There is no other place. This is the best location,” said Dan Jones, the executive vice president, who claimed that the building would be the “cornerstone to redevelopment in Morrisville.”

But there is a list of people who desperately want the Gateway Center, a proposed 50,000-square-foot building in its infant stages that Penn Jersey claims could bring between 400 and 600 jobs to the borough and revitalize the business district. Only sketches have been given to borough council and no formal plans have been submitted yet.

Resident Judy Miller said the new office complex could lower the tax burden on residents and add a boost for other businesses in the downtown district. She urged the council to enter into a non-binding agreement of sale with the developer.

“Taxpayers desperately need relief,” Gayle Haug said.

Council President Nancy Sherlock said the council would not make any decisions on the matter, but residents could expect the board to specifically address the matter “in the very near future.”

“Unfortunately, right now ... there's nothing council is legally allowed to discuss,” said Mayor Thomas Wisnosky. Officials have said they can't comment on the proposal because no preliminary plans have been submitted.

What's The Beef?

Seems like the Morrisville students are now part of the nationwide recall of tainted beef products.

However, the best part of the article are the four (at present) comments posted by readers.

Schools in Bucks part of beef recall

The state Agriculture Department identified six Bucks County school systems among 196 in Pennsylvania that have received recalled beef from a California packing plant.

The Pennsbury, Bensalem, Bristol Township, Morrisville and Quakertown Area public school districts and the Woods Schools in Langhorne received recalled products under the National School Lunch program, according to the state. Also on the list of nearby districts: Philadelphia, Abington and Lower Merion.

The state is urging officials at the schools to check their supplies and follow recall instructions if any of the meats are in storage. Agriculture officials noted Tuesday there is "very low risk to human health" in the recall of products from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packaging Co. of Chino, Calif. The company voluntarily recalled 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef products on Sunday.

Information on the recall can be found at www.fsis.usda.gov on the Web.

February 19, 2008 10:15 PM
Comments To This Article:

* Fleura - How could this happen????
(02/19/2008 )
These are our children, our future, who have received this recalled product.

??Recalled as a precaution?? I know of no business that would choose to loose that much money as a precaution. THe typical response is - cross your fingers and hope that this goes away without incident - I am a teacher in one of the effected schools and saw many sick children over the past 2 weeks. Some classrooms were half empty.

?? Just a precaution?? Who are they kidding?

* David Evan - Thank free market economics without controls
(02/19/2008 )
Thank free market economics without controls for the state of the economy and the compromises on our safety and well being. Next time, think before you vote.

* - Fleura
(02/19/2008 )
Fleura, if you're really a teacher, I'm more frightened by your misuse of "effected" than the beef recall. It should be "affected". Sheesh.

* - Smitty
(02/19/2008 )
Fleura- "lose", not "loose". You ARE a teacher!

The Emperor's Job Approval

It's time to retire the Emperor's job approval poll. This was the poll that received the most participation, with 42 votes. The only real note of interest was the four votes from stop the schoolers.

Heroic and wise?

Wow--pretty amazing.

I guess the tyranny of the Emperor today is not good enough. We need to relive the past again. GET OVER IT!

If the racist remark was made, it should be addressed. Are you suggesting otherwise? Why would a statute of limitations apply?

Who ever said that contacting Pennsbury was a bad thing? The old board did contact Pennsbury and again Pennsbury declined. That was for a MERGER, not for a contract farming scheme. There is a difference. A merger would mean some sort of representation on the Pennsbury school board, even if it was only one seat. Under a contact farm out plan, community representation would be nothing.

The catastrophe is yet to come. Stay tuned.

NOTE ADDED: I apologize to the readers for providing the time and space to reprint this from the BCCT. When you search on the writer's name, there is a veritable cornucopia of opinions and rebuttals printed. The words "outrageous" and "convoluted" and similar words appear often. I will not provide her the space again.

Heroic and wise

Thumbs down to the Courier Times for its subversion of the miracle of democracy that happened in Morrisville when its residents, following the true meaning of Summerseat, the Revolutionary-era mansion in the center of town, rose up against a tyrannical school board president who treated our people like dirt!

And now, this same person claims from “exile” that she overheard an opponent of her agenda make a racist remark over a year ago.

Last year, under her leadership, the old Morrisville school board sent out feelers to Pennsbury about taking our students. This was reported in the Courier. Now the paper screams foul that the new board has contacted other school districts.

What would Morrisville's home and business owners do now if that unnecessary new school had been approved and taxes thus rose astronomically while the present mortgage/economic crisis happening?

We should applaud the heroism and common sense wisdom of Morrisville and its new school board for saving our town from complete catastrophe!

Gloria del Vecchio
Morrisville

School Renovation Questionnaire

I'm going to throw this out and see if anyone might pick it up and run with it. I've received several emails mentioning a school renovations questionnaire but I have not seen anything definitive about it and no one will speak on the record about it. I've been told that it was presented to a select few and that the questions are somewhat misleading and intentionally steer the respondent into providing the responses desired.

That however, is not a problem. I expect the results of any survey requested of this board to be spun and presented in the direction desired. Before anyone quacks at me about saying this, this criticism is a blanket observation for any elected official or group. However, my trust level with the Stop the School people's board has eroded with each royal pronouncement from the Emperor's lips.

I've also been told that it contains egregious spelling errors and is formatted in a manner that is amateurish in general, but is doubly embarrassing as a representation of a school system.

The Sunday Funny Papers

OK, so digital is not quite like getting your hands smudged with newsprint Sunday mornings. But it's close. Just don't smudge the pixels.

Luann and teenage learning styles

Comic Relief

The Pickles comic strip.

I wonder what his PSSA scores were like.

Another Feasibility Study...

I just wonder what the Q will say about this. Isn't it just squandering the district's money to do ANOTHER study?

NOTICE
The School District of Borough of Morrisville will accept sealed bids on a proposal for a school facility study of all currently used buildings and grounds of the District. Bids will be received until 10:00 a.m. prevailing time, March 7, 2008 at which time they will be opened and read publicly in Conference Room F-10 of the Middle/ Senior High School, 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, PA.
A walk through of the facilities is required. Interested parties may obtain a copy of the Request for Proposal and to schedule a walk through by contacting Reba Dunford, CPA, Business Administrator, School District of Borough of Morrisville, 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, PA 19067.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary

Appeared in: Bucks County Courier Times on Saturday, 02/16/2008

Are you a "Fixer" or a "Disposer"?

Thanks to borows, who posed a very interesting characterization of the schools situation in Morrisville.

Borows has left a new comment on your post "Why Are We Here?":

Seems to me there are two camps in Morrisville.

There are the "FIXERS" who say 'We see there is a problem with the facilities and with the educational programs, so let us expend energy and money to fix them because we know that whatever we do will benefit the community as a whole'

Then there are the "DISPOSERS" who say 'We see there is a problem with the facilities and with the educational programs, but it is better to be rid of the problem all together because if we expend energy and money trying to make it better, it will not benefit the community more than it will cost the community'.

The common ground is the problems with the district. Maybe the dialogue should have started there.

The differences are in how to solve the problems. Fix or Dispose.

A question should be asked of each school of thought.

For the Fixers: Is there any amount of energy and money that can solve the problems? The next question would be: Is it practical to assume that this amount of energy and money can be generated in Morrisville?

For the Disposers: Given the social and legal constraints and responsibilities to educate our children, will the problems be solved by disposing of them from Morrisville all together? The next question would be: What is the cost to the community to dispose of the problem, and what would the cost to the community be if disposal fails to solve the problems?

So I leave the floor open for public comment sans the 45 minute limit. Which are you, why, and what do you propose?

I'm definitely a fixer. A whole Morrisville is much better than a partitioned one. The money and energy can certainly be generated right here, right now. I do question if the collective willpower is available to be generated to back up the "we can do it."

It Ain't Just Us!

Maybe we should keep some perspective here. It's not just Morrisville where school taxes are too high. It's everywhere. Let's keep in mind that the fight for quality educational facilities in Morrisville and school funding in general are certainly related, but are two separate and distinct issues.

Don't forget to look at Gov. Rendell's budget plan that includes an increase for education.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Tue, Feb. 12, 2008

School budgets likely to feel sting of housing credit woes

By Nancy Zuckerbrod

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - School budgets have seemed to defy gravity in recent years - going up steadily. But school board members from across the country say they are bracing for leaner times forced by the economic downturn.

School board members, gathered in Washington last week for an annual conference, said shortfalls in state budgets coupled with pessimistic predictions about local revenues were forcing them to look for ways to trim next year's budgets, which they are working on now.

About half the states face projected budget shortfalls, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group.

The downturn in the housing market has led to a drop in state revenue from sales taxes associated with construction materials, furniture and other goods, said Liz McNichol, senior fellow at the center. She said job losses around the country could lead to a reduction in income taxes collected by states.

At the same time, economists predict local revenues will drop over the next few years as real estate values decline or stagnate, generating less in local property taxes for school budgets.

Board members from Virginia to Alaska attending the National School Boards Association's legislative conference said they were considering rolling back benefits to school employees, reducing staff, and limiting tutoring and extracurricular activities available to students.

Among the most worried were board members from California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed more than $4 billion in cuts to schools.

"It would decimate education as it exists right now," said Paul Chatman, a school board member from Ocean View, Calif.

Chatman said some of the district's new teachers, who are not protected by seniority rules, will lose their jobs, even if the governor's cuts are scaled back as expected.

A projected shortfall in Minnesota's budget has education officials there worried, said Jackie Magnuson, a board member from the Minneapolis suburb of Rosemount.

She said school districts around the state would likely try to persuade voters to approve increased taxes for school funding, but she said such ballot initiatives would not pass easily.

"They're not going to be in any real particular hurry to run and help support the schools and pay for increased taxes for you, even if they'd like to, because they're already up to their eyeballs [in bills]," she said.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Rendell's 2008-09 budget proposes a $291 million increase in basic education funding. But a study commissioned by the Pennsylvania legislature and released in November says education in the state is underfunded by $4.6 billion.

In New Jersey, Gov. Corzine has proposed a $530 million increase in state aid to schools, but coupled it with a change in the state-aid formula that has upset many urban districts.

Around the nation, even wealthy school districts are feeling the pinch.

In booming Fairfax County, Va., school officials are contemplating cuts such as requiring students to pick up their own tabs for Advanced Placement tests.

It's all a reversal from recent years, when home values in many parts of the country skyrocketed and schools pocketed more property-tax revenue. It's unclear how much property values could come down, and the timing could vary nationwide as homes are reassessed.

"The watchword right now is 'wait and see,' " said Michael Griffith, a school finance analyst at the Education Commission of the States, based in Denver.

School budgets typically grow at rates higher than inflation. Griffith said this year some budgets may grow more slowly, or stay level.

The belt tightening also comes as schools face mounting pressure to boost student achievement under state initiatives and the federal No Child Left Behind law, which sanctions schools that fail to raise scores and reduce learning gaps between minority and white students and low-income children and wealthier ones.

Why Are We Here?

There's a letter in the BCCT today posing open and honest questions that deserves a reply.

What's the big deal?

I'm not originally from these parts, so I should start by admitting that I don't understand the big brouhaha over the possibility of “farming out” Morrisville's high school students to other nearby districts.

I voted against the shiny new school because if I could afford those taxes, I sure wouldn't have bought such a tiny house here. At the same time, though, with little ones who will start school in a few years, I was disheartened to read in the Courier Times, too late, that Morrisville High School students perform among the worst in the area.

I suddenly envied anyone who had the right street address to fall into the Pennsbury School District. How many of my neighbors had to pay for parochial school so their kids could succeed? Sadder still, how many couldn't afford it?

Now, to hear there is a chance that my kids could attend a more successful school and that it may also be cost efficient for us as taxpayers — I'm thrilled!

As far as being “outcasts,” I don't see why. Rural kids were bused from 45 minutes away to attend my high school and they fit in just fine.

Pennsbury is a diverse school. What makes our kids so different from folks who live a few streets over?

Part of the difference is the big vs. small. I see parents walk in to the school and the teachers and staff know exactly who they are and who their child is without prompting. While that will happen to an extent in any school system, it is a much tighter and closer bond between the teacher and student here in Morrisville. I went to a regional high school taking one hour bus rides both ways. Reading or doing homework on those buses was nearly impossible between the other kids and road conditions. I explicitly chose Morrisville because it was a small school district. I wasted more time on those buses than I care to remember, and my mother spent even more time than she cared to remember having to drive me when after school activities conflicted with the bus schedule. No weeping, wailing, or gnashing of teeth is being done here. It's just the price you pay for a large district. I chose small.

Please don't envy the Pennsbury district students. Their football teams only have 11 players, basketball has 5, and the baseball team still fields 9. Will they achieve more championships than Morrisville? Undoubtedly yes. They have a larger pool of prospective students to choose from. It also means that only the best play and the rest watch. That's OK too. It's a fact of life, but a larger number of our kids get to play sports and engage in other activities. That rounds them out pretty well and gives them a great advantage on college applications.

You mention the "outcast" issue. At a regional high school like mine, yes, students were bused long distances. We all "belonged" there, so there was no "outcast" issue, right? Well, there's always a place that is on "the other side of the tracks" and those people will always be outcasts. As much as I hate to say it, you are contributing to the Morrisville outcast characterization in your letter. I'm sure you mean well, but have you gone in to any of the schools to see firsthand what happens, or do you rely upon what you read in the BCCT and what some neighbors may say? While we're discussing "outcasts", have you asked why Pennsbury doesn't want us?

Please define success for me. You mention that neighbors are paying for parochial school so that their children will "succeed." Many adults have differing definitions of success. I work with my children and their learning is my responsibility as much as their teacher's responsibility. I know what they are learning, and I supplement their learning with everyday applications of what they are learning so that they can realize that yes, Virginia, algebra is used in the real world and here's where and how you use it. My kids are happy, healthy, and being educated. They have goals, dreams, and visions. My definition of success is fulfilled. And they attend Morrisville schools.

"The shiny new school." Yes, it has been described that way. It certainly is new, especially when compared to the buildings from the 1920s and 1950s that we currently use and that have been discussed here. There is one thing that is not in dispute and that all parties can agree upon: The current schools are not in an acceptable condition. I'll be honest. I don't care if a new school is built or not. What we have though is unacceptable and needs to be fixed. Of the four plans that were researched and provided, a new school was the best option for price and life of effective use. Multiple decades of declining borough tax revenues and indifference by succeeding boards (plural) of education and borough councils (plural again) have led us here. The citizens of Morrisville are paying the price for these decades of neglect and indifference, and I would ask you to question your long time neighbors and ask what they did back in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s to have prevented us from reaching this point.

I am all for well run schools, financed as inexpensively as possible, providing the highest quality of education possible. Don't ever think otherwise. I cringe every month when the escrow check is written and I will give the Emperor his due if starting in July, my taxes go down as significantly as he has promised. I'm not holding my breath though.

What about school performance? An excellent question, and it was addressed by Superintendent Yonson at a recent board meeting. Morrisville has a high density of rental homes and apartments dwellers. Children that come and go are hard to educate for the short time that they are here. Much needs to be undone before the learning can be "done." She read off a list of some fifteen transfer students with their grade level, and their reading level. The top of the class was a high schooler with a low middle school reading level. Remember...these students transferred in at that level. They are not a product of Morrisville schools, but they are now Morrisville's to educate.

I see a great many Morrisville students. I attend student activities, sports, etc. with my children and their friends. Nothing is ever 100 percent, but these students are being educated. Stop by one of the elementary schools and check in with Kate Taylor or Karen Huggins. Ask for Melanie Gehrens at the high school, or Beth Yonson at the superintendents office. See for yourself.

I do welcome you to Morrisville. It's obvious you're a thoughtful and concerned parent. We need many, many more like you.

Anyone else?

Urgent Farm Meeting Notice-CANCELLED

A meeting of the parent advisory board will be held tonight at 6:00 P.M. in the MHS LGI room.

Dr. Beth Yonson and an unknown school board member will be discussing all of the options out on the table. This is an important meeting for the parents of all school age children. Where and how do you want your children to grow?

Late addition: due to the weather, it appears that this meeting has been canceled.

So what's the cost of ignorance?

I have to admit, Mr. Stout has a point in one area. $2 million was spent on feasibility studies and reports and research. That's called "due diligence." The Emperor can do it for $2500 single handedly.

Why does it matter if it happened yesterday, a week, a month, a year, or a decade ago? Did it happen? If it did, Angry Al should be held responsible. If it didn't, the false accusers should be held responsible. End of story. That's a responsible and mature response. Why would you want to hide anything about this issue?

The source of the "allegations" are the sore losers from the last election and political opponents of Angry Al. OK. So? Does that make anything that has been said less truthful?

Again with the false $22,000 per student figure. That is the TOTAL school budget divided by the TOTAL number of students. That is not the total taxpayer cost. Grants and other "free" money not paid for by the taxpayers of Morrisville are part of the budget. This is a classic propaganda move. Repeat the lie until it becomes truth. Be a careful and critical reader, especially when "truth" is presented. This is the first step in combating ignorance.

Another classic propaganda move: see how neatly the two issues (Angry Al and John Jordan, and the sore losers regarding school) are neatly bunched together for comparison? If you are against the "sore losers", you're against Jordan and for Radosti. Nicely done, but they do not equate. They are all separate issues. You can be for or against the school, for or against Angry Al, for or against Jordan, and even for or against anything.

You know what? Every adult that spouts off about the failure rate of the students should be required to have their opinion license revoked until THEY take the same tests. Let's see how they do. I'll take the tests anytime. How about you? While we're at it, let's all take this 8th grade test.

Incidentally, take a look at how Washington works to see how ridiculous some of these assertions are. If you're for the investigation du jour, "the American people demand answers and an investigation is needed." If you're against it, "these baseless allegations should be put aside so that we can get back to the work of the American people." It's all useless hypocritical rhetoric on both sides.

Just let the whole truth be told. What are we afraid of...the truth?



Morrisville cannot afford costly school system

Regarding the Courier Times stories about Morrisville school board member Al Radosti and allegations from NAACP President John Jordan that Radosti used a racial slur, apparently, more than two years ago:

The sources for these stories are the disgruntled losers of the last school board election and the political rivals of Al Radosti.

It was more than two years ago when lame duck school director John Jordan defied the town's majority by voting to build a new $30 million school that most did not want or could not afford.

So where was Jordan when over $2 million was squandered on architects, bankers and lawyers on the ill fated school plan? Where was his concern when three out of every four graduates of the Morrisville School District failed at math and reading on their state assessment tests and costs soared to over $22,000 per student?

Morrisville is a beautiful and culturally diverse town that's been free of racial tension but we simply cannot afford the current school system. We don't need Jordan and his allegations stirring the pot.

Ronald Stout
Morrisville

February Job Performance Poll

You might have noticed that the February poll was posted a few days ago, but one of our intrepid voters chose an "Other" option that made a lot of sense, so I reset the poll and included a new option to indicate approval of a minority of the board. I think it is quite fair to note that this is not an unanimous board by any means, and I can personally state that I DO have a great deal of confidence in a few members of the board.

Take a test drive and let me know what you think.

Information on DVHS

Many thanks to the emailer who sent this article to me. There are several items in here that really do raise a lot of questions for me, such as the Orwellian "1984" style fingerprinting for checking in each day and how..."For example," Shulick said, "if our school psychologist is coming in, we can get him information in 10 seconds on all the kids who have had an anger incident between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15."

One of the benefits of a small school system is that the teachers, administrators, and even the school psychologist know the students, on sight, by name. They are not abstract quantities such as a student ID number, or a dollar sign.

There is also the focus on the alternative schooling, the focus on the at-risk kids. This is a great goal, especially for the real at-risk and troubled kids, but why do 100% of the Morrisville students need to be "at-risk"?

Philadelphia Business Journal - November 5, 2007
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2007/11/05/focus1.html

Friday, November 2, 2007

More with less

School's new system reduces costs 9 percent a year

Philadelphia Business Journal - by David Raths Special to the Business Journal

Monday through Thursday, David Shulick is an attorney with his own Center City practice.

But on Fridays, Shulick spends the day at Delaware Valley High School, a for-profit alternative high school in Philadelphia for at-risk students, where he is president of the board.

"The law practice is quite lucrative," Shulick said, "but the school is my passion. I know where it is going to go. I also like working on educational policy at the state level and watching a vision become a reality."

Part of that vision is to wring inefficiencies from the school so that faculty and staff can devote more attention to helping troubled students.

With the School District of Philadelphia coping with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall last year and the School Reform Commission recommending that $3 million be cut from Philadelphia's alternative education budget, Delaware Valley High School is one example of a school doing more with less.

Shulick and the school spent several years developing a proprietary software program that Shulick credits with saving the school $133,900 a year on an operating budget of $1.5 million. The electronic student management system, called Ksys, tracks student's academic, behavioral and social progress as well as many other metrics.

According to Shulick, the software drastically eases the paperwork burden on staff members, which allows them to accomplish far more in the same amount of time.

"The better the school is organized, the easier it is to care for kids," he said.

Created as a private school for at-risk students in 1969, Delaware Valley expanded in 1999 when the state legislature passed Act 48, which permits public schools to contract with private alternative education institutions. Operated by Unique Educational Experience Inc., it is now among the city's 18 alternative school arrangements, which take in students who have been expelled from the district for behavioral or academic problems. Standalone alternative schools are typically smaller than district schools and more structured and highly supervised.

Delaware Valley was one of the first approved providers under Act 48. Shulick served on the state Department of Education committee that helped shape the operating guidelines for alternative schools statewide.

The first school district to send kids to Delaware Valley was Bristol Township in 2002. Now the school serves students from 12 school districts, including 125 from the School District of Philadelphia. Located at 13550 Bustleton Ave., Delaware Valley High School has 12 teachers, five administrative staff members and close to 200 total students.

After passage of Act 48, the Department of Education realized it needed a means of monitoring the performance of these private alternative schools, which meant getting data on behavioral issues, attendance and academic performance.

Off-the-shelf software packages didn't capture the types of things school system administrators and state officials were looking for, Shulick said, so Delaware Valley agreed to be a proving ground for the development of a customized software package.

As Shulick began working with Elton, Pa.-based software developer KSys Inc. on the system requirements, he saw an opportunity to go beyond basic reporting and improve communications between staff members.

"There are so many delays between when a behavior happens and the time there's a response," he observed. "Myriad details are lost because there's no easy way to share notations. It's grossly inefficient."

Shulick sought to address those inefficiencies by having the behavioral and social support team at Delaware Valley use Ksys to enter and receive real-time updates on students, which in turn allows them to craft programs more in tune with students' needs.

"For example," Shulick said, "if our school psychologist is coming in, we can get him information in 10 seconds on all the kids who have had an anger incident between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15."

After four years of development and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested, Delaware Valley went live with the software in September 2005. The school retains all rights to the software, Shulick said.

Besides communications and reporting features, the software also is designed to cut down on the administrative workload. Mattie Thompson, the school's operations director, says that before Ksys was installed, it would take her many hours to create a roster of class schedules for all the students. Ksys does it almost instantaneously, she said. The software creates a roster, which she can then peruse and adjust.

"I double-check that the class is the right fit for the student, that they won't be too frustrated by the difficulty level," said Thompson, who calls the software "phenomenal."

Ksys contains a portal through which school district officials can access reports about the students. Each time a student is involved in an incident, the student's record is updated with a coded entry signifying the nature of the disturbance. "The school district can see what we've done to address the issue and the student's needs," Thompson said.

Also, officials can access the reports at their convenience. "Things can be crazy at schools during the day," said Thompson. "They can access it at 8 p.m. if they want to. Also, we send them weekly reports, such as attendance reports, via e-mail."

A spokesman for the School District of Philadelphia's Office of Transition and Alternative Education said officials there are aware of the reporting features but haven't had a chance yet to use them.

Shulick believes Ksys would provide benefits to all types of school systems, but he said that using the software requires changing business and educational practices. "The bureaucratic mentality of traditional public school systems would make this a very hard sell," he said.

The system contains some unique features, such as biometric fingerprinting that is used to cut down on administrative manpower when students are truant. As students arrive each morning they place their fingers on a scanner, which feeds their attendance information into Ksys. The computer system generates automated phone calls to the homes of kids who have not shown up.

Thompson calls the system a tremendous time saver. "Attendance is a major issue for all districts," she said.

Because the biometric system is time-stamped and dated, there is no arguing over the facts, she added. Students may be showing up every day, but if they arrive at 9:30 a.m. instead of 8:30 a.m. as they are supposed to, the system verifies that fact, and relays the information to parents and administrators.

Ksys is built on a Microsoft SQL relational database, said Larry Hershman, president of Advanced Network Services Inc. in Cherry Hill, which handles technology operations for the school.

Shulick came up with certain basic reports that can be run regularly, he said, but Ksys also has the capacity to run ad-hoc reports asking about anything, such as student performance by grade level or by classroom.

"David did a great job of defining functionality," Hershman said, "but one of the best things about the system is it's dynamic. As more educators use it, it is flexible enough to take their input into account."

The software also was created with scalability in mind, he adds, to allow for multiple locations within the environment.

Shulick says Delaware Valley may license the software to other alternative schools to recoup some of its investment. But first he wants to expand. "Our goal first is to replicate ourselves," he said. The growth plan includes a school in Bucks County expected to open in spring 2008, and then three more in Philadelphia and one in Delaware County by 2009.

"Services like this are desperately needed," he said. "We were asked to open one in New Orleans and in Maricopa County in Arizona, but I didn't want to spread ourselves too thin. I want to expand slowly and properly."

We Need Good Information

We sure do. It's good to see that even die-hard supporters of the Emperor see the need for good information. So, Bully-Boy...are you listening? Your supporters want good information. The parents want good information. When is it coming?

We need good information

I attended the Morrisville school board meeting on Jan.23. I'll admit it was an emotional meeting. Board President Bill Hellmann had every right to invoke the 45-minute public comment session. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the past school board that voted for this rule.

Fifteen people spoke, 12 of whom basically said the same thing: “Do not do away with the school.” One person, Diane Hughes, was the only person who gave vital information to the board and audience, whom I presume was not listening.

She suggested that we should contact our state representatives to have a bill passed to eliminate the property tax and replace it with a larger sales tax. This could eliminate our financial problem and busing the students would be a thing of the past

What we need is true, basic information, not hearsay or rumors, so we can make a good decision.

Bill Minder

Morrisville

Update on Local Comment

Sorry about this, but I read the BCCT online and sometimes do not get to all of the items. Eventually, the BCCT will no longer have these items available, so I like to keep a copy available for future use.

Here are two letters to the editor that were recently published. Kevin Leather from January 29, and William S. Umek from February 3.

Whatever the source, farm-out option is a bad idea

The discussion surrounding the ill-conceived scheme to farm out Morrisville High School students to other districts is simply a product of what school board member Gloria Heater described to me as “brainstorming.”

I was willing to allow for that when she asked why the renovated high school needed air conditioning, expecting that only the administrators needed it, and not the students. I also found the remark she made about selling M.R. Reiter, Grandview, and the A Field to have been rather confusing.

Now I see ... if there are no high school students, why do we need the A field?

She was fond of saying that the school was built for 2,000 students and we're not using it fully, which explains why all of the Stop the School candidates avoided this specific question during the campaign. Over the summer, school board member Marlys Mihok sent me a series of e-mails where she completely denied this farm-out-the-kids scheme. She assured us that board member Bill Farrell, who was apparently the original source of the discussion, was misquoted. But when directly asked to report if it was true, she remained silent.

I did not buy a home in Morrisville only to see my children bused ridiculous distances to a school where they will be outcasts.

I admit that removing high school students from the mix is certainly a novel way to raise the test scores in 11th grade.

Brainstorming is a wonderful tool. It exposes bad ideas rather quickly

I did not vote for any of the Stop the School candidates. However, this is my school board whether I like it or not, and I do not like this.

Kevin Leather
Morrisville

Closing school will set town on irreversible decline

So, the Morrisville school board decides not to build a new high school that would 1) attract home buyers who would invest in the community, and, 2) be an incentive for current residents, who have pride in their community and would support a new facility, from moving to a more desirable community.

The Morrisville school board instead plans to shutter its existing high school and scatter its children around the county, thereby continuing the downward spiral of what is but will no longer be a nice place to live and raise a family.

Who moves to a town where they outsource their kids to be educated?

If it costs $10,000 per child to send them to another school and my current taxes are $4,000 per year, where does the other $6,000 come from? My guess would be taxes. So, couldn't we build a new school and just pay the taxes for it instead of paying the same if not more taxes to ship our kids out?
Click Here!

The majority of Morrisville residents voted for a school board whose only solution to the existing schools issues is to close it. Was this group hired to close the very business they are running? People are typically hired to help businesses prosper, not close!

What kind of leaders are these?

Once the high school is closed it will NEVER re-open and Morrisville will be on a decline from which it will not recover. Closing the school is not the right choice and I am sure it was not what the community wanted when they voted this new school board in.

William S. Umek
Morrisville

Legal Notices

Ah...the section of the newspaper between the obituaries and the comics that almost everyone skips over. Yet some of the best information is available here. Notice how the defeasement amount changed from $24 million on Jan 26 to $22 million on Feb 6? And has anyone examined Appendix A or B yet? And how about the line "The Resolution provides for an effective date of the Resolution and further repeals, rescinds and annuls all inconsistent resolutions of the School District.". Is this standard wording, or is it "Hellmann-proofing" the resolution to cover the Emperor's butt?

Clips below courtesy of mypublicnotices.com

NOTICE FOR SPECIAL SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
NOTICE, it is hereby given that the Morrisville Borough School District Board of School Directors shall hold a special meeting on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the LG1 Room at the School District's Middle/Senior High School, 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, Pennsylvania. The purpose of the special meeting is to adopt resolutions and take such other actions as may be necessary to defease a portion of the General Obligation Bonds, Capital Project Series 2006 and to amend the scope of the authorized project related thereto.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary

Appeared in: Bucks County Courier Times on Saturday, 01/26/2008



THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE BOROUGH OF MORRISVILLE
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
NOTICE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of School Directors (the "Board") of The School District of the Borough of Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania (the "School District"), at a special public meeting to be held at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, in the LGI Room at the School District's Middle/Senior High School, located at 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, 19067 will consider the adoption of a resolution (the "Resolution"), which would amend the resolution adopted on November 16, 2005 (the "Bond Resolution"), pursuant to which the School District issued its General Obligation Bonds, Capital Project Series, in the original aggregate principal amount of $28,500,000, and which are currently outstanding in the amount of $28,485,000 (the "Bonds"). The contents of the Resolution to be considered are summarized as follows:
The Resolution states that the School District authorizes the defeasance (the "Defeasance Program") of a portion of the outstanding Bonds in an amount of up to $24,000,000 (the "Defeased Bonds") and authorizes the utilization of Bonds proceeds for the Defeasance Program. The Resolution amends the definition of Capital Project as set forth in the Bond Resolution and authorizes the School District to undertake a project or projects involving the planning, designing, acquiring, constructing and furnishing of renovations and improvements to existing School District buildings (the "Revised Capital Project") and authorizes the expenditure of the remaining proceeds of the Bonds on the Revised Capital Project. The Resolution determines an estimated useful life of the Revised Capital Project. The Resolution appoints a bond counsel, financial advisor, verification agent and escrow agent for the Defeasance Program, and authorizes the preparation of such documents, agreements, and certificates and all actions necessary to proceed with the Defeasance Program. The Resolution authorizes and directs the redemption of the Defeased Bonds. The Resolution authorizes the appropriate officers of the School District to execute and deliver all agreements, certificates and documents and to take all necessary and appropriate actions to carry out the Resolution. The Resolution states the authority for enactment of the Resolution and declares same to be necessary for the public purposes of the School District. The Resolution sets forth a severability clause which states that the invalidity, illegality or unenforceability of any one provision in the Resolution shall not affect the validity, legality or enforceability of the remaining provisions. The Resolution provides for an effective date of the Resolution and further repeals, rescinds and annuls all inconsistent resolutions of the School District.
The full text of such proposed Resolution may be examined or inspected by any citizen in the office of the Secretary of the Board of School Directors of the School District, at the School District Offices, located at 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, on regular business days between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Amendments may be made with respect to the Resolution prior to or during its final passage. Advertisement related to the final passage of the Resolution, in final form, including amendments, will be made in accordance with requirements of the Local Government Unit Debt Act, 53 Pa.C.S. Chs. 80-82 (the "Act").
This notice is given in accordance with requirements of and in compliance with the Act.
SCHOOL DISTRICT OF
THE BOROUGH
OF MORRISVILLE,
Bucks County,
Pennsylvania
By: Marlys Mihok,
Secretary of the Board of School Directors

Appeared in: Bucks County Courier Times on Saturday, 01/26/2008


THE SCHOOL DISTRICT
OF THE BOROUGH OF MORRISVILLE
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
NOTICE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of School Directors (the "Board") of The School District of the Borough of Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania (the "School District"), at a special public meeting held at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, in the LGI Room at the School District's Middle/Senior High School, located at 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, 19067 adopted a resolution (the "Resolution"), which amended the resolution adopted on November 16, 2005 (the "Bond Resolution"), pursuant to which the School District issued its General Obligation Bonds, Capital Project Series, in the original aggregate principal amount of $28,500,000, and which are currently outstanding in the amount of $28,485,000 (the "Bonds"). The contents of the Resolution as adopted are summarized as follows:
The Resolution states that the School District authorizes the defeasance (the "Defeasance Program") of a portion of the outstanding Bonds in an amount of $22,000,000 (the "Defeased Bonds") and authorizes the utilization of Bonds proceeds for the Defeasance Program. The Resolution amends the definition of Capital Project as set forth in the Bond Resolution and authorizes the School District to undertake a project or projects involving the planning, designing, acquiring, constructing and furnishing of renovations and improvements to existing School District buildings (the "Revised Capital Project") and authorizes the expenditure of the remaining proceeds of the Bonds on the Revised Capital Project. The Resolution determines an estimated useful life of the Revised Capital Project. The Resolution appoints a bond counsel, financial advisor, verification agent and escrow agent for the Defeasance Program, and authorizes the preparation of such documents, agreements, and certificates and all actions necessary to proceed with the Defeasance Program. The Resolution authorizes and directs the redemption of the Defeased Bonds. The Resolution authorizes the appropriate officers of the School District to execute and deliver all agreements, certificates and documents and to take all necessary and appropriate actions to carry out the Resolution. The Resolution states the authority for enactment of the Resolution and declares same to be necessary for the public purposes of the School District. The Resolution sets forth a severability clause which states that the invalidity, illegality or unenforceability of any one provision in the Resolution shall not affect the validity, legality or enforceability of the remaining provisions. The Resolution provides for an effective date of the Resolution and further repeals, rescinds and annuls all inconsistent resolutions of the School District.
The full text of the Resolution as adopted may be examined or inspected by any citizen in the office of the Secretary of the Board of School Directors of the School District, at the School District Offices, located at 550 West Palmer Street, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, on regular business days between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A summary of the Resolution was advertised on January 26, 2008 and the proposed text has been available in the office of the undersigned. During final adoption of the Resolution, the proposed Resolution previously available was amended and completed as follows: 1) The aggregate principal amount of Bonds to be defeased was determined to be $22,000,000; 2) The schedule of Bonds to be defeased was attached as Exhibit A to the Resolution and the schedule of remaining Bonds was attached as Exhibit B to the Resolution.
This notice is given in accordance with requirements of and in compliance with the Local Government Unit Debt Act, 53 Pa.C.S. Chs. 80-82 (the "Act").
SCHOOL DISTRICT
OF THE BOROUGH OF MORRISVILLE,
Bucks County,
Pennsylvania
By: Marlys Mihok,
Secretary of the Board of School Directors

Appeared in: Bucks County Courier Times on Wednesday, 02/06/2008